Have you ever come across attributes such as
Dofollow and
Nofollow?
These attributes are most discussed in SEO and Back linking techniques.
Knowledge of these attributes really helps in the process of
link building. It will also help in increasing your search engine
ratings.
Most of the search engines use these attribute while
crawling a web page. By use of these attributes, admin specifies how to deal with the links in the web page.
DoFollow
If an author of a post specifies the attribute as Dofollow, then crawlers will follow and crawl all the links that are recommended in the web page.
NoFollow
If an author of a post specifies the attribute as NoFollow, then crawlers will not crawl and index the links that are in the web page.
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Keep Building Links 
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Why would an author make an attribute as NoFollow when he has no intention of making it as a link? I mean can't he just make it a normal text and not some kind of link?
Apaullo, DoFollow attribute is beneficial to others. If an author is kind enough and want to recommend a link, then he adds an attribute Dofollow for that page. It adds to the value of that link and provides an inbound link to that sites.
For example, you must have come across some press release sites. They always point back to the original author of the information. They can give credit to that author by providing a backlink.
If author does not want to recommend, then Nofollow attribute is used.
Not all sites and blogs are Dofollow. One of the biggest examples is of Wikipedia.
A post in the Wikipedia points to several other links. However, those links are Nofollow.
Ahh..ok I get it, but why would they want it to not follow? I mean it will add to their popularity but why wouldn't they? Can you cite an example of reasons why they do not want to be followed?
Hey Apaullo , if a search engine crawler/bot finds a do-follow link on your website - it will leave your website and follow that link and most likely it will start indexing the referred website . And about the WiKi example , aayushjindal means that all outbound links on that website are no-follow . This is not decreasing WiKipedia popularity , it is even the opposite(improves overall SEO) . Do-follow - the search engine bot will go to the referred website , No-follow - the search engine will continue indexing your website , while the no-follow link is being ignored . No-follow does not mean that the link is not clickable , you could be able to click that link and in the same time it could be no-follow .
Putting a Dofollow won't be subject to any plagiarism, right? Like for example, a blogger or article writer will put a dofollow. For me, it would not be considered as plagiarism since the blogger is just referencing the website in particular and not really copying. Am I correct in saying this?
Ah..now I get it, but I thought that before the bot will go to the do follow link and index it, it will first index your own website, since the do follow is only a link and you have your own website to explore, and Sitemaps can't help with it? I mean I thought the sitemaps helps the bot 'tour' your website?
And Sheila, it will not be considered as Plagiarism since you are only referring to the content through the links, you are not copying the exact content
Excellent! But I am still in confusion what should I choose as an author or as a website owner. Should I give preference to DoFollow or Should I decide NoFollow?
In what situation it would be better to follow DoFollow and when I should follow NoFollow is not clear.
Would you mind making it clear?
Thanks
If you are considering the backlinks (outbound do-follow) on your website, then it is always better to keep those links at low levels or to choose no-follow rel. However, sometimes you are obligated to include a do-follow link at your website. For example, if you are sharing information from another website, then you have to include link (with anchor text ``source``) at the bottom of your website. This has to be done to avoid any potential copyright infringements/violations and you must not share information without the permission from the original owner, too. For all inbound links, the do-follow rel is always better, however most of the time the rel (rel=”dofollow”) of the link could not be determined by you.
By the way, a Dofollow will create more traffic more traffic to the website right? or is it the other way around? Like my clarification on another thread here in the forum, will a nofollow link be not usefull for a website to gain more visitors?