A dofollow backlinks list is one of the most searched resources in SEO — and one of the most inconsistently maintained. Most lists circulating in 2026 contain sites that have switched to nofollow, changed their submission policies, or simply stopped working. This guide is the updated 2026 version: 60+ verified sources across Web 2.0 platforms, business directories, Q&A sites, forum platforms, and profile sites that still pass genuine dofollow link equity. We have also included the honest context around each category — which ones are worth building for Tier 2 link support, which pass enough equity to count as Tier 1 supplements, and where free dofollow links reach their ceiling so you understand when to transition to quality PBN placements for commercial page targets.
Table of Contents
- How to use this list effectively
- Web 2.0 platforms (dofollow body links)
- Business directories and citations
- Q&A platforms
- Niche forums and communities
- Profile backlinks
- Social and bookmarking platforms
- How to use these as Tier 2 links
- The honest limitations of free dofollow links
- FAQ
Key Takeaways
- Free dofollow links from directories, Web 2.0s, Q&A sites, and forums are most valuable as Tier 2 links — boosting the URL Rating of your Tier 1 PBN article pages rather than pointing directly at money pages.
- Web 2.0 platforms like Medium, WordPress.com, Blogger, and Tumblr pass dofollow equity from high-DR root domains when links are placed in article body content — not in profiles or bios.
- Business directory citations provide dofollow links from established, trusted domains — particularly valuable for local SEO where citation consistency is a ranking factor alongside link equity.
- Free dofollow links rarely produce first-page rankings for competitive commercial keywords on their own — they supplement quality PBN links and niche edits rather than replace them.
- Always verify current dofollow status before building — platforms change their link policies frequently. Use Ahrefs or a browser extension to confirm rel attributes on any site before investing time in link building there.
How to use this list effectively
Before diving into the list, understand the strategic context that determines how each category should be used. Not all dofollow links are equal — a dofollow link from Medium with a UR 30 article passes real equity, while a dofollow link from a low-traffic free directory with UR 0 passes almost nothing. The equity mechanics are covered in our dofollow vs nofollow guide and our link juice guide.
Primary use — Tier 2 amplification: Most sites on this list are best used as Tier 2 links — pointing to your Tier 1 PBN article pages to raise their URL Rating, which then multiplies the equity those pages pass to your money site. This is where free dofollow links deliver their highest ROI. See our Tier 2 link building guide for the full structure.
Secondary use — profile and brand presence: Profile links on authoritative platforms (LinkedIn, GitHub, Crunchbase) contribute to brand entity signals and provide indexed citations that support Google entity recognition for your brand. These are not high-equity links but they serve a different function — legitimising the brand presence that quality audits assess.
Check dofollow status before building: Platforms change their link policies. Always verify the rel attribute of any outbound link on a platform before investing time building there. Use the browser source code check (Ctrl+F your domain on the page) or an Ahrefs toolbar extension to confirm current dofollow status.
Web 2.0 platforms (dofollow body links)
Web 2.0 platforms allow you to publish articles with outbound links in the body content. Links from well-written articles on these platforms can pass meaningful dofollow equity because they benefit from the root domain authority of the platform. A Medium article with 10 genuine readers and 2 shares accumulates some UR of its own — the link within it passes equity proportional to that UR.
Important: All platforms below pass dofollow equity only when links are placed in article body content — not in profile bios, author sections, or comment areas which are typically nofollow.
