Dofollow Backlinks and Ahrefs: Why a Link May Not Show Yet

Quick answer: A dofollow backlink is a normal link with no nofollow, ugc or sponsored value in its rel attribute. If one does not show up in Ahrefs yet, the usual reasons are that Ahrefs has not crawled the page, the page is blocked or marked noindex, or the link only appears after JavaScript runs. You can check any link yourself in a minute with your browser's page source.

What is a dofollow backlink?

A dofollow backlink is a regular link to your site that does not ask search engines to ignore it. There is no real dofollow attribute in HTML; it just means none of the qualifying values are present.

• Values can be combined, like rel="nofollow ugc".
• noopener and noreferrer are about browser behaviour. They do not make a link nofollow.
• Google treats nofollow, ugc and sponsored as hints, not strict rules. See Google's guide to qualifying outbound links.

How does Ahrefs find backlinks?

Ahrefs runs its own crawler, AhrefsBot. A link appears in Ahrefs only after AhrefsBot crawls the linking page with the link on it.

• Ahrefs is a third-party tool. Google does not use its data.
• Ahrefs and Google will not match exactly.
• Ahrefs reports let you filter links as dofollow or nofollow.
• Domain Rating (DR), Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score of backlink strength, is based on followed links. A nofollow link can appear in reports without moving DR.

Why doesn't my backlink show up in Ahrefs yet?

Most often the link exists and Ahrefs has not seen it yet. Work through these, most common first.

1. Not crawled yet. New or deep pages can take days to weeks.
2. Nothing links to the page. Crawlers follow links. A listing not linked from category pages or a sitemap is hard to reach.
3. AhrefsBot is blocked. Some sites block it in robots.txt. Google may still see the link.
4. The page is noindex. A noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header keeps it out of Google. Tools handle links on such pages differently, and Google may stop following them over time.
5. The link is added by JavaScript. If it is not in the HTML the server sends, crawlers must run scripts to see it. They do this less reliably.
6. The link goes through a redirect. Links like /go?url=yourdomain.com may be reported differently or not at all.
7. The canonical points elsewhere. Tools may move the link to the canonical URL or drop it.
8. The link was removed, or the page is behind a login.

How do you check a link's rel attribute yourself?

View the page source, find your link, and read its rel value.

In the browser:

1. Open the page that links to you.
2. View source: Ctrl+U on Windows and Linux, Option+Cmd+U on a Mac in Chrome.
3. Search (Ctrl+F) for your domain.
4. Read the <a> tag and its rel="..." value.

Can you see the link on the page but not in the source? Then JavaScript adds it. Right-click the link and choose Inspect to see the rendered version.

From the command line:

# Link tags pointing to your domain
curl -sL https://example.com/listing | grep -io '<a[^>]*yourdomain\.com[^>]*>'

# noindex sent as a header
curl -sIL https://example.com/listing | grep -i x-robots-tag

# robots meta tag in the HTML
curl -sL https://example.com/listing | grep -io '<meta[^>]*robots[^>]*>'

Also open https://example.com/robots.txt and look for AhrefsBot or rules that block the listing's path.

What does a good listing link look like?

A plain HTML link, sent by the server, pointing straight to your URL, on an indexable page the site links to.

How can you help Ahrefs find a link faster?

You usually cannot make Ahrefs crawl someone else's page on demand. You can make the page easier to reach.

• Share the listing page.
• Link to it from your own site, for example an "as seen on" section.
• Check that the directory links to it from a category page.
• Wait two to four weeks before assuming something is wrong.

For your own site, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free account for verified site owners. Check Ahrefs' site for current limits.

Are paid dofollow links a good idea?

Be careful with them. Google's spam policies count buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam, and Google asks that paid links be marked sponsored or nofollow.

We run IndieNeed, which sells listings that include a dofollow link, so we have thought about this.

• Paid plans are $15 to $120 one-time; a free listing can add a dofollow link for $7 (pricing).
• Judge any paid listing, ours included, by whether the page is worth having: reviewed, permanent, with real visitors.
• Do not judge it by the link attribute alone.
• Check our listing pages exactly the way this post describes.

For 300+ directories with Ahrefs Domain Rating (40 checked by hand), see best startup directories 2026.

FAQ

Is a dofollow link better than a nofollow link?

For ranking signals, a dofollow link from a relevant page can count for more. For visitors, it makes no difference. A nofollow link on a busy page can beat a dofollow link nobody sees.

How long does a backlink take to show in Ahrefs?

From days to several weeks, depending on how often AhrefsBot visits that site. Pages that block AhrefsBot may never show.

Does Google see links that Ahrefs misses?

Often, yes. Google has its own crawler and index. The reverse can also happen.

Does rel="noopener" make a link nofollow?

No. noopener and noreferrer control browser behaviour. Only nofollow, ugc and sponsored qualify a link for search engines.