Dofollow and nofollow links quietly dictate how much SEO value your site gains (or loses). They also impact your website visitors’ user experience, which determines how long they stay on your site.

If you’re serious about ranking higher and maximizing your link-building efforts, you need to know how to check your links’ attributes.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to check dofollow and nofollow links, including leveraging the insights to fine-tune your link-building strategy for better SEO performance.

Let’s get started!

TL;DR - How to Check Dofollow and Nofollow Links

Here’s a quick rundown of how to determine whether a link is dofollow or nofollow:

1. Manual inspection
2. Browser extension
3. Link-building tools

But if you find the process hectic, we recommend choosing the right link building agency to track your dofollow and nofollow links.

At Profit Engine, we provide strategy-driven, link-building solutions. These include monitoring your backlink profile to ensure a balanced dofollow: nofollow ratio. We also leverage AI and data to gain insights into improving your backlink profile to boost SEO performance and increase referral traffic.

Schedule a free, one-on-one call to learn how we can help you improve your link profile and avoid Google manual penalties.

What Is a Nofollow Link?

A nofollow link works just like the name suggests—it instructs search engines not to crawl the page linked to the referring domain. Nofollow links contain a rel=”nofollow” attribute to remind Google to ignore the link even when the web page with the hyperlink is crawled afresh.

A nofollow link looks something like this:

<a href="https://example.com/" rel="nofollow">Learn More</a>

Do Nofollow Links Help SEO?

Yes. Nofollow links impact your SEO significantly, as follows:

• They drive quality referral traffic to your website.
• Nofollow links on branded keywords boost awareness and online reputation.
• They help balance your backlink profile so it doesn’t look suspicious to search engines.

What Is a Dofollow Link?

A dofollow link is the opposite of a nofollow link—it instructs search engines to crawl the linked pages.

This also means they pass invaluable link juice from the referring domain to your website.

Advantages of Dofollow Links

Here are the benefits of having dofollow links pointing to your website:

• They pass link equity and PageRank to your website, boosting its domain authority.
• Most dofollow links have contextual relevance and direct high-quality referral traffic to your website.
• Dofollow links direct search engines to crawl and index your web pages so they rank on SERPs.
• Dofollow links from high-PR websites boost your brand’s visibility and provide invaluable social proof.

How to Check Dofollow and Nofollow Links

The best way to tell whether a backlink is dofollow or nofollow is by checking its assigned link attribute. 

In this section, we’ll discuss three simple ways to confirm the assigned HTML link tags:

1. Manual Inspection

You can check your backlink attributes directly from your browser using the View Page Source or Inspect Element options. 

Below is a simple guide to check dofollow and nofollow links manually:

• Go to your browser and open the web page containing the links.
• Right-click on the webpage and select View Page Source or Inspect Element.
• Use the search function or scroll through the code to find your desired link.
• Check if the link has a rel="nofollow" tag. Links without an attribute are considered dofollow.

Manual inspection is only feasible when checking a few links, such as monitoring recently acquired backlinks. However, inspecting 100+ link tags is time-consuming.

2. Browser Extension

Alternatively, use SEO tools like SEOquake (by SEMrush) and Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to monitor your link profile.

These tools provide full on-page SEO audits, highlighting nofollow and sponsored links. However, ensure the extension you choose is compatible with your browser.

3. Link Building Tools

Lastly, link building tools offer the best way to check your dofollow and nofollow links, as they provide an in-depth review of your backlink profile.

You only need to provide your address, and the tools will generate a comprehensive report highlighting your website’s SEO performance and the authority and rating of referring domains.

Examples of link-building tools include:

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Majestic SEO

What's next after checking your dofollow and nofollow links?

Partner with us at Profit Engine to turn the insights into an actionable link-building strategy that boosts your website’s SEO performance. We’ll help you pursue high-quality dofollow and nofollow backlink placements to maintain a balanced link profile.

Get your results-focused link-building strategy today!

