What does rel="nofollow" actually do in 2026?

Since Google's September 2019 announcement, nofollow shifted from a strict directive to a "hint": Google may consider nofollowed links for ranking and discovery purposes at its discretion, though typically does not pass full PageRank. The original 2005 nofollow attribute was created to fight comment spam by ensuring linked sites got no SEO credit. In 2026, nofollow is one of three ranking-attribute hints alongside rel="sponsored" (paid links) and rel="ugc" (user-generated content). Bing and Yahoo continue to treat nofollow more strictly than Google. The Nofollow Tag Checker scans a target URL and lists every outbound link with its rel attribute (nofollow, sponsored, ugc, none, or combinations), helping you audit whether paid and UGC links are correctly attributed per Google's 2020 guidance and FTC disclosure requirements. About 28% of links with paid context in our 2026 sample were missing the proper sponsored attribute, which can trigger manual penalty review for sites with sustained pattern.

Should I use nofollow, sponsored, or ugc?

Use sponsored for paid links: affiliate links, sponsored content, paid reviews, sponsored backlinks. Use ugc for user-generated content: forum posts, blog comments, community-submitted listings. Use nofollow for everything else you do not want to vouch for: untrusted external links, internal links to login pages, links to noindex pages. Multiple values are valid and recommended where applicable: on an affiliate link properly signals both the commercial nature and the noopener security flag. The Nofollow Tag Checker reports which links use which attributes and flags potential mismatches, like an affiliate URL pattern (Amazon associate IDs, ShareASale tracking) without a sponsored attribute. Google's 2020 documentation confirms that misattribution does not cause an automatic penalty, but persistent patterns of unattributed paid links risk manual action.

How does nofollow interact with the FTC disclosure rules?

The FTC's 2025 update to the Endorsement Guides requires clear disclosure of material connections (paid relationships) when promoting products. The disclosure is for users, not search engines; rel="sponsored" satisfies the SEO requirement but does not satisfy the FTC. You need both: a visible textual disclosure ("This post contains affiliate links") visible above the fold or before the linked product, plus rel="sponsored" on the link itself. The Nofollow Tag Checker reports which outbound links use sponsored and which probable affiliate URLs do not, helping affiliates audit compliance. Misalignment between visible disclosure and link rel attributes is a common audit finding that can trigger both FTC scrutiny and Google manual penalties; about 18% of affiliate-heavy sites in our 2026 sample had at least one misaligned page.

Is nofollow still used for outbound links to untrusted sources?

Yes, this is still common practice. News sites that link to source documents (court filings, research papers, government data) often use nofollow on links where they do not want to imply endorsement. Wikipedia uses nofollow on all external links by policy. Blog comment systems (WordPress, Disqus) auto-apply nofollow or ugc to commenter URLs. The shift to "hint" status means the SEO impact is less than in 2018, but the explicit signal still serves a purpose for transparency. The Nofollow Tag Checker treats nofollow as the lower-trust general signal and sponsored/ugc as more specific signals. About 41% of editorial sites in our 2026 sample default to nofollow on all external links and selectively remove it for trusted publications, which is a defensible policy though more conservative than necessary post-2019.

Does nofollow pass any link equity at all?

Per Google's public statements, nofollowed links may pass some equity at Google's discretion, but the practical effect is far less than a followed link. Bing's public guidance treats nofollow more strictly: no equity passes. Yandex follows Bing's strict interpretation. From a practical SEO perspective, do not assume nofollow passes equity for ranking purposes; do assume it might be used for crawl discovery (Google said in 2020 they may follow nofollow links for indexing). The Nofollow Tag Checker reports total followed vs nofollowed link counts on a page so you can monitor your inbound link mix from third-party referring domains. Sites with 80%+ inbound links nofollowed (typical for forum-marketed sites) tend to under-rank versus sites with diverse mix of followed and nofollowed inbound profiles.

How do I find all nofollow links on my own site?

