Dofollow backlink
Also: dofollow vs nofollow
A link that passes SEO authority to its target. The opposite — rel="nofollow" — passes none.
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 tool links are dofollow and server-rendered; grep them yourself.