guide · 2026-08-01
How to Check if a Backlink Is Dofollow or Nofollow
A backlink only passes link equity if it is dofollow. Here is how to check any link in seconds — by inspecting the rel attribute, with a tool, or in bulk.
A backlink helps your rankings only if it is dofollow — meaning it has no rel="nofollow" (or sponsored, or ugc) attribute. Google treats those attributes as hints not to pass link equity. So before you count a link as a win, verify its type.
Method 1: inspect the HTML (one link)
Right-click the link on the live page → Inspect. Look at the <a> tag's rel attribute. No rel, or a rel without nofollow/sponsored/ugc → dofollow. Any of those three words → it does not pass equity in the standard way.
Method 2: use a checker tool (one URL)
Paste the page URL into a dofollow/nofollow checker. It fetches the page and classifies every link. WhichBacklink does this in one click from an opportunity: it loads the target page, finds the link to your domain, and reports the exact type from the link's rel.
Method 3: verify in bulk (a whole backlog)
For a list of placed links, manual inspection does not scale. A tracker that re-fetches each target page and reads the rel programmatically turns "are my links still live and dofollow?" into a dashboard column instead of an afternoon of clicking.
The full rel taxonomy
- dofollow — default; passes link equity.
- nofollow — hint not to pass equity (paid placements, untrusted).
- sponsored — paid links (ads, paid placements).
- ugc — user-generated content (comments, forums).