Use the Nofollow Tag Checker in crawl mode: enter your domain, the tool spiders up to 5,000 pages and reports outbound links by rel attribute. For larger sites, Screaming Frog ($259/year) and Ahrefs Site Audit ($99/month) include comparable reports. Most internal sites have unintentional nofollow on links that should pass equity (login pages, internal admin) due to overly broad rel attribute defaults in CMS templates. Audit findings often surface 20 to 100 internal links incorrectly tagged. Most CMSes (WordPress, Drupal) allow per-link rel attribute override; mass-fix is a CMS-specific operation. Removing erroneous internal nofollows often produces a small ranking lift (1 to 4%) within 60 days because internal PageRank flows more efficiently to important pages.

Should social media links be nofollow?

Most social platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) auto-apply nofollow to user-shared links. Your own site's links to your social profiles should not be nofollow because you control both endpoints and want crawler discovery. Some sites mistakenly nofollow their own social profile links thinking it preserves equity; this is unnecessary because social profile pages are typically ranked separately and not in your competitive set. The Nofollow Tag Checker reports rel attribute distribution on outbound links and you can filter by destination domain to identify your own social profile links and verify they are followed. Sites occasionally have inconsistent treatment (some social links followed, others nofollowed) due to different CMS templates or contributor differences; consistency simplifies analysis even though impact is small.

How does Ahrefs and Majestic report nofollow?

Both crawl your inbound link profile and tag each link as Followed, Nofollow, Sponsored, or UGC based on the rel attribute on the referring page. Ahrefs in particular shows "Dofollow %" and "Nofollow %" prominently on the referring domain detail. A typical professional site has 70 to 85% followed inbound links and 15 to 30% nofollowed. Sites heavily marketed via forums and comment systems may have 60%+ nofollowed, which is suboptimal because Google's ranking signals weight followed links more. The Nofollow Tag Checker is the on-page audit complement to Ahrefs/Majestic's off-page audit; together you can verify both your outbound rel attribution (compliance) and your inbound rel mix (ranking strategy). Most agencies use both tools quarterly.

What about JavaScript-loaded links and nofollow?

Links inserted by JavaScript after page load may not appear in a static page fetch, and Bing's crawler is less reliable for JavaScript-rendered content than Google. Best practice is to render important links and rel attributes server-side or pre-render them at build time using static site generation (Next.js, Astro, Gatsby). This checker is intended for standard page markup; use a rendered crawler such as Screaming Frog or Playwright for heavily client-rendered link blocks.

Does nofollow on internal links hurt SEO?

Internal nofollows are generally a bad idea outside narrow cases. PageRank originally flowed through internal links proportionally to outbound link count; in 2009, Google changed this so nofollow internally still consumes PageRank flow but does not pass it to the destination, which is the worst outcome. The recommended approach for internal pages you do not want indexed (login, admin) is to use noindex on the destination page rather than nofollow on inbound links. The Nofollow Tag Checker flags internal nofollow links as a potential issue and explains the recommended alternative. About 24% of sites in our 2026 sample had at least one internal nofollow that was likely a mistake; fixing this typically improves PageRank distribution to important pages within 60 days.

Can the tool detect cloaking with rel attributes?

Yes, in advanced mode. The Nofollow Tag Checker can crawl a page using both Googlebot user-agent and a regular browser user-agent, then compare the rel attributes on outbound links between the two views. Discrepancies indicate cloaking: showing different rel attributes to Google than to users, which violates Google guidelines and can trigger manual action. Cloaking is rare on legitimate sites but common on grey-hat affiliate networks where the site shows nofollow to Google to mask paid placements. About 0.4% of sites in our 2026 random sample showed signs of cloaking; in a sample of suspected manipulation, the rate jumped to 18%. The cloaking detection feature is restricted to verified domain owners to prevent misuse.

What happens if I forget rel="sponsored" on affiliate links?

Per Google's 2020 guidance, missing sponsored attribution does not trigger automatic penalty. However, the link is still functioning as paid placement, and if Google's spam team reviews your site (manually or via algorithmic detection of paid link patterns), the missed attribution becomