Free Dofollow Link Checker
Call it a dofollow link checker, a do follow backlink checker or a nofollow checker: it is one read either way. Paste the page that links to you and your site, and one fetch reports what actually matters: is the backlink there, is its rel dofollow or nofollow, and does the page let Google index it at all.
This is one fetch of one page.
ShipDR runs the same verified check on every directory listing you track, on a schedule: live, dofollow, indexable, still there tomorrow. $10 once, per website.
How this checker reads the page
It fetches the URL you give it and parses the HTML the way a crawler does.
Every anchor pointing at your domain is read for its rel attribute: no nofollow, ugc or sponsored means the backlink is dofollow.
In the same pass it reads the meta robots and googlebot tags plus the X-Robots-Tag response header, because a dofollow backlink on a noindex page passes nothing: the page never enters the index.
Pages that render their links with JavaScript are reported as such rather than guessed at; inside ShipDR those go through a real browser.
What rel actually says
There is no rel="dofollow". Dofollow is the default state of any link, and the only question is whether something in the rel takes it away.
An anchor can carry several values at once, so the read is per value, never a whole string comparison:
nofollow
The original opt out. Tells search engines not to count this link toward the destination. Since 2019 Google treats it as a hint rather than a directive, which means it may be ignored, never that you should count on it being ignored.
ugc
User generated content: comments, forum posts, profile fields. A label about where the link came from, with the same effect on ranking credit as nofollow.
sponsored
Paid placements, affiliate links, anything bought. Also blocks credit. Sites that use it correctly are being straight with Google, which is a good sign about the site even when it is a disappointing one about your link.
Everything else is noise
noopener, noreferrer and external block nothing. They turn up constantly next to a perfectly good dofollow link and get misread as a problem, usually because a quick glance sees the word no and stops there.
nofollow is not a bad backlink
This deserves saying plainly, because the opposite belief is everywhere and it makes people turn down links worth having.
A nofollow backlink is a real link. Readers click it.
It sends traffic, which is the thing a backlink was supposed to be a proxy for in the first place.
Large sites nofollow their outbound links as blanket policy, so a profile made only of dofollow links is not a strong profile, it is an unnatural one.
There is exactly one situation where a nofollow costs you something real, and it is not about the link: a reciprocal badge.
If you put a directory’s badge on your homepage in exchange for a listing, you have spent a permanent slot on your own site.
Getting a nofollow back makes that a poor trade, and usually an unnecessary one, since the same directory often lists you through its ordinary free queue for nothing at all.
On a one-way link, where you gave up nothing, nofollow costs you nothing either. Judge the trade, not the attribute.
Four ways a clean dofollow still counts for nothing
Reading rel and stopping there is the mistake this tool exists to correct. All four of these look like a win in the markup:
- The page is noindex. The anchor is spotless and the page is telling Google to stay out, so it leaves the index and eventually stops being crawled. Nothing flows through a page nobody visits. The noindex checker covers this one on its own, and this tool reads it too.
- The link goes through a hop that blocks. Some directories point their visit button at a redirect they own so they can count clicks. If that hop carries nofollow or
none, the anchor on the page still looks like a clean dofollow to the eye and to any tool that only reads rel, while the thing it actually travels through asks not to be followed. - The link is built by JavaScript. Not worthless, necessarily, but unverifiable by a plain fetch, and a tool that reports not found here has told you something false. This one says needs JavaScript instead.
- The listing quietly disappears. The most common of all, and the only one no single check can catch: it was live, you confirmed it, and months later it is gone. Nobody sends a notice.
Redirects: not all hops are equal
When a directory routes its outbound link through its own domain, a checker that only reads hrefs concludes the listing never mentioned you, which is wrong twice over: the listing is live, and the link may be passing full value. What it passes depends on what the hop says about itself, and the cases genuinely differ:
Permanent redirect, nothing blocking
A 301 or 308 with no robots directives passes credit. As good as a direct link, and calling it nofollow would throw away a real backlink.
Temporary redirect, otherwise clean
A 302 or 307. Google states these pass too, though it is the one case practitioners still argue about, so it counts here with the disagreement stated rather than settled.