| Platform | DR | Link type | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium.com | 92 | Dofollow (body) | Quality articles with contextual links — strong Tier 2 |
| WordPress.com | 92 | Dofollow (body) | Subdomain blogs — excellent Tier 2 base |
| Blogger.com | 93 | Dofollow (body) | Google-owned platform — good crawl frequency |
| Tumblr.com | 88 | Dofollow (body) | Multimedia posts with embedded links |
| Weebly.com | 89 | Dofollow (body) | Simple sites with page content links |
| Wix.com | 90 | Dofollow (body) | Well-structured page content |
| Jimdo.com | 76 | Dofollow (body) | Basic business pages with contextual links |
| Sites.Google.com | 93 | Dofollow (body) | Google Sites pages — excellent indexation speed |
| Livejournal.com | 84 | Dofollow (body) | Long-form posts |
| Penzu.com | 64 | Dofollow (body) | Journal-format posts |
The equity contribution of Web 2.0 body links increases significantly when the article itself accumulates referring pages — social shares, internal platform linking, or external references. A standalone Web 2.0 article with no engagement passes minimal equity. An article that earns 5–10 platform-internal engagements accumulates UR and passes more. For this reason, writing genuine 400–600 word articles on Web 2.0 platforms rather than thin stubs produces better long-term Tier 2 results.
Business directories and citations
Business directory citations are particularly valuable for local SEO — they provide dofollow links from established, trusted domains while simultaneously building the NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citation consistency that is a local ranking factor. For non-local sites, directories still provide indexed dofollow links from authoritative domains worth including in a diversified link profile.
| Directory | DR | Link type | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yelp.com | 91 | Dofollow (business page) | General / local |
| Crunchbase.com | 90 | Dofollow (profile) | Business / tech |
| Manta.com | 74 | Dofollow | Small business |
| Hotfrog.co.uk | 65 | Dofollow | UK local business |
| FreeIndex.co.uk | 64 | Dofollow | UK local business |
| Cylex-uk.co.uk | 55 | Dofollow | UK directories |
| Yell.com | 79 | Dofollow | UK local search |
| Foursquare.com | 89 | Dofollow | Location-based |
| BrownBook.net | 64 | Dofollow | General business |
| Lacartes.com | 52 | Dofollow | General directory |
For local SEO specifically, building consistent citations across the top 50 local directories is one of the most reliable page-one ranking actions for local pack results. Our PBN links for local SEO guide covers how directory citations work alongside PBN links in a complete local authority strategy.
Q&A platforms
Q&A platforms provide dofollow links when used correctly — answering genuine questions with contextual reference links that add real value to the answer. Spammy Q&A link drops (pasting a URL with no genuine answer) are ineffective and risk account bans. Genuine, helpful answers with a contextual reference link pass both link equity and traffic.
| Platform | DR | Link type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quora.com | 91 | Dofollow (answers) | Must provide genuine value — spam removed quickly |
| Reddit.com | 91 | Dofollow (some subreddits) | Community-specific — verify subreddit policy |
| Stack Exchange sites | 84–93 | Dofollow (answers) | Technical niches — must be genuinely helpful |
| Yahoo Answers archive | 88 | Mixed — verify | Archival — limited new posting |
| Ask.com | 77 | Dofollow | General Q&A submissions |
| HubPages.com | 82 | Dofollow (articles) | Long-form Q&A and article hybrid |
Quora is the highest-value Q&A platform for dofollow link equity. A well-written Quora answer that gains upvotes and views accumulates genuine UR — the link within it passes real equity. A Quora answer with zero upvotes and no views passes minimal equity but still provides an indexed dofollow link. The investment in quality answers pays off in both equity and direct referral traffic.
Niche forums and communities
Niche forums that are topically relevant to your money site provide dofollow links with topical relevance reinforcement — a double benefit that generic directories cannot match. Forum links require genuine participation: creating an account, contributing meaningfully, and placing contextual links only where they genuinely add value to the conversation.
| Platform type | DR range | Link placement | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| phpBB forums (niche) | 30–70 | Profile + signature | Any niche with active community |
| vBulletin forums (niche) | 35–75 | Profile + post | Any niche with active community |
| Warrior Forum | 78 | Signature + post | Digital marketing, SEO |
| BlackHatWorld.com | 70 | Signature + post | SEO, link building, traffic |
| DigitalPoint.com | 69 | Signature + post | Digital marketing, webmaster |
| WickedFire.com | 58 | Signature | Affiliate marketing |
Forum signature links pass modest equity but serve primarily as diversification and topical association signals. Profile links on well-indexed forums provide stable dofollow citations. Post links (contextual mentions within thread replies) pass the most equity but require the most genuine participation — they are best deployed only when you can contribute genuinely helpful information to a thread topic relevant to your money site.
