Dofollow Links: How to Check, Earn, and Audit Them

Quick Recap: Dofollow in One Sentence (and Where to Learn More)

A dofollow link is a hyperlink without a rel="nofollow" (or sponsored/ugc) attribute — the web's default state, which can pass link equity and crawl signals to the destination page. For a full breakdown of why some links technically qualify as dofollow but still fail to pass value, see our Dofollow Links Explained page. This article skips the theory and goes straight to three things: verify a link's status, earn more dofollow backlinks realistically, and audit your own site before it quietly costs you rankings.

How to Check If a Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow

Every link's status sits right in the HTML. Here's how to confirm it, from quickest to most thorough.

Right-click and inspect. Choose "Inspect" (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) to open developer tools with that tag highlighted. No rel attribute, or one that doesn't include nofollow, sponsored, or ugc, means it's dofollow by default.

View page source for a single check. Press Ctrl+U (or Cmd+Option+U on Mac), then Ctrl+F for the anchor text or destination URL, and check the surrounding markup for rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", or rel="ugc".

Use a browser extension for speed. SEO extensions color-code every link on a page — one color for dofollow, another for nofollow — so you can scan a whole page in seconds instead of hunting through source code.

Bulk-check with an SEO crawler when you need scale. Checking one link manually is fine; checking hundreds across a backlink profile isn't. A crawling tool can pull every outbound and inbound link on a domain along with its rel attribute in one pass — useful when auditing a client site or a large backlink list.

Since 2019, Google has recognized three distinct rel values instead of a simple dofollow/nofollow binary: nofollow (don't pass credit), sponsored (paid or advertising links), and ugc (user-generated content, like forum posts or comments). Google treats all three as hints rather than absolute directives — it may still crawl and consider them for ranking in aggregate, even without treating them as an unqualified endorsement. See Google Search Central's guidance on qualifying outbound links for the authoritative source.

How to Earn More Dofollow Backlinks

Not every link-building tactic realistically produces dofollow links, and pretending otherwise wastes outreach hours. Here's a prioritized, realistic list for 2026.

Digital PR still delivers the highest-value dofollow links. A newsworthy data study, survey, or tool pitched to journalists and niche publications tends to earn dofollow coverage, since editorial links are the least likely to carry nofollow by default.

Resource page outreach remains reliably dofollow. Pages that curate helpful links for a topic are usually built to reward genuinely useful resources, and owners rarely bother nofollowing hand-picked recommendations.

Guest contributions are a mixed bag. Many publications now nofollow or sponsor-tag contributor bios and in-body links to curb link-selling, so vet a site's existing guest posts before pitching — if their published guest content is already nofollowed, don't expect an exception.

Unlinked mention reclamation is underused and efficient. If your brand or product is mentioned without a hyperlink, a polite outreach email asking the publisher to add one often succeeds, since the content and relationship already exist.

Journalist source requests (HARO-style platforms) can work, but expect selectivity. Being quoted as an expert source occasionally earns a dofollow attribution link, though large publications increasingly nofollow contributor links by policy — treat every response as a numbers game, not a guarantee.

Anchor text still matters once a link is earned — overly commercial or exact-match anchors can look manipulative regardless of dofollow status, so aim for natural, descriptive phrasing across your backlink profile.

Auditing Dofollow Links on Your Own Website

Most site owners audit inbound backlinks and never look at their own outbound and internal links — exactly where value quietly leaks.

Start with outbound links: check whether external links added over the years (partner mentions, source citations, old sponsor deals) are still tagged as intended. A CMS update, plugin, or theme change can silently add nofollow to link types never meant to carry it.

Then check internal navigation. Footer links, sidebar widgets, and main navigation should almost always be fully followed so link equity flows freely through your site architecture — an accidentally nofollowed main menu link can quietly starve entire sections of internal authority.

Finally, separate "technically dofollow" from "actually passing value." A link can have clean markup and still be worthless if it points to a broken page, a redirect chain, or a URL returning an HTTP error — the crawler follows the link, hits a dead end, and no equity transfers. Our guides on broken hyperlinks and link HTTP issues cover exactly how these failures happen and how to catch them. This kind of link review fits naturally into a broader technical SEO audit, since link health is rarely an isolated problem.

Manual Checking vs. Automated Auditing

Spot-checking a handful of links with inspect element or view source is fine when confirming one guest post placement or a single competitor backlink. It becomes unworkable the moment you're dealing with a site of any real size — hundreds of internal links, a growing backlink profile, and pages that change every time a developer pushes an update.

That's the gap automated auditing closes. Instead of manually opening dev tools on every page, a full-site crawl surfaces every nofollow, sponsored, and ugc tag alongside broken links and redirect issues in one report, giving you the complete picture rather than a handful of samples. Optimevra's audit tooling was built for exactly this scale — catching accidental nofollow tags, dead outbound links, and link-equity leaks across an entire domain automatically.

Manual work doesn't scale — automated audits do

Checking link attributes by hand works for one page or one question, but it breaks down fast across a real website with thousands of links, plugins, and content updates happening continuously. Optimevra automates that entire process, flagging nofollow surprises, broken links, and other link-health issues site-wide so nothing slips through unnoticed. Try the live demo to see it run against a real site, or check pricing if you're ready to put it to work on yours.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I tell if a backlink pointing to my site is dofollow or nofollow?

Visit the page, right-click the link, and choose "Inspect" to view its HTML. If the tag has no rel attribute, or one that doesn't include nofollow, sponsored, or ugc, it's dofollow. For checking many backlinks at once, a tool that reports rel attributes in bulk is far faster than inspecting pages one by one.

Do dofollow links still matter for SEO in 2026?

Yes — dofollow links remain a core signal for passing link equity and helping Google discover and evaluate pages, even as the ecosystem has grown more nuanced with sponsored and ugc tags. A backlink profile built entirely on nofollow links rarely drives the same ranking impact as one with a healthy mix that includes dofollow placements from relevant, authoritative sources.

Is it bad to have mostly nofollow backlinks?

Not inherently, since a natural backlink profile includes a realistic mix of both link types, especially from forums, social platforms, and comment sections. It's only a problem if it signals your outreach isn't earning any editorial dofollow coverage at all, suggesting a content or PR gap worth addressing.

Should internal links on my own site always be dofollow?

Yes, in almost all cases — internal navigation, footer, and body links should remain fully followed so link equity flows freely across your own pages. Exceptions are rare, such as intentionally nofollowing links to login pages, admin areas, or duplicate URL parameters you don't want crawled.

How many dofollow backlinks do I actually need to rank?

There's no fixed number, since relevance and authority of the linking site matter far more than raw count. A handful of dofollow links from respected, topically relevant sources typically outperforms dozens of low-quality dofollow links from unrelated or spammy domains.

Can a dofollow link still fail to pass any SEO value?

Yes — a link can carry clean dofollow markup and still pass zero value if it points to a broken page, a long redirect chain, or a URL returning an HTTP error. The rel attribute only controls whether a link is eligible to pass equity; the destination page's health determines whether anything actually gets transferred.