Nofollow Link Checker

Analyze the rel attributes of links on any page — identify nofollow, sponsored, UGC, and follow links. Get a comprehensive score with actionable optimization suggestions.

Check Link Attributes

Enter any webpage URL to scan and classify all links by their rel attributes.
Quick test:

About the Nofollow Link Checker

This tool fetches any webpage and performs a comprehensive analysis of every link's rel attribute. It classifies all links by type (nofollow, sponsored, UGC, follow) and provides detailed statistics including:

Link Classification

Every link is categorized as follow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC — with the exact rel attribute shown.

Nofollow Ratio Analysis

Overall and external-only nofollow ratios help you understand your link profile health at a glance.

Sponsored & UGC Detection

Identifies rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc" attributes for compliance with Google's link guidelines.

Why Link Attributes Matter for SEO

Link rel attributes are a fundamental part of how search engines interpret the relationships between pages. Properly managing nofollow, sponsored, and UGC attributes helps you:

  • Comply with Google's guidelines — Paid and affiliate links must be marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" to avoid manual penalties.
  • Control PageRank flow — Use nofollow to prevent passing link equity to low-quality or untrusted pages, preserving your site's ranking power.
  • Earn trust with accurate markup — Properly marking UGC links shows search engines you're transparent about user-contributed content.
  • Improve crawl efficiency — Nofollow links on unimportant pages (login, terms, privacy) helps search engines focus on your valuable content.
  • Avoid dilution of ranking signals — Too many nofollow links, especially on important pages, can limit how effectively PageRank flows through your site.

Google's 2019 update changed nofollow from a strict directive to a "hint," meaning Google may still crawl and index nofollow-linked pages. However, the SEO best practice remains: use nofollow for paid/sponsored links, use rel="ugc" for user-generated content, and keep internal links as dofollow.

Best Practices for Link Attributes

  • Use rel="sponsored" for all paid, affiliate, or sponsored links — not just rel="nofollow".
  • Use rel="ugc" for user-generated content like forum posts, comments, and guestbook entries.
  • Keep internal links as dofollow (no rel attribute) to pass PageRank through your site architecture.
  • Maintain a natural nofollow ratio — 100% nofollow or 0% nofollow both look unnatural.
  • Use descriptive anchor text for all links — it helps both users and search engines understand the target.
  • Ensure all links use HTTPS where possible for security and trust signals.
  • Regularly audit your external link profile to ensure nofollow usage matches the nature of each link.
Monitor your backlinks for nofollow changes — third-party sites can change your link attributes without notice. Use linkcheck.app to track nofollow changes and catch drop-offs in your backlink profile. Free up to 5,000 backlinks.
How the Score Is Calculated

How the Score Is Calculated

Frequently Asked Questions

A nofollow link has rel="nofollow" in its HTML tag, telling search engines not to pass PageRank or ranking credit to the destination URL. Google introduced nofollow in 2005 to combat comment spam, and since 2019 treats it as a "hint" rather than a strict directive. Use nofollow for paid links, affiliate links, and untrusted user-generated content.
These are three distinct rel attribute values introduced under Google's 2019 link attribute guidelines. rel="nofollow" is the general-purpose attribute for links you don't want to endorse. rel="sponsored" specifically identifies paid or affiliate links. rel="ugc" (User Generated Content) marks links from forums, comments, or other user-contributed content. Using the most specific attribute helps search engines understand the nature of each link relationship better.
Yes — even though nofollow links don't pass traditional PageRank, they still provide value. They can drive referral traffic, increase brand visibility, and create natural-looking backlink profiles. A completely nofollow-free link profile can appear unnatural to search engines. Additionally, Google may still use nofollow links for discovery and crawling purposes. Some studies suggest Google sometimes still counts nofollow links for ranking in certain situations.
There is no fixed limit, but if more than 50% of your external links are nofollow, it may indicate an over-reliance on paid or user-generated content. For most content pages, 10–30% nofollow ratio is normal. A page with 80%+ nofollow links may look unnatural. Focus on earning genuine editorial links rather than relying heavily on nofollow sources.
Generally no — internal links should almost always be follow (dofollow) to allow PageRank to flow through your site. Some SEOs use nofollow on login pages, privacy policy pages, or tag pages to preserve crawl budget, but this is rarely necessary for most sites. Using nofollow on important internal pages can hinder their ability to rank.
Since March 2020, Google treats nofollow, sponsored, and UGC attributes as "hints" rather than strict directives. This means Google may choose to ignore the nofollow attribute and still crawl/index the linked page if it determines the link is relevant. However, nofollow still strongly signals that you don't want to pass endorsement, so use it appropriately for paid and untrusted links.
The external nofollow ratio measures what percentage of your outbound external links use rel="nofollow". A high ratio may suggest you're linking to low-quality or paid sources, while a very low ratio on a site with lots of user-generated content may indicate you're not properly marking untrusted links. Most healthy sites have an external nofollow ratio between 20–50%.
You can check a link's rel attribute by inspecting the page HTML (right-click → Inspect Element) and looking for rel="nofollow" in the anchor tag. Alternatively, use a browser extension that highlights nofollow links, or simply use this Nofollow Link Checker tool — it scans all links on any page and categorizes them by rel attribute value automatically.
Failing to add rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow") to paid links violates Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can lead to manual penalties, including removal from search results entirely. Google's link spam algorithms are sophisticated enough to detect many paid link patterns automatically. Always clearly mark sponsored and affiliate links with the appropriate rel attribute.
While nofollow links were originally intended to block link equity, Google still uses them for URL discovery. A nofollow link can lead Googlebot to a new page, which may then be indexed if found through other signals. This is one reason a diverse link profile with some nofollow links can still be beneficial for overall site visibility.
Reviewed Jun 2026 · Sources and limitations

Review details: 2026-06-10 · Marc LaClear · v1.0

Reference sources:

Known limits:

  • Checks are based on publicly fetchable HTML, response headers, and browser-side input. They do not use private Google Search Console, analytics, or ranking data.
  • Scores and warnings are diagnostic aids, not guarantees of ranking improvement or Google indexation.
  • Pages blocked by robots.txt, login walls, bot protection, heavy JavaScript, or network timeouts may return incomplete results.
  • Validate critical fixes with official Google tools such as Search Console, Rich Results Test, Lighthouse, and your own crawl data.

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