Short answer: far less than most people think. For directory links, the follow tag is one of the least important things to worry about. nofollow has been a hint rather than a strict rule since 2020, real directories rarely pass much ranking equity either way, and the value you actually get — discovery, referral traffic, brand citations and AI visibility — arrives whether the link is dofollow or nofollow. Worse, deliberately chasing "dofollow-only" directories builds an unnatural footprint that can hurt more than it helps. Pick real, relevant directories and stop grading them by their rel attribute.
What dofollow and nofollow actually mean
Every link is "dofollow" by default — nothing special, search engines can follow it and may pass ranking signals through it. A nofollow link carries a rel="nofollow" attribute (with newer variants rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content). It was introduced so sites could link to a page without vouching for it.
The crucial part, and the bit most outdated advice misses: since 2020 Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints, not commands. Google decides case by case whether to use a nofollowed link for crawling and ranking context. So "nofollow" no longer means "this link is invisible and worthless" — it means "Google may weigh this differently."
Does a nofollow tag kill a directory link's value?
No. Here is what a listing on a real, indexed directory gives you regardless of the follow tag:
- Discovery and crawling. Google can still follow a nofollowed link to find your URL — a legitimate way for a new site to get crawled and indexed faster.
- Referral traffic. The
relattribute is invisible to humans. A real person clicking through from a relevant directory arrives exactly the same way whether the link is followed or not. - Brand citations. Your name, URL and category on a trusted third-party site helps Google build an "entity" picture of your brand — and a nofollow link is still a brand mention.
- AI visibility. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews cite authoritative directories when recommending tools; the follow tag has nothing to do with whether you're mentioned.
What a nofollow link may not pass is reliable PageRank — but as we cover in do directory backlinks still help SEO?, directories were never a big PageRank source in the first place. You're losing a little of the thing that mattered least.
Why "dofollow-only" is the wrong filter
The instinct to hunt down only dofollow directories backfires for a simple reason: natural link profiles are a mix. Real sites earn links from forums, comments, social posts and news mentions — a lot of which are nofollow. Analyses of top-ranking sites consistently find a blend of both, not an all-dofollow wall.
| Profile shape | What it signals |
|---|---|
| A healthy mix of dofollow and nofollow | Organic, earned links — what a real brand looks like |
| Almost entirely dofollow | Curated and bought — a pattern link-spam systems watch for |
| Only nofollow | Rarely happens naturally either; usually means low-effort placements |
In other words, a slice of nofollow directory links isn't a flaw in your profile — it's part of what makes it look genuine. Optimising it away is optimising toward the exact footprint Google finds suspicious.
How to check (and why you mostly shouldn't bother)
If you're curious, you can see a link's status: view the page source and look for rel="nofollow" on your listing, or use a browser SEO extension. But for directories, that check is a poor use of time. The filters that actually predict value are different ones entirely:
- Is it relevant? A niche or local directory your audience uses beats a generic one — follow tag aside.
- Is it real and indexed? Genuine editorial curation, its own identity and sitemap, real indexed pages — the checklist in how to submit your website to directories.
- Are you listed under your brand? Your brand name as the anchor, with a unique description, is penalty-proof whether the link is followed or not.
The pragmatic rule
Don't sort directories by their rel attribute. Sort them by whether they're relevant, real, indexed, and let you list under your own brand. Take the dofollow ones and the nofollow ones as they come — that natural blend is the healthy outcome, not a compromise. If a directory is genuinely relevant and real, a nofollow tag is no reason to skip it; if it's a spammy link farm, a dofollow tag is no reason to use it.
Where AIO fits
Our network is 498 real, independently-branded, indexed directories — a natural spread of follow behaviours, exactly like a genuine profile. When you broadcast, each listing goes up under your own brand name, with its own description, on a real catalog with its own sitemap. You get the discovery, referral and brand-citation layer regardless of any single directory's follow tag — without hand-auditing hundreds of rel attributes that were never the point. Add your URL once, keep your brand consistent, and let the mix be the mix.