Profile backlinks
Profile backlinks are dofollow links placed in the website URL field of your profile on various platforms. The equity these pass is modest — profile pages rarely have high UR — but they provide stable, indexed dofollow citations on high-DR domains that contribute to brand entity recognition and link profile diversity.
| Platform | DR | Link type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn.com | 98 | Dofollow (website field) | Strong brand signal — high trust domain |
| GitHub.com | 96 | Dofollow (profile website) | Essential for tech/SaaS niches |
| About.me | 82 | Dofollow | Personal brand profiles |
| Gravatar.com | 91 | Dofollow (profile) | WordPress-associated profiles |
| Behance.net | 91 | Dofollow | Design and creative niches |
| Dribbble.com | 87 | Dofollow | Design and creative niches |
| Slideshare.net | 94 | Dofollow (profile) | B2B and professional content |
| Scribd.com | 93 | Dofollow (profile + docs) | Document sharing with body links |
| Flickr.com | 93 | Dofollow (profile) | Image-adjacent niches |
| Goodreads.com | 92 | Dofollow (author profile) | Publishing, education, books |
Social and bookmarking platforms
Social bookmarking sites provide indexed dofollow links with the primary benefit of accelerating discovery and indexation of the pages they link to. Individual equity contribution is modest, but across 20-50 bookmarks the aggregate indexation acceleration effect is measurable — ideal as Tier 2 volume links pointing to Tier 1 PBN article pages.
| Platform | DR | Link type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mix.com | 72 | Dofollow | Content curation bookmarks |
| Pocket.com | 90 | Dofollow (shared saves) | Excellent for indexation acceleration |
| Flipboard.com | 91 | Dofollow (magazine links) | Content aggregation |
| Scoop.it | 79 | Dofollow | Content curation platform |
| Pearltrees.com | 72 | Dofollow | Visual bookmarking |
| Diigo.com | 76 | Dofollow | Social bookmarking with annotations |
| Instapaper.com | 85 | Dofollow (public saves) | Read-later with sharing |
| Folkd.com | 60 | Dofollow | Social bookmarking |
| BizSugar.com | 65 | Dofollow | Business and entrepreneur content |
| Slashdot.org | 85 | Dofollow (submissions) | Tech and news content |
How to use these as Tier 2 links
The highest-ROI use of the platforms on this list is as Tier 2 links pointing to your Tier 1 PBN article pages. Six-step workflow: (1) confirm Tier 1 links are indexed via site: search, (2) collect the specific article page URLs, (3) submit each URL to 20-50 social bookmarks, (4) create Web 2.0 posts on 3-5 platforms with 400-word articles linking to each Tier 1 article page, (5) add profile links on 5-10 high-DR platforms, (6) check URL Rating improvement in Ahrefs after 2-4 weeks. This sequence typically raises article page UR by 5-15 points within 3-6 weeks. Full strategy in our second tier link building guide.
The honest limitations of free dofollow links
Individual equity is low. Most platforms produce pages with UR 0-8. Building 50 bookmarks and 10 Web 2.0 posts does not match the ranking impact of 3-5 quality PBN links from TF 20+ domains with UR 15+ article pages. Free dofollow links work as Tier 2 volume support, not as Tier 1 commercial page authority builders.
No anchor text control. Most free platforms discourage exact match commercial anchors. You cannot use free dofollow links to strategically place commercial keyword anchors the way quality PBN links allow.
Cannot target commercial pages effectively. A Medium article or Quora answer linking to a product pricing page looks promotional and gets removed. For commercially valuable pages, quality PBN links and niche edits deliver targeted authority. See our buy PBN links guide and niche edits guide.