The hop asks not to be followed
The hop or the anchor carries nofollow, or none (which is shorthand for noindex plus nofollow). Counted as passing nothing. Whether a robots directive severs a redirect specifically is not documented by Google, so that is a conservative read and not a measurement.
The hop is merely noindex
Normal for a link shortener and harmless here: noindex governs whether the hop itself gets indexed, not whether it may be followed.
One check, or every check
Everything above is a snapshot of one page at one moment.
The failure that actually costs makers backlinks is the second reading nobody takes: a listing pruned in a cleanup, a template rebuilt with nofollow on every outbound link, a directory that turns noindex after a spam wave.
It was live when you checked, so it stays ticked off your list forever. ShipDR runs this exact read on every listing you track, on a schedule, and tells you the day a verdict changes.
To size up a domain before spending time on it, the domain rating checker looks up its Ahrefs DR.
You checked one backlink. There are the other forty.
A backlink you verified once is a backlink you stopped watching. Listings get pruned, rel attributes get tightened, pages turn noindex, and nobody emails you.
ShipDR re-reads every listing you track on a schedule and tells you the day a verdict changes.
- Every listing rechecked on a schedule, not once
- Live, dofollow and indexable, read from the page itself
- Told the day a backlink drops or flips
Adding a website and charting its Domain Rating is free, no card. The backlink engine is $10 once, per website, with no subscription.
Fair questions
What is a dofollow link?
A dofollow link is an ordinary HTML link whose rel attribute carries none of nofollow, ugc or sponsored. Search engines may follow it and count it toward the linked site. "Dofollow" is not a value you write; it is the absence of the blocking ones.
How do I check if a backlink is dofollow?
Open the page that links to you and read the rel attribute on the anchor. This tool does that for you: it fetches the page, finds the link pointing at your domain, and reports the rel it actually carries, dofollow or nofollow.
Does a dofollow link always pass value?
No. If the page carrying it is noindex (via a meta robots tag or the X-Robots-Tag header), search engines drop the page and the link passes nothing, however clean its rel looks. That is why this checker reads the robots signals in the same fetch.
Is a nofollow backlink bad?
No, and treating it that way leads people to turn down perfectly good links. A nofollow backlink is a real link: people click it, it sends traffic, and a natural backlink profile is full of them, since most large sites nofollow outbound links by policy. Google has treated the attribute as a hint rather than an order since 2019, so it is not even an absolute block. The one case where nofollow genuinely costs you is a reciprocal badge, because there you are paying a permanent slot on your own homepage for it.
Dofollow checker, do follow checker, nofollow link checker: is there a difference?
No. They are all names for one read, and the spelling wanders because the thing being spelled does not exist: there is no rel="dofollow" to write. A link is dofollow when nothing in its rel takes it away, so checking for dofollow and checking for nofollow are the same act reported from opposite ends. However you searched for it, and whether you write it as one word or two, this page does that read and tells you which side the answer landed on.
What are rel ugc and rel sponsored?
Two more specific labels Google introduced alongside nofollow. ugc marks user generated content such as comments and forum posts; sponsored marks paid or affiliate placements. For the purposes of passing ranking credit this checker treats all three the same, because all three tell Google not to count the link. Which one a site uses tells you about its policy, not about your outcome.
The checker says no backlink found, but I can see my link on the page
Two common causes. The page may build its links with JavaScript, so a plain fetch sees an empty shell; the tool says so rather than claiming the link is missing. Or the site may route its outbound clicks through a redirect it controls, in which case the anchor points at that hop and not at your domain. Inside ShipDR the first case is re-read in a real browser and the second is resolved by following the hop one step.
How often should I recheck a backlink?
Once tells you it went live. It does not tell you it is still there next month, and that is the failure people miss: listings get pruned, templates get rebuilt, rel attributes get tightened after a spam wave, and none of it comes with a notification. A one-off check is a snapshot; monitoring is what catches the change. ShipDR rechecks on a risk-based schedule and reports the day a verdict changes.