Dofollow backlinks: what they are and how to check one

What is a dofollow link?

“Dofollow” is a word from SEO forums, not from HTML. A link is an <a> element with an address, and Google’s guide to qualifying outbound links says that a regular link, one you expect Google to fetch and parse without qualification, needs no rel attribute at all (checked on 31 Oct 2026). So a dofollow backlink is simply a link to your site that nobody has qualified: no nofollow, no ugc, no sponsored.

Two details catch people out. First, a page can qualify every link on it at once with a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header set to nofollow, or to none, which Google defines as noindex plus nofollow (robots meta tag documentation, checked on 31 Oct 2026). The anchor then looks clean while the page says otherwise. Second, noopener and noreferrer, found on most links that open a new tab, are instructions to the browser about that tab and the referrer. Google’s guide does not list them among the values that qualify a link.

<!-- Followed: nothing qualifies these links -->
<a href="https://your-product.example">Your product</a>
<a href="https://your-product.example" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Your product</a>

<!-- Qualified: Google generally does not follow these -->
<a href="https://your-product.example" rel="nofollow">Your product</a>
<a href="https://your-product.example" rel="ugc nofollow">Your product</a>
<a href="https://your-product.example" rel="sponsored">Your product</a>

<!-- Qualifies every link on the page -->
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">

What are nofollow links, and what do ugc and sponsored add?

Nofollow is the oldest of the three values, and since 2019 it has two siblings that say why a link is qualified. The table sums up what Google asks each one to mean. A link can carry several values at once, separated by spaces or commas.

The history explains how these values are read today. Google introduced sponsored and ugc on 10 September 2019, and in the same post changed how it treats all three: from that day they were hints for ranking, and nofollow became a hint for crawling and indexing on 1 March 2020 (Google Search Central Blog, checked on 31 Oct 2026). Before that change, Google did not count a nofollow link as a signal at all.

Source: Google Search Central, Qualify your outbound links, last updated 10 Dec 2025, checked on 31 Oct 2026. The last column is our own summary.

Do nofollow links help SEO?

For rankings, rarely. When Google moved to hints, it wrote that in most cases it would keep treating these links as it did before and generally leave them out of ranking (Google Search Central Blog, checked on 31 Oct 2026). Its current guide adds that a page behind a qualified link may still be found through other means, such as sitemaps or links from other sites (qualify outbound links, checked on 31 Oct 2026).

For everything else, often. A nofollow or ugc link still sits on a page that people read, and a person who clicks lands on your product whatever the attribute says. An answer in a forum thread where someone asked for exactly what you built can send better visitors than a followed link in a directory nobody opens. The attribute changes what a search engine may do with the link, not what a reader does with it.

Do backlinks still matter in 2026?

Yes, in two different ways. Google says links are one of the signals it uses to judge how relevant a page is, and a way to find new pages to crawl (link best practices, checked on 31 Oct 2026). Its SEO Starter Guide says links from pages it already knows are the main way it finds new ones, and calls PageRank one ranking signal among many, with “much more to Google Search than just links” (checked on 31 Oct 2026).

For a new product, discovery is the half you feel first. A page nobody links to is a page Google has to learn about some other way, such as a sitemap you submit. The ranking half is slower and shared with relevance, content and everything else on the page, so a stack of followed links will not rescue a page that does not answer the search.

When does a link need rel="sponsored"?

When money, goods or another form of compensation produced it. Google’s spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and say that paid links are not a violation as long as they carry nofollow or sponsored (last updated 28 Aug 2026, checked on 31 Oct 2026). Sponsored is the preferred value, and Google’s 2019 post says nofollow is treated the same way for this purpose.

The same section lists other patterns that people chasing dofollow backlinks run into: low-quality directory or bookmark site links, automated programs or services that create links, excessive link exchanges, and requiring a link as part of terms of service or a similar arrangement without letting the site owner choose to qualify it. Keep that last example in mind when a directory asks for a badge or a link in return, and ask whether you may qualify it. Our own Free listing asks for a link back and leaves that choice to you, as we explain below.

