“Dofollow” isn’t actually an attribute. It just means a normal link without any rel value that tells search engines to ignore it.
The rel attributes
- No attribute (“dofollow”): a normal link. Search engines may count it as a vote.
- rel=”nofollow”: the site doesn’t want to vouch for the link.
- rel=”sponsored”: the link was paid for or is part of an advertisement.
- rel=”ugc”: user-generated content, like comments and forum posts.
Since 2019 Google treats nofollow, sponsored and UGC as hints rather than strict rules. They can still count, but you shouldn’t expect them to.
How to check if a link is dofollow
- Right-click the link and choose “Inspect”.
- Look at the <a> tag. If there’s no rel attribute, or only things like rel=”noopener”, it’s a followed link.
- If you see nofollow, sponsored or ugc, it isn’t.
On Linkbuilding.com we do this check automatically when a publisher submits a live URL. Nofollow and UGC links fail the check; sponsored only passes if the publisher said so in their listing.
Do you need nofollow links at all?
A natural link profile has a mix. Links from social media, forums and news comments are often nofollow, and that’s fine. They can still bring visitors.