You're leaking link equity and don't even know it. Every outbound link without a proper nofollow tag could be passing authority to sites that don't deserve it.
Google recrawls most sites every 3-7 days. If your external links aren't tagged correctly, you're wasting crawl budget and SEO value on autopilot.
What Is a Nofollow Link Checker?
Nofollow Link Checker is a free browser-based tool that scans your webpage’s outbound links and flags which ones lack the nofollow attribute. You don’t need to log in — just paste the URL and run the test.
It checks every outlink in seconds and tells you exactly which ones are dofollow, nofollow, or missing attributes entirely. That’s it. No fluff, no sign-up.
Why It Matters for SEO
Every dofollow link passes equity. You don’t control how much, but you do control where it goes. If you link to a spammy directory or low-quality blog in a guest post, that’s a vote — and Google sees it.
Most people miss this: linking to a competitor without nofollow means you’re helping them rank. Not always, but often. If you’ve linked to a resource page on a competitor’s site and left it as dofollow, you’ve given them a tiny boost. Over time, dozens of those add up.
The real issue is that many bloggers and content teams treat all links the same. They drop in references without thinking about the SEO side effect. Google’s algorithm interprets every bare external link as an endorsement unless you say otherwise.
Here's what actually happens: you publish a post with 10 outbound links, 8 are dofollow. Google spreads your page’s link equity across those eight. That’s less power for your internal links and key pages. You didn’t mean to do that. But the code doesn’t care.
Sites that audit their outlinks every quarter see up to 12% better internal page indexing, based on third-party case studies. That’s not magic — it’s just not leaking.
How to Use It
- Go to https://scrawl.tools/tools/nofollow-link-checker (no login needed)
- Paste any public URL from your site into the input box
- Hit “Check Links” — results appear in under 10 seconds
The whole thing’s free. You can run as many pages as you want, any time.
What the Results Tell You
You’ll see a clean list of every external link on the page. Each one shows its current status: dofollow, nofollow, or missing attribute. No jargon. No guesswork.
It also highlights which domains are being passed equity to. That’s critical if you’re auditing sponsorships, affiliate links, or partnered content. You’ll spot risky links fast.
If a link goes to a scraper site or a low-trust forum, and it’s dofollow, that’s a problem. Change it. The tool won’t fix it for you, but it’ll show you where to act.
You can export the list or just screenshot it for your team. Then update your CMS or ask dev to add rel="nofollow" where needed.
It doesn’t check internal links — and that’s fine. Internal links should pass equity. This tool is only for outbound.
3 Mistakes Most People Make
- Assuming all blog footnotes need dofollow — they don’t. Citing a source? Use nofollow. It’s not an endorsement, it’s a reference. Only link with dofollow if you’re genuinely supporting that site.
- Forgetting affiliate and sponsored links — this is risky. If you’re paid to link and don’t use nofollow (or sponsored), you’re violating Google’s guidelines. The tool spots those instantly. Fix them before you get flagged.
- Trusting plugins to auto-tag — some CMS tools claim to auto-add nofollow to all external links. They fail silently. One broken rule, one missing filter — and suddenly 200 links are passing equity. Test live pages. Don’t assume.
Most sites run this once and think they’re done. You shouldn’t. Recheck after big content pushes. Things change.
You can also pair this with the Broken Link Checker to fix dead outlinks at the same time. Two free tools, one workflow.
Final Step
Don’t wait for Google to downweight your content because you’re handing authority to the wrong places. Test a page now — it takes less than a minute.
Go to https://scrawl.tools/tools/nofollow-link-checker and see exactly where your link juice is going. Free. No login. Always.
Related on Scrawl: open the matching free tool, About Scrawl, and more SEO guides. Use these pages together when you want the guide plus a live check on your own URLs.
How to Use It Step by Step
- Open the tool — Go to https://scrawl.tools/tools/nofollow-link-checker in any browser. No account required.
- Paste your URL — Copy the full address of any page on your site (e.g., `yoursite.com/blog/article-title`) and paste it into the input field.
- Run the scan — Click "Check Links" and wait 5–10 seconds. The tool crawls the page's HTML and extracts every external link.
- Review the results — You'll see a table with three columns: the link URL, its current rel attribute status (dofollow, nofollow, or blank), and the anchor text. Scan for any dofollow links that shouldn't be passing equity.
- Prioritize fixes — Focus first on links to low-quality sites, competitors, or content you don't fully endorse. These are the ones draining your authority.
- Update in your CMS — For each link that needs nofollow, go back to your editor, find the link in the HTML, and add `rel="nofollow"` to the anchor tag. Example: `<a href="url" rel="nofollow">text</a>`
- Re-run the check — After publishing changes, run the tool again on the same page to confirm the attributes updated correctly.
- Set a quarterly reminder — Run this scan on your top-performing pages every 3 months. Links change, new content gets added, and drift happens fast.
Common Mistakes to Watch For
- Leaving citation links as dofollow — Just because you reference a source doesn't mean you endorse it enough to pass authority. Use nofollow on research citations, data sources, and external references unless the site directly supports your business.
- Forgetting to nofollow paid partnerships — Any sponsored content, affiliate links, or paid placements must have `rel="sponsored"` or `rel="nofollow"` per FTC and Google guidelines. Overlooking this risks manual penalties.
- Applying nofollow to all links indiscriminately — Some teams blanket all external links with nofollow. That's overkill. Reserve nofollow for links you're unsure about or don't want to endorse. Strategic dofollow links to trusted resources still matter for user experience and relevance signals.
- Checking only homepage and main pages — Deep pages accumulate link drift faster than you'd think. Audit category pages, resource pages, and older blog posts too.
- Not documenting your linking policy — After you audit, write down your team's nofollow rules (e.g., "all affiliate links are sponsored," "citations use nofollow"). Share it with writers so the next person doesn't undo your work.
Troubleshooting & Common Questions
Why does the tool show a link as dofollow when I added nofollow to it?
Your browser or CMS may be caching an older version of the page. Wait 5–10 minutes for your site to update, clear your browser cache, then run the check again. If it persists, verify the nofollow attribute was actually saved in your HTML by viewing the page source.
Can I check multiple pages at once or run a full site audit?
This tool checks one page at a time. For a full site audit, run it on your 10–15 highest-traffic pages first, then sample a few interior pages monthly. If you need bulk scanning, consider upgrading to a full SEO crawler, but this tool covers the most important cases for free.
What should I do if I find dofollow links to competitor sites in old blog posts?
Add nofollow to those links right away. Competitive links that are dofollow are a low-priority fix compared to spammy or low-trust domains, but they still leak equity. Batch these updates together and push them live in one edit to avoid multiple re-indexing cycles.