Why Knowing the Difference Matters for SEO

Understanding the difference between dofollow and nofollow links is the first step to understanding how they influence your website’s authority and SEO performance.

Here’s why it matters:

• Web Page Indexing: You can set links to nofollow or dofollow depending on whether you want search engines to crawl the linked pages.
• Link Juice: Dofollow links pass link equity, while nofollow links don’t. Understanding this difference helps you decide which backlink placements to pursue to boost your website’s authority and which ones to request nofollow so the referring domain doesn’t pass its link juice to your site.
• Maintaining a Balanced Backlink Profile: Having only dofollow or nofollow links often signals search engines that you are using black hat SEO tactics and could result in manual action against your website. However, you can maintain a healthy dofollow-nofollow ratio to boost domain trust.
• Link-Building Strategy: Differentiating dofollow from nofollow links helps ensure your backlinking strategy supports your SEO goals. For instance, you should pursue mainly nofollow links if you’re only looking to increase brand awareness.

Common Mistakes When Managing Link Attributes

Here are common pitfalls to avoid when specifying link attributes:

• Nofollow Attributes on Internal Links: Using nofollow on internal links often harms your website’s crawlability and indexing. We recommend setting most internal links to dofollow and only using nofollow for low-utility web pages.
• Not Marking Sponsored Links: Failing to specify that a link is sponsored makes Google interpret it as a form of buying backlinks to pass PageRank to your website. As such, they might place manual action on your website, hurting its domain authority and rating. The good news is that you can avoid such risks by marking affiliate links as sponsored.
• Not Monitoring Links Regularly: This results in missed opportunities to detect changes in link attributes. For example, backlinks changing from dofollow to nofollow warrant following up with the referring domain owners to establish the cause. For example, they might use a nofollow link if the page they are linking to on your website contains outdated information.
• Setting All Outbound Links to Nofollow: This often makes your website’s link profile look unnatural, which Google could flag for suspicious activity. Also, other domain owners linking to your site might consider you ‘stingy,’ rejecting future backlink requests.
• Ignoring User Experience: While link attributes are mainly meant for search engines, they significantly impact user experience and your website’s engagement rate. For example, nofollow attributes on internal links leading to your service pages might cause some visitors to drop off. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let’s wind up this guide by answering some commonly asked questions about checking dofollow and nofollow links:

Does the Dofollow/Nofollow Ratio Impact Google Penalties?

Yes and no. Usually, having a high number of dofollow or nofollow backlinks does not directly lead to Google penalties. However, having an unnatural link profile could expose you to manual penalties. 

For example, it is unusual to have 100% dofollow links. We recommend a dofollow/nofollow ratio of 60:40 to keep a balanced backlink profile.

How to Get Dofollow Backlinks?

Creating high-quality, authoritative content is the best way to get dofollow backlinks. 

This creates opportunities for contextual link building and encourages the referring domains to set the backlinks as dofollow.

How Do Sponsored Links Relate to Nofollow?

Sponsored links function the same way as nofollow links: they do not pass link equity or SEO value to your website. 

Using the sponsored tag helps protect your website against manual action should the ‘referring domain’ engage in black hat SEO tactics.

Can I Request a Site to Change a Backlink From Nofollow to Dofollow?

Yes. You can request a site to change a backlink from nofollow to dofollow. However, you must propose a win-win situation to the referring domain owner. 

For example, offer to publish a guest post on their website that aligns with their audience’s interest in exchange for a dofollow link.

Conclusion

Monitoring your dofollow and nofollow links helps you keep a balanced backlinks profile that signals search engines to trust your website.

As such, we recommend monitoring your link profile regularly to establish a reasonable dofollow: nofollow link ratio.

But what should you do if you notice an imbalance? Get expert link-building assistance.

Our team at Profit Engine helps online businesses and affiliates monitor their backlink profile to stay within the recommended ratio. Also, we’ll help you pursue genuine dofollow or nofollow backlink placements to achieve your SEO goals.

Schedule a one-on-one call today so we can discuss your link-building strategy!