Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: What Extension Makers Need to Know

If you have submitted an extension to directories, you have probably seen the words "dofollow" and "nofollow" and wondered whether they matter. They do, a little, and mostly for one specific reason: your extension's website needs links to be found by search engines at all.

What the terms mean

A link from another site to yours can carry an attribute in its HTML that tells search engines how to treat it.

• A normal link (often called "dofollow") has no special attribute. Search engines treat it as a vote for the page it points to.
• rel="nofollow" asks search engines not to pass credit through the link. Google treats it as a hint rather than an absolute rule.
• rel="ugc" marks links in user-generated content, such as forum posts and comments.
• rel="sponsored" marks paid or sponsored links.

"Dofollow" is not an official attribute; it is a convenient name for "no restriction applied".

Why it matters for an extension

Most of your installs come from the Chrome Web Store, and that listing page is not something you can improve with backlinks in any way that is documented. Your website is different. A page on your own domain, explaining the problem and linking to the store, can rank in normal web search, and links are one of the things that help a page get found.

Directory links therefore help the website you control. They do not directly help the store listing's rank.

How much credit a link carries

Not every link is worth the same. A link from a respected, well-linked, relevant site is worth more than one from an empty site. People often approximate this with a third-party score such as domain rating (DR), which is a number from 0 to 100 published by one SEO tool vendor. Two things to remember:

• DR is not a Google metric. Search engines do not use it; it is an estimate made by a vendor.
• A low DR is not the same as a worthless site. A brand-new, genuine site starts near zero.

Use it as a rough filter, not a verdict.

How badge exchanges work

Many directories ask you to place a small badge or backlink on your own site in return for a followed link from theirs. It is a simple deal: each side links to the other.

It is fair when the terms are clear and checkable. The checks that matter:

1. Is your link to them a normal link? If they ask you to link without restrictions, they should do the same.
2. Do they verify it? A directory that checks your page for the badge is protecting both sides.
3. What do they require of your site? A minimum quality bar (for example, a domain rating above zero) keeps spam out.

This is how Extension Club works: you place a badge on your extension's site, we fetch the page and look for a normal link to us, and when it is found and your domain rating is at least 1, your listing links to your site as a followed link. A link marked nofollow does not count, because the exchange would then not be fair.

What the badge needs to be

For a check to find your badge, it has to be in the HTML the server sends. A badge added by JavaScript after the page loads is not visible to a simple page fetch (and is also less reliably seen by some crawlers). Put the snippet directly in the page source, ideally in the footer.

A realistic plan for links

1. Build one good page on your site for the extension.
2. Get listed on a handful of relevant directories and verify the link attribute on each.
3. Contribute to communities where your link appears naturally in a useful answer.
4. Ignore link sellers and any promise of hundreds of links; low-quality links do not help and can attract penalties.

Quality and relevance beat volume every time. You can add your extension to Extension Club to earn one clean, verified, followed link.