Acquiring dofollow backlinks is the primary objective of nearly every link building campaign. These are the types of links that pass authority from one website to another, directly influencing search engine rankings. While the web is filled with different kinds of links, dofollow backlinks are the ones that act as strong votes of confidence, telling search engines that your content is credible and valuable. Building a strategy to consistently earn these links is essential for competing in any meaningful niche online.
This guide explores eight explosive hacks for acquiring the dofollow backlinks that lead to higher rankings. These are not about finding loopholes or engaging in risky schemes. They are smart, proven strategies that focus on creating immense value and then placing that value in front of the right people. By mastering these methods, you can systematically improve your website’s authority, enhance its visibility in search results, and build a robust and defensible backlink profile.
What Are Dofollow Backlinks and Why Are They Crucial?
A dofollow backlink is a hyperlink that passes “link equity” or “PageRank” from the linking page to the linked page. By default, all hyperlinks on the web are “dofollow.” They do not require any special attribute. A dofollow link is essentially a standard link without a rel="nofollow", rel="ugc", or rel="sponsored" attribute.
When a search engine crawler follows a dofollow link, it counts that link as an editorial vote. The more high-quality, dofollow backlinks a page receives, the more authoritative it appears to search engines. This is the foundational principle of off-page SEO.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow: The Critical Difference
The counterpart to a dofollow link is a nofollow link. A nofollow link has a rel="nofollow" attribute in its HTML code. This attribute instructs search engine crawlers not to pass any authority through the link. These are commonly found in blog comments, forum posts, and on social media. While nofollow links can be valuable for driving referral traffic and building brand awareness, they do not directly contribute to your site’s ranking power.
A healthy backlink profile will naturally have a mix of both dofollow and nofollow links. However, for the purpose of building search engine authority, acquiring dofollow backlinks is the primary goal.
The Mindset for Acquiring Dofollow Links: Earning, Not Just Building
The term “hack” can sometimes imply a shortcut or a trick. In the context of modern SEO, the most explosive “hacks” are those that leverage a value-first mindset. The goal is not to trick a webmaster into giving you a dofollow backlink. The goal is to create a piece of content or a resource so valuable that the webmaster wants to link to it because it improves their own content and helps their audience.
This mindset shifts the focus from “building” links to “earning” them. Every strategy that follows is rooted in this principle. They are structured, efficient methods for creating value and ensuring that value is seen by the people who have the power to grant a dofollow link. This is the essence of sustainable, organic link building.
Here are eight powerful strategies for earning high-impact dofollow backlinks.
Hack 1: The Skyscraper Technique 2.0
The Concept: The Skyscraper Technique is a well-known method that involves three core steps. First, you find a piece of content in your niche that has generated a lot of dofollow backlinks. Second, you create a piece of content that is significantly better, taller, and more comprehensive. Third, you reach out to the webmasters who linked to the original piece and ask them to link to your superior version instead.
Why It’s Explosive: This strategy is powerful because it is based on proven success. You are not guessing what people will link to; you are targeting a topic that you already know has a history of attracting high-quality links. The “2.0” version of this technique involves going beyond just making your content longer. It is about making it qualitatively better in every way: with better design, more current data, unique multimedia elements, and expert quotes.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Identify a Proven Asset: Use a backlink checker to find a relevant piece of content in your niche that has a large number of referring domains.
- Analyze and Ideate: Analyze the top-ranking, highly-linked content. Identify its weaknesses. Is the data outdated? Is the design poor? Does it lack practical examples?
- Create a Superior Asset: Create your own piece of content that addresses these weaknesses. Make it more thorough, more up-to-date, and more visually appealing. Add unique elements like custom graphics, an explainer video, or quotes from industry experts.
- Build a Prospect List: Export the list of all the websites that link to the original asset. This is your initial outreach list.
- Conduct Personalized Outreach: Reach out to each webmaster. Let them know you saw they linked to the original resource. Introduce your new, improved version and explain specifically why it is a better resource for their audience.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Ahrefs or SEMrush: To find the highly-linked content and export its backlink profile.
- Hunter or Voila Norbert: To find the contact information for the webmasters.
Hack 2: Data-Driven Digital PR
The Concept: This strategy involves creating your own original research, surveys, or data studies. You then pitch these findings to journalists, bloggers, and publications in your industry.
Why It’s Explosive: Journalists and content creators are always in need of credible data to support their stories. When you become the primary source for a new, interesting statistic, they will cite your study and provide a dofollow backlink. This method is one of the most effective ways to land high authority backlinks from major news sites and top-tier industry blogs.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Brainstorm a Compelling Topic: Identify a topic in your industry that is interesting but lacks recent, solid data.
- Conduct the Research: This could involve surveying your audience, analyzing publicly available data in a new way, or running your own experiments.
