Dofollow backlink

A dofollow backlink is a normal link that search engines follow and count as a vote of authority toward the page it points to. A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow" (or sponsored / ugc) and tells engines not to pass that authority — you still get the click, but not the ranking benefit.

This trips up a lot of founders: link type does not track popularity. Product Hunt and Hacker News give nofollow links despite enormous domain authority — great for a traffic spike, useless for durable SEO. Meanwhile some unglamorous software directories pass clean dofollow links.

How to check any directory in ten seconds: open a live listing, view source, and read the outbound link's rel attribute. rel="nofollow" means decoration; no rel — or rel="noopener noreferrer" — means dofollow (noopener/noreferrer do not affect follow status, a common myth).

Stork's own links, since you can grep them: listings we chose and wrote up editorially are dofollow. Listings obtained by paying us, or by trading us a badge, carry rel="sponsored nofollow" — because that is what Google's policy requires of any link acquired through a commercial arrangement, and because a directory that sells followed links is buying a manual action for both of you. Any directory promising dofollow in exchange for money is telling you it either has not read the policy or does not care. Their penalty eventually becomes yours.