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You've probably heard the term “dofollow backlink” thrown around like everyone already knows what it means. Here's what dofollow backlinks really are, why they matter differently for SaaS than for, say, a local plumbing business, and where SaaS companies realistically earn them in 2026. All this is based on our SaaS link building agency’s experience.
What Are Dofollow Backlinks?
A dofollow backlink is a hyperlink from another website to yours that doesn't carry a rel="nofollow" attribute. That's it.
There's no "dofollow" code you add - dofollow is simply the default state of a link. Search engines crawl it, follow it, and can pass ranking authority ("link equity") from the linking page to yours.
Here's the difference in code:
Dofollow (default, no attribute needed):
<a href="https://yoursaas.com">Anchor Text</a>
Nofollow (explicitly blocked):
<a href="https://yoursaas.com" rel="nofollow">Anchor Text</a>
If a link doesn't have rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", or rel="ugc" attached to it, it's dofollow.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow vs. Sponsored vs. UGC Backlinks
Google introduced additional attributes in 2019 to give publishers more precise ways to flag why a link shouldn't pass authority. Here's how they compare:
Why Dofollow Links Matter More for SaaS Than Most Industries
Every industry cares about backlinks, but SaaS has a specific problem that makes link building higher-stakes:
- You're competing for a narrow set of high-value keywords. Terms like "[category] software," "[competitor] alternatives," and "best [use case] tool" are commercial, high-intent, and fought over by companies with real SEO budgets.
- Your money pages are comparison and integration content, and those are exactly the pages that benefit most from external authority signals, since they're trying to win a buyer's trust at the decision stage.
- CAC is high, and sales cycles are long. Every organic ranking you win is an acquisition cost you don't have to pay for on Google or LinkedIn Ads.
- Your competitors are other SaaS companies actively building links, too. This isn't an industry where you can coast on being the only credible option in your city.
So, narrow keyword set, expensive competition, and high-consideration buyers are why SaaS companies tend to need a more deliberate SaaS link building strategies.
How to Check If a Link Is Dofollow
You have three quick options here:
- Right-click > Inspect the link on the page. Look at the <a> tag's HTML. If there's no rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", or rel="ugc", it's dofollow.
- Use a browser SEO extension (Ahrefs' toolbar, MozBar, and similar tools) that visually highlights nofollow links on a page, so dofollow links stand out by contrast.
- Run a backlink audit through Ahrefs, Semrush, or a similar platform to see your entire link profile categorized by attribute in one view - useful when you're auditing dozens or hundreds of links at once rather than checking one at a time.
Where Do SaaS Companies Earn Dofollow Backlinks?
“Guest post, get interviewed, fix broken links” advice works for every industry. But SaaS has channels that don't exist for most other business types:
Review and Marketplace Platforms
G2, Capterra, GetApp, and AlternativeTo are where your buyers are already comparing options. A profile or review here often carries strong domain authority, even when the link back to you is nofollow (more on why that still matters below).
App and Integration Marketplaces
If your product integrates with Zapier, Shopify, Slack, or similar platforms, their directories will often link back to you - usually with relevant, product-specific anchor text and solid domain trust.
Product-Led Linkable Assets
A free calculator, benchmarking tool, or original data report built from your own product usage data is something a plumbing company or law firm simply can't replicate - you have proprietary usage data that other content creators don't.
This is one of the most underused advantages SaaS companies have in link building, and it's a strategy we lean on heavily when planning linkable assets for clients.
"Alternative to" and Comparison Content
Other sites and blogs frequently cite comparison pages when writing their own "best of" roundups. If your comparison content is genuinely useful, it gets referenced.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
You can use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find mentions of your product by name without a link. If so, you could just send them a quick, polite email with your link to be added.
Digital PR and HARO-Style Outreach
Original research and expert commentary on product, growth, or industry trends get picked up by journalists and industry publications looking for data-backed sources - something we cover in more depth in our guide to earning digital PR backlinks for SaaS.
Guest Contributions on Industry Blogs
Still effective when done for genuinely relevant publications rather than mass outreach - our SaaS guest posting and SaaS listicle link building approach both focus on this kind of targeted, editorial placement rather than volume.
The Nuance Most Guides Miss: Your Best Backlink Might Be Nofollow
A nofollow link is still very much important!
A link from a site your buyers visit brings in qualified referral traffic, builds brand recognition, and increasingly, it's the kind of source that AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews pull from when generating answers.
So, being present in the right places is starting to matter as much as being followed in the technical sense.
We saw this directly in our work with a construction workforce management SaaS. Alongside dofollow links from SaaS partners like Gusto and digital PR placements on outlets like TechWire Asia, a chunk of the growth came from being featured in industry roundups and listicles - some followed, some not.
With all that, the domain rating grew from 16 to 68, organic traffic went from roughly 1,000 to 9,000 monthly visitors, and Workyard picked up 550+ citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Several of those citation sources weren't dofollow links at all - they were listicles that AI models treat as trustworthy references regardless of the link attribute. This is part of why we now treat GEO for SaaS as inseparable from traditional link building.
What Does a Healthy SaaS Backlink Profile Look Like
If every link pointing to your site is dofollow, that's a red flag to Google. Real sites pick up a mix - dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, UGC - simply because that's how people talk about you: a G2 review, a Reddit thread, a press mention, a guest post. Some of those come with nofollow tags by default, and that's fine.
- Links coming from different kinds of domains (partners, review sites, press, guest content).
- Anchor text that varies naturally (brand name, generic phrases, partial match), not the same exact-match keyword repeated
- A steady pace of link acquisition over time, rather than sudden, unexplained spikes
- Links landing on the pages that deserve them - usually comparison, integration, and feature pages, not just your homepage
Red flags to watch for, especially if you're evaluating a link building vendor's proposal: aggressive exact-match anchor stuffing, links exclusively from unrelated niches, or promises of guaranteed link volume with no mention of relevance. If you're opting for outside help, it's worth checking our breakdown of link building proposal red flags before signing anything.
And if you want a link building strategy built specifically around how SaaS buyers discover software, just get in touch with us, and we'll show you what's realistic for your keywords.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a dofollow link the same thing as a backlink?
All dofollow links are backlinks, but not all backlinks are dofollow. A backlink is any link from another site to yours. Dofollow describes the type of backlink - specifically, one that passes ranking authority.
How many dofollow backlinks does a SaaS site need to rank?
Depends on your keyword's competitiveness and the quality of links you already have. I break this down further in our guide on how many backlinks you need to rank.
Do nofollow links from G2 or Capterra help SEO?
They don't pass link equity directly, but they drive qualified referral traffic, support brand visibility, and increasingly show up as sources AI models cite - all of which matter for growth even without the "dofollow" label.
Can you manually mark a link as dofollow?
You can't force another website to remove a nofollow tag once they've added it. Dofollow only happens by omission - a link is dofollow because no attribute was added to restrict it.
Do dofollow links bring signups, or just rankings?
A dofollow link on a relevant, high-traffic page can send direct referral traffic in addition to its ranking benefit, which is why placement relevance matters more than raw authority scores.