- Create a High-Quality Report: Present your findings in a well-designed, comprehensive report on your website. Create compelling charts and graphics to visualize the data.
- Write a Press Release: Summarize your key findings in a professional press release.
- Identify and Pitch Journalists: Create a list of journalists and bloggers who cover your industry. Send them your press release and offer them exclusive access or expert commentary on the findings.
Tools You’ll Need:
- SurveyMonkey or Google Forms: For conducting surveys.
- A media database like Cision or Muck Rack: For finding journalist contacts.
- An outreach tool like Pitchbox: For managing your PR campaign.
Hack 3: Strategic Guest Posting on Authoritative Sites
The Concept: Guest posting involves writing an article for another website in your niche. In exchange for the high-quality content, the publication typically allows you to include one or two dofollow backlinks to your own website within the body or author bio of the article.
Why It’s Explosive: Strategic guest posting is not about quantity; it is about quality. The “hack” is to rigorously vet your targets. By focusing only on high-authority, highly relevant websites, you can place a perfect, contextually relevant dofollow backlink directly to a key page on your site. This allows you to control the anchor text and the destination page, making it a highly targeted tactic.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Identify High-Quality Targets: Search for “[your niche] + write for us” or “[your niche] + guest post.” Use SEO tools to vet these sites for domain authority, organic traffic, and relevance.
- Thoroughly Read Their Guidelines: Carefully study the guest posting guidelines for each target site.
- Develop a Unique Pitch: Do not send a generic topic. Pitch three unique, well-researched article ideas that are a perfect fit for their audience and do not overlap with their existing content.
- Write Exceptional Content: Once your pitch is accepted, write the best article you possibly can. The goal is to provide so much value that the editor is thrilled to publish your work.
- Place Your Link Naturally: Include your dofollow backlink in a way that is natural and contextually relevant to the article’s content.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Ahrefs or MozBar: To vet the domain authority of potential guest posting sites.
- Google Search: For finding guest post opportunities.
Hack 4: Broken Link Building
The Concept: This strategy involves finding broken links on other websites and offering your own content as a replacement. You are essentially acting as a helpful editor for other people’s websites.
Why It’s Explosive: This is a warm outreach approach. You are not asking for a favor out of the blue. You are helping the webmaster first by pointing out an error on their site that creates a poor user experience. This makes them much more receptive to your suggestion of a replacement link. When done correctly, this method has a very high success rate for acquiring dofollow backlinks.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Find Prospect Pages: Identify authoritative pages in your niche that have a lot of outbound links, such as resource pages or long-form blog posts.
- Check for Broken Links: Use a tool like Ahrefs’ Broken Link Checker or a browser extension like Check My Links to scan the prospect page for dead links (links that lead to a 404 error).
- Identify the Original Resource: For each broken link, try to figure out what the original content was about. The anchor text can often give you a clue.
- Provide a Replacement: If you have an existing piece of content on your site that is a perfect replacement, you are ready for outreach. If not, create one.
- Conduct Helpful Outreach: Contact the webmaster. Let them know you found a broken link on their page. Then, politely suggest your content as a suitable replacement.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Ahrefs or SEMrush: To find prospect pages and check their authority.
- Check My Links (Chrome Extension): For manually checking pages for broken links.
Hack 5: Resource Page Link Building
The Concept: Many websites, especially in educational and informational niches, have “resource” pages where they curate lists of the best links on a specific topic. This strategy involves creating a truly definitive resource and then reaching out to the curators of these pages to suggest it for inclusion.
Why It’s Explosive: The people who manage resource pages are actively looking for the best possible content to share with their audience. If you can create a resource that is demonstrably better or more comprehensive than the ones they currently link to, you have a very high chance of getting a dofollow backlink.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Find Resource Pages: Use search queries like “[your niche] + resources,” “[your niche] + useful links,” or “[your niche] inurl:links”.
- Analyze Existing Resources: Look at the types of content that are currently being linked to on these pages. Identify any gaps or areas where you could provide a superior resource.
- Create an Ultimate Guide: Create a piece of content on your site that is the undisputed best resource on a narrow topic. This could be a long-form guide, a directory, or a detailed case study.
- Reach Out to Curators: Contact the webmasters of the resource pages you found. Let them know you came across their page and suggest your resource as a potential addition.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Google Search: For finding resource page opportunities.
- SEO Toolbar: To quickly vet the authority of the prospect pages.
Hack 6: Unlinked Brand Mention Reclamation
The Concept: This involves finding places where your brand, company, or product has been mentioned online without a link back to your site. You then reach out and politely ask for a link to be added.
