# Dofollow and nofollow link checker

> List every link on a page and see which are dofollow and which are nofollow, sponsored or ugc. Check a backlink you were promised in seconds.

Canonical: https://indielaunch.dev/tools/nofollow-link-checker
Last updated: 2026-11-03

Paste a page's address to list every link on it and see which ones pass ranking value (dofollow) and which don't (nofollow, sponsored or ugc). Use it to check a backlink a directory promised you, to see how a site treats outside links before you submit, or to audit your own pages.

The tool itself is interactive: open [Dofollow / nofollow link checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/nofollow-link-checker) in a browser to use it.

## How to use it

1. Paste the address of the page to check, like a directory listing that links to you.
2. Press Check. We read the page's HTML and list every link in it.
3. Filter to outside links or to one domain, like your own, to find the link you care about and see its rel value.

## What it checks

- Every <a> link's address, its text (or image alt text) and its rel value.
- Whether each link is followed: no nofollow, sponsored or ugc in rel, and no page-wide nofollow.
- Page-wide nofollow from a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header, which makes every link on the page nofollow.
- Internal and outside links counted separately.

## FAQ

### What's the difference between dofollow and nofollow?

A normal link is "dofollow": search engines can follow it and count it as a vote for the page it points to. Adding rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" (for paid links) or rel="ugc" (for user content) asks them not to pass that value. There's no rel="dofollow" attribute: a link is followed simply by not having one of those three.

### Why does the link show here but not count as followed?

Check the rel column first. If that's empty, look at the page-wide notes: a <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> tag or an X-Robots-Tag header makes every link on the page nofollow, whatever each link says.

### Why is a link I can see in my browser missing?

This checker reads the HTML the server sends, the same first copy a search engine reads. Links that JavaScript adds after the page loads aren't in it. Google can run JavaScript later, but many other crawlers don't, so important links are safer in the HTML.

### Are nofollow links worthless?

No. Google treats nofollow as a hint and may still use the link for discovery, and a nofollow link from a busy site can send real visitors. For building authority, though, followed links from relevant sites count most.

## Related

- [Website authority checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/domain-rating-checker)
- [Directory finder](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/directory-finder)
- [Robots.txt & sitemap checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/robots-txt-checker)
- [Submit your startup](https://indielaunch.dev/submit-your-startup)