Followed Backlinks to Small Business Websites Vanish Five Times as Often as Nofollow Links

    15.1% of followed backlinks to small business websites, the links that pass ranking value, have disappeared, against 3% of nofollow links, five times the rate. Overall, 9.8% of new backlinks are gone within a year of appearing.

    Share now lost by year first found
    2019
    11.6%
    2020
    12.6%
    2021
    6.2%
    2022
    6.1%
    2023
    9.8%
    2024
    11.1%
    2025
    12.7%
    2026
    13.5%

    Source: Suff Digital analysis of 78,552 backlinks to 249 small business websites · links from other websites, September 2026

    Share lost by link group
    Followed links
    15.1%
    Nofollow links
    3%
    From blogs
    0.9%
    From online stores
    4.5%
    From organization websites
    5.5%
    From news websites
    8.6%
    From general CMS websites
    14.1%
    From websites of unknown type
    14.6%

    Source: Suff Digital analysis of 78,552 backlinks to 249 small business websites · links from other websites, September 2026

    Source: Followed Backlinks to Small Business Websites Vanish Five Times as Often as Nofollow Links - Suff Digital