Time cost vs equity produced. Building 50 genuine Web 2.0 posts and 100 directory citations takes 10-20 hours and produces a fraction of the equity that 5 quality PBN link placements would. Use free sources for Tier 2 volume and invest budget in quality paid placements for Tier 1 authority. See our PBN link building strategy for the full allocation framework.
FAQ
What are dofollow backlinks?
Dofollow backlinks are standard hyperlinks with no rel attribute that pass PageRank and link equity from the source page to the linked page. Any link without rel=”nofollow”, rel=”sponsored”, or rel=”ugc” is dofollow by default. See our dofollow vs nofollow guide for the full explanation.
Are free dofollow backlinks worth building?
Yes, in their correct role. Free dofollow links from Web 2.0s, directories, Q&A platforms, and bookmarking sites are best used as Tier 2 links pointing to Tier 1 PBN article pages to raise their URL Rating. As standalone Tier 1 links targeting competitive commercial keywords, they produce insufficient equity to compete against established sites.
How do I check if a link is dofollow?
Right-click the linking page, select View Page Source, press Ctrl+F and search for your domain. If the anchor tag has no rel attribute it is dofollow. If it has rel=”nofollow” or similar it is nofollow. You can also use an Ahrefs browser extension which highlights dofollow and nofollow links with colour coding on any page.
Which site has the highest DR dofollow links?
LinkedIn (DR 98), GitHub (DR 96), Google Sites (DR 93), Scribd (DR 93), Flickr (DR 93), and Blogger (DR 93) have the highest Domain Rating. However, URL Rating of the specific page matters more than domain DR for equity passed. A Medium article with UR 20 passes more equity than a LinkedIn profile page with UR 3, despite LinkedIn having higher DR.
What is the best free dofollow backlink source?
For Tier 2 volume: Mix, Pocket, Flipboard combined with Web 2.0 posts on Medium, WordPress.com, and Blogger. For brand presence: LinkedIn, GitHub, and Crunchbase. For topical relevance: niche forums and Q&A platforms. For local SEO: Yelp, Yell.com, and UK-specific directories providing citation consistency that is a direct local ranking factor.
The 60+ platform quick reference: Web 2.0 (10): Medium, WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, Weebly, Wix, Jimdo, Google Sites, Livejournal, Penzu. Directories (10): Yelp, Crunchbase, Manta, Hotfrog UK, FreeIndex UK, Cylex UK, Yell.com, Foursquare, BrownBook, Lacartes. Q&A (6): Quora, Reddit, Stack Exchange, Ask.com, HubPages, Yahoo Answers archive. Forums (6): phpBB niche forums, vBulletin niche forums, Warrior Forum, BlackHatWorld, DigitalPoint, WickedFire. Profiles (10): LinkedIn, GitHub, About.me, Gravatar, Behance, Dribbble, Slideshare, Scribd, Flickr, Goodreads. Social bookmarking (10): Mix, Pocket, Flipboard, Scoop.it, Pearltrees, Diigo, Instapaper, Folkd, BizSugar, Slashdot. Additional (10+): Disqus, Quora Spaces, Substack, Notion public pages, Gitbook, Hashnode, Dev.to, CodePen, Issuu, Vimeo descriptions.
Free dofollow links have their role — for commercial page authority, quality PBN links deliver what free sources cannot. Quality PBN backlinks — dofollow verified, Trust Flow checked, single outbound link articles available. Supporting guides: dofollow vs nofollow explained, Tier 2 link building — where this list does its best work, link juice — what dofollow links actually pass, niche edits — dofollow links on aged editorial pages, and our complete PBN link building strategy.
Ben Davis is a seasoned SEO strategist with over a decade of hands-on experience in off page SEO, link building, and private blog network management.
He has helped 600+ agencies and professionals achieve top rankings in competitive niches including iGaming, crypto, CBD, and finance through data driven PBN strategies.