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.