A dofollow link is just a normal link. That is the part most explanations bury: there is no rel="dofollow" attribute, it does not exist, and never has. A link is dofollow by default, and becomes something else only when someone adds rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" to it.
So "how do I get dofollow backlinks" really means "how do I get links from sites that do not automatically mark outbound links as unpaid endorsements". That is a more answerable question, and the nine methods below are ordered by what they cost you in effort, money and risk. For a small business the practical version of that question is answered in our guide to building backlinks for a small business.
The distinction matters less than it used to
Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a directive now, not an absolute instruction to ignore the link. It may still use nofollowed links for discovery and ranking at its discretion. Checking which of your links actually send traffic is covered in our guide to checking backlinks in Google Analytics 4.
The practical effect: a nofollow link from a major publication with real readers is worth more than a dofollow link from a site nobody visits. Chasing the attribute rather than the source is the most common mistake in link building, and it leads people straight to the sites that sell links precisely because nobody reads them.
How to check whether a link is dofollow
Right click the link, choose Inspect, and read the anchor tag. If you see rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", it is not passing an endorsement. If there is no rel attribute, or it only contains something like noopener, it is a normal dofollow link.
Browser extensions will highlight them across a whole page, and most backlink tools show the attribute in their reports.
The nine methods, ranked
| Method | Effort | Cost | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Being genuinely worth linking to | Highest | Time | None |
| Digital PR and original data | High | Medium to high | None |
| Guest posting via real outreach | High | $200 to $600 per link | Low |
| Broken link building | Medium | Time | None |
| Podcast and interview appearances | Medium | Time | None |
| Network exchange | Low | Subscription | Low |
| Business directories and associations | Low | Small fees | None |
| Unlinked brand mentions | Low | Time | None |
| Buying placements on a marketplace | Lowest | $50 to $500 per link | Against Google guidelines |
1. Publish something people cite without being asked
The uncomfortable answer, and the only one that compounds. Original research, a genuinely useful free tool, a dataset nobody else has published, or a piece of writing that becomes the reference on a topic. The methods that cost time rather than money are collected in our guide to getting backlinks free.
This is slow and it is the only method on the list that keeps earning links after you stop working on it. Everything below is a way of accelerating or substituting for it.
2. Digital PR and original data
Survey your customers, analyse a dataset you already own, or compile figures nobody has assembled, then pitch journalists covering that beat. Reporters need numbers and most industries have almost none available.
A single piece of original data that gets picked up produces dofollow links from publications you could never buy your way into.
Reality check: most pitches fail. This works when the data is genuinely new, and not when it is a rehashed roundup with your logo on it.
3. Guest posting through real outreach
Writing for a publication in your field, pitched properly, with a contextual link in the body rather than only in the author bio. Done through genuine outreach this remains one of the most reliable methods available.
Expect to pay $200 to $600 per placement if you outsource it, because earning a placement from an editor who would refuse payment costs labour. Our guest posting services comparison separates the agencies doing real outreach from the marketplaces selling slots.
Reality check: if someone offers you a high-authority guest post for $40, you are buying a slot on a site that exists to sell slots.
4. Broken link building
Find pages in your niche linking to something that no longer exists, write the replacement, and tell the site owner politely. You are doing them a favour, which is why the response rate beats cold link requests.
Ahrefs, Semrush and Screaming Frog will all find broken outbound links at scale.
Reality check: it is volume work. Expect a low hit rate and budget the hours accordingly. Where that volume work can be handed to software is covered in our guide to building backlinks automatically.
5. Podcast appearances and expert quotes
Show notes almost always link to the guest, and they are almost always dofollow. Journalist request platforms work the same way: answer a reporter's question well and the citation usually carries a link.
Both are underused because they require you to be a person rather than a process.
Reality check: the link is a side effect. Go in for the audience or the credibility and treat the link as a bonus.
6. A network exchange
Rather than negotiating individual swaps, a network places contextual links inside articles that member businesses are publishing anyway. Distribb's backlink exchange works this way: the link sits in fresh editorial content on a site in an adjacent niche, and no money changes hands per link.
The reason this sits low on the risk column is that the link exists inside something a person would actually read, which is the part of link exchanges Google has never objected to. Google's documented concern is "excessive link exchanges" and reciprocal link pages, not a relevant contextual mention.
Honest limit: you do not choose the individual partner sites, and you cannot target one specific domain. If your campaign depends on a named publication, use method three instead. Distribb's Accelerator tier is $495 per month with a 3-day free trial.
7. Directories and associations you actually belong to
Industry associations, chambers of commerce, professional bodies, supplier and partner pages, alumni directories. These are legitimate dofollow links and most businesses have five or six sitting unclaimed.
They take an afternoon and they are the closest thing to free links that is not against guidelines.
Reality check: relevant directories only. Paid general directory blasts are a link scheme with a respectable name.
8. Unlinked brand mentions
Someone already wrote about you and did not link. Search your brand name, find the mentions, email and ask.
Conversion on this is far higher than cold outreach because the relationship already exists, and most businesses have never checked.
Reality check: you need to be mentioned somewhere first, which loops back to method one.
9. Buying placements, and what you are actually buying
Marketplaces list publishers with a price per placement. It is fast, it is transparent about cost, and a link bought to pass PageRank is a link scheme under Google's guidelines. That is not a moral judgement, it is the stated policy.
Plenty of businesses do it anyway and make a commercial decision about the risk. What is worth avoiding is doing it accidentally, which is what happens when you think you commissioned outreach and actually bought inventory.
Reality check: a DR 60 site selling links for $50 has that price because its traffic does not justify more.
What to ignore
Comment and forum links. Almost universally nofollow or ugc now, and the ones that are not sit on sites with no value.
Web 2.0 and PBN links. The private blog network pitch never stopped circulating and it never stopped being the thing manual actions are for.
Any tool promising thousands of dofollow backlinks. It is building the kind of link Google's systems were specifically built to discount, at volume, pointing at your domain. The tactics that do work are ranked in our guide to getting more backlinks.
A realistic plan
Month one: claim every association, directory and partner page you legitimately qualify for. Search for unlinked mentions and email them. This is a few hours of work for links you already earned.
Month two onward, pick two: broken link building if you have time, digital PR if you have data, an exchange if you want steady volume without per-link fees, or a real outreach agency if you have budget and specific targets.
Continuously: publish things worth citing. Everything else is an accelerant for this, not a substitute, and our best backlink exchange comparison covers the volume options if consistency is the constraint.
The one-sentence version
Stop optimising for the attribute and start optimising for the source, because a nofollow mention on a site people read beats a dofollow link on a site built to sell them.
If the constraint is that you have no steady flow of links and no appetite to pay per placement, Distribb runs an exchange at a flat cost with a 3-day free trial, and you give up choosing the individual sites in return.
If the terminology is still the sticking point, what backlinks are covers it from the beginning. For the tactics ranked by what a link is worth against the work it costs, see how to get the best backlinks.