What a dofollow backlink list cannot tell you

On 31 Oct 2026, a list of “100+ dofollow backlinks” sites ranked on Google’s first page in the United States for this very query. Such lists have a structural problem: a rel value is decided by each site, link by link, and it can change with a redesign, a new moderation policy or a paid tier. A list is a set of past observations, usually without a date.

We measured how much rests on secondhand labels in our own research. On 21 Oct 2026 we studied 100 directories for our directory submission service. For 24 of them, we confirmed the followed link on the directory’s own live pages that day. For 75, the “dofollow” label came from a third-party report that we had not re-read link by link. For one more, the link becomes followed only once the listing meets a condition set by the directory, a number of upvotes.

This is not a complaint about the report. It is the normal state of any list: most labels are inherited, and the one link that matters to you, the link on your own listing, does not exist yet when the list is written. Read “dofollow” in a list as a lead to verify, never as a property of the site. That is why the service report records the link we actually see on each live listing rather than the label from the list. Ask any submission service what it checks after delivery: the GetMoreBacklinks alternatives set out what each open service promises and reports.

MegaLaunch directory research, 21 Oct 2026. Counts are computed from our catalog of 100 directories; the list itself stays private.

How to check a dofollow link yourself

The check takes a few minutes per listing, and it is the only one that answers the question for your link rather than for the site in general.

The free Dofollow Checker runs the first three checks below from the page’s HTML: it lists each anchor to your hostname with its rel values and reports page-level nofollow rules. It does not run JavaScript, so a link inserted by a script needs a look at the rendered page. For an unfamiliar site found in a list, the Domain Age Checker reads its public registration date: useful context, not a quality score.

• Open the exact public page that shows your product, not the directory’s home page or its pricing page. Those describe a policy; your listing shows the link.
• Find the anchor that points to your site and read its rel. No nofollow, ugc or sponsored value means the link is unqualified, whatever else the attribute holds.
• Look for a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header with nofollow or none. Either one qualifies every link on the page.
• Check where the link really points. Some sites route clicks through a redirect on their own domain (ours does it for Spotlight placements), and such an anchor points at their domain, not yours.
• Write down the listing URL, the date and what you saw, then look again in a few months. A label you checked is still only true on the day you checked it.

Nofollow vs dofollow: what to pursue first

All else equal, a followed link from a relevant page is worth more to a new site than a qualified one. All else is rarely equal, so we weigh an opportunity with three questions, in this order. Will the people on that page want the product? Will the listing stay online and accurate? Only then: is the link followed? A directory that fails the first two is not rescued by the third.

Then look at the price, which is not always money. Some want a fee, and Google expects links that were paid for to carry sponsored or nofollow. Some want your time. Some want a link back to them. For where to earn links in the first place, see free backlinks for a new website; for whether directories are worth the effort at all, read do directory submissions help SEO?

How MegaLaunch marks its own links

On MegaLaunch, a Free listing’s “Visit website” button is a direct link to your site with rel="noopener" and nothing else, on a published product page that search engines may index and follow. It has no nofollow, ugc or sponsored value and no redirect: we count the click in the background so the link itself stays direct. A Free listing goes live 48 hours after you submit it, once your link back has been checked.

Paid advertising is marked as such. Spotlight and Billboard placements carry rel="sponsored": someone paid for them, which is exactly the case Google’s guide describes.

A Free listing also asks something in return, and after the policy above you should hear it from us plainly. Your site links back to MegaLaunch, with a text link or our badge. How you mark that link is up to you: a followed link counts, and so does one marked nofollow, ugc or sponsored, or one on a page with a page-wide nofollow rule. We leave that choice to you because Google’s link spam examples include requiring a link without letting the site owner qualify it. What we do check is that the link is there and visible on a public page of your site: when you submit, just before the listing goes live and every week after that. If it disappears, we email you, and you usually have 7 days to restore it before the listing comes down.

If you would rather not give a link back, Premium publishes the same kind of product page for $4.99 one-time and asks for no link back at all. Both options are side by side on the pricing page.