How important is a good "follow" / "no-follow" link ratio for SEO?

[BlueLinkERP]

Is it very important to make sure most of the links pointing at your site are "follow" links? Is it problematic to post legitimate comments on blogs that include a link back to relevant content or posts on your site?

[gfiorelli1]

Mmm...

I think you are looking at this issue from the wrong perspective.

I mean, even though it quite obvious that having a percentage of followed links bigger than the nofollowed ones (link equity), that doesn't mean that you should not do - for instance - good comments to great posts in amazing posts (both authoritative and not).

Those links in comments, if editorially justified and with a natural anchor text are not a problem at all, if they are in site where the overall quality is high, also considering all the other comments.

Linking out to your own site within a comment, though, should be done just if it really means adding value to the post you are commenting... then, if it is considered spam or less, it is also depending on the judgement of the blog owner. So, I repeat, using natural anchor text or even the same URL as anchor, can be somehow as you were telling him: "Ok, I'm linking to my content, but I swear it adds value to your content and improves it". Usually the comment doesn't end in the spam folder.

[TakeshiYoung]

Like Gian says, you are looking at it a little backwards. It's not problematic at all to get backlinks from comments, just make sure you're not being spammy or overdoing it.

If you really want to look at follow/nofollow ratios, look at your competitor's backlink profiles in OSE or similar.