Dofollow and nofollow are two types of link attributes that tell search engines how to treat a backlink. A dofollow link passes SEO authority (often called "link juice") from one site to another. A nofollow link includes a rel="nofollow" attribute that signals search engines not to pass authority through that link.
How dofollow and nofollow work
By default, all links are dofollow. You don't need to add any special attribute. When a site links to you with a dofollow link, it's telling Google: "I vouch for this page." Some of that site's authority flows to yours through the link.
Nofollow was introduced by Google in 2005 to fight comment spam. Blog comments and forum posts typically use nofollow to prevent spammers from gaming the system. Social media links and paid links also tend to be nofollow.
In 2019, Google added two more attributes: rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content. Google now treats all three as "hints" rather than hard directives. That means even nofollow links might pass some value in certain cases. But for practical purposes, dofollow links remain significantly more valuable.
What's a healthy dofollow ratio?
A natural backlink profile has mostly dofollow links. Most people in the SEO space consider 70% or higher dofollow to be healthy. If a domain has 90%+ nofollow links, something is off. It probably means most links come from social media and forums rather than editorial content.
On the flip side, 100% dofollow can also look suspicious. Natural link building inevitably picks up some nofollow links from social shares and mentions. A mix is expected.
Dofollow percentage on CatchDoms
CatchDoms shows a %DF (dofollow percentage) column for each domain, sourced from SEObserver. This lets you quickly assess whether a domain's backlink profile is healthy. Pair it with referring domain count and Trust Flow to get a clear picture of link quality before you invest.