Dofollow
Dofollow describes a normal link that passes ranking credit through to its destination page. There is no actual dofollow attribute in HTML. The term simply means the link carries none of the rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" attributes that withhold that credit.
Why it matters for your rankings
The distinction matters when evaluating link building. A campaign reporting fifty new links is worth very little if most carry nofollow attributes from forums, comment sections or press release syndication.
That said, the obsession with dofollow is overdone. Google treats these attributes as hints rather than strict instructions, and nofollowed links from major publications still drive referral traffic, brand searches and the kind of discovery that leads to genuine editorial links later. Judging a placement purely on its rel attribute misses most of its value. The useful check is whether a real audience sees the link, not whether a crawler passes a fraction of authority through it.
How to check it on your site
Inspect the actual HTML
Right-click a link, choose Inspect, and read the rel attribute. Reporting tools sometimes get this wrong.
Segment your profile
In Ahrefs the Backlinks report can filter by dofollow and nofollow. Check what share of your recent links actually pass credit.
Audit your outbound links
Paid placements and affiliate links on your own site should carry rel="sponsored" to avoid being read as sold links.
Judge placements on traffic too
Check referral sessions in GA4 from each linking domain. A nofollowed link sending real visitors beats a followed link nobody clicks.