Check whether a backlink is dofollow or nofollow
Paste the exact page that contains the backlink, then filter the results to External and search for your domain. The checker reads the page's HTML and labels every unique link as dofollow, nofollow, ugc, or sponsored.
Use the result to verify what was published, not to estimate the value of the entire domain. Relevance, placement, anchor text, referral traffic, and whether the page is indexed still matter.
| Checker result | What appears in the link HTML | Practical interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Dofollow | No nofollow, ugc, or sponsored rel value | A regular link with no qualification attached |
| Nofollow | rel="nofollow" | The publisher does not want to imply an endorsement or association |
| UGC | rel="ugc" | The link came from user-generated content such as a comment or forum post |
| Sponsored | rel="sponsored" | The link is connected to advertising, affiliate activity, or another paid arrangement |
Google treats nofollow, ugc, and sponsored as hints about which links to consider or exclude, rather than absolute crawling directives. Google's current guidance recommends sponsored for paid links and ugc for user-generated links. See Google's official outbound-link documentation.
What “dofollow” actually means
Dofollow is not an HTML attribute. A normal link is already considered dofollow by SEO tools when it has none of the qualifying rel values:
<a href="https://example.com/guide">Useful guide</a>
You do not need—and should not add—rel="dofollow". The word is simply a convenient label for a regular link.
A nofollow link includes a rel value:
<a href="https://example.com/guide" rel="nofollow">Useful guide</a>
A link can also contain multiple values. For example, a link posted by a user in a sponsored community thread could be marked rel="ugc sponsored". The checker displays each recognized value rather than reducing all qualified links to one generic label.
What the checker looks at
The checker requests the public page, follows safe redirects, and parses the returned HTML. It then:
- Finds each
<a>element with an HTTP or HTTPS destination. - Converts relative paths such as
/blog/exampleinto complete URLs. - Removes fragment-only, email, telephone, JavaScript, and duplicate links.
- Reads
nofollow,ugc, andsponsoredvalues from therelattribute. - Separates links on the same hostname from links pointing to other sites.
The result shows up to 300 unique links from the returned HTML. If the page or link list is truncated, the interface flags that limitation.
How to check a specific backlink
- Open the live article, resource page, directory listing, or guest post containing the link.
- Copy that page URL—not your own homepage and not the linking site's homepage.
- Paste it into the checker and run the scan.
- Select External to hide the publisher's internal navigation.
- Find your destination URL or domain and read the attribute badge beside it.
- Confirm that the destination and anchor text are also correct.
If a placement is marked nofollow when an editorial dofollow link was explicitly agreed, ask the publisher whether it was intentional. Do not ask a publisher to remove sponsored from a paid placement; paid links should remain qualified.
Dofollow versus nofollow examples
| Situation | Attribute you may see | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial citation inside an article | Often no qualifying rel value | The link points to the intended canonical URL and fits the surrounding text |
| Affiliate review or paid placement | sponsored or nofollow | The commercial relationship is disclosed and the link is properly qualified |
| Blog comment or forum profile | ugc, sometimes with nofollow | The link is genuinely useful to readers rather than promotional spam |
| Resource page addition | Often no qualifying rel value | The resource is relevant, live, and placed in the expected section |
| Social profile or large publishing platform | Commonly nofollow or a redirect | Referral and discovery value may matter more than the attribute |
What this free checker cannot tell you
This is a page-level link checker, not a domain-wide backlink index. It cannot tell you every site linking to a domain, whether the linking page is indexed, how much ranking value Google assigns, or whether a publisher will keep the link live.
It analyzes the HTML returned to the checker. Links injected only after complex browser-side interaction may not appear. Pages behind authentication, bot protection, geographic restrictions, or request blocking may also fail to return usable HTML.
For domain-wide tracking, save confirmed placements in the free backlink monitor. For a single live page, this checker answers the narrower question: what link is present in the HTML right now, and how is it qualified?
What to do after checking a placement
- The link is regular/dofollow: verify the destination, anchor text, and surrounding context, then add it to your monitoring list.
- The link is nofollow: decide whether referral traffic and visibility still make the placement worthwhile before requesting a change.
- The link is sponsored: keep the qualification when money, products, or another form of compensation influenced the placement.
- The link is missing: confirm the final page URL and whether the publisher moved or updated the content before following up.
Pair the result with the backlink outreach email generator when you need to report a missing or incorrect editorial link clearly and politely.
Where link checking fits in a link building system
Checking one page at a time verifies one placement. A recurring link building program also needs opportunity discovery, contact research, outreach, and monitoring after publication. The SaaS backlink building playbook shows where link verification belongs in that workflow, while Mentiohunt's link tracker monitors acquired links for removal or attribute changes over time.