Why It’s Explosive: This is often described as the lowest-hanging fruit in link building. The author already knows and values your brand enough to mention it. The hard part is already done. Your outreach is a simple, low-friction request to make their existing content more useful for their readers by adding a link.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Set Up Mention Monitoring: Use tools like Google Alerts or Ahrefs Alerts to get notified whenever your brand is mentioned online.
- Find Existing Unlinked Mentions: Use Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to search for your brand name and filter for pages that do not link to your domain.
- Verify the Context: Make sure the mention is positive and in a context where a link would make sense.
- Send a Grateful Outreach Email: Contact the author or editor. Start by thanking them for the mention. Then, politely ask if they would consider making the mention a clickable link to your homepage.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Ahrefs Alerts or Google Alerts: For ongoing monitoring.
- Ahrefs Content Explorer: For finding past, unlinked mentions.
Hack 7: Creating “Linkable Assets” and Tools
The Concept: This strategy moves beyond traditional articles. It involves creating a valuable, non-content asset that people will want to link to because of its utility. This could be a free tool, a calculator, a set of templates, or a unique dataset.
Why It’s Explosive: A truly useful tool can become a passive link-earning machine. Unlike an article, which can become dated, a valuable tool can attract dofollow backlinks for years with minimal ongoing effort. It sets you apart from the sea of written content and establishes you as a creator of value. The goal is to create one of the most high quality backlinks sources in your niche.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Identify a Need: Look for common problems or questions in your industry that could be solved with a simple tool or template.
- Develop the Asset: Build the tool, create the templates, or compile the dataset. It must be high-quality and genuinely useful.
- Create a Landing Page: Host the asset on a well-designed landing page on your website.
- Promote the Asset: Conduct outreach to bloggers and publications in your niche to make them aware of your new, free resource.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Your own development resources, or no-code tools like Bubble or Webflow.
- Standard outreach tools for promotion.
Hack 8: HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
The Concept: HARO is a free service that connects journalists with expert sources for their stories. Three times a day, HARO sends out an email with queries from reporters at various publications. If you can provide a relevant and insightful answer to a query, the journalist may quote you in their article and include a dofollow backlink to your website.
Why It’s Explosive: HARO is a direct pipeline to journalists at some of the world’s most authoritative publications, including news sites, business magazines, and top-tier blogs. A single successful pitch can result in a dofollow backlink from a domain with extremely high authority.
The Step-by-Step Blueprint:
- Subscribe to HARO: Sign up for the free HARO newsletter and select the categories that are relevant to your expertise.
- Monitor the Queries: Scan the daily emails for requests where you can provide a genuine expert opinion.
- Write a High-Value Pitch: Respond to relevant queries quickly. Your response should be concise, well-written, and directly answer the journalist’s question.
- Include Your Credentials: Clearly state your name, title, company, and website URL in your response so they can easily credit you with a link.
Tools You’ll Need:
- A HARO subscription (the free version is sufficient for most).
Conclusion
The eight strategies outlined above are powerful methods for acquiring the dofollow backlinks that contribute to higher search engine rankings. While they are framed as “hacks,” they all share a common, underlying principle: the creation of undeniable value. Whether you are creating a superior piece of content, providing a journalist with an expert quote, or fixing a broken link, you are earning a link by being helpful.
There are no real shortcuts to building a strong profile of relevant backlinks. The most explosive and sustainable growth comes from consistently applying these value-first principles. By making these strategies a core part of your broader internet marketing efforts and using backlink monitoring to track your results, you can build a powerful and authoritative web presence.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: What is a good ratio of dofollow to nofollow links?
There is no magic ratio. A natural backlink profile will always have a mix of both. The focus should not be on achieving a specific ratio, but on acquiring high-quality, relevant links, most of which will hopefully be dofollow. A profile with 100% dofollow links can look unnatural.
Q2: How can I check if a backlink is dofollow?
You can right-click on the link in your browser and select “Inspect.” This will open the developer tools and show you the HTML code for the link. If you see a rel="nofollow", rel="ugc", or rel="sponsored" attribute, the link is not dofollow. If you see no rel attribute, it is dofollow by default. SEO tools also typically label links as dofollow or nofollow in their reports.
Q3: Do dofollow links from low-authority sites have any value?
A dofollow link from a low-authority but highly relevant and clean site can still have some minor value. However, your efforts should be focused on acquiring links from websites with established authority, as these are the links that will have a significant impact on your rankings.
Q4: How long does it take for dofollow backlinks to affect my rankings?
The impact can vary greatly. A link from a very high-authority site can sometimes show an effect within days or weeks. For most links, it can take several weeks or even a few months for search engines to fully process the signal and for you to see a noticeable change in rankings.
Q5: Are all guest post links dofollow?
No, not always. While most reputable sites that accept guest posts will provide a dofollow link, some may use nofollow links. It is important to check a site’s policy or analyze their existing guest posts before you commit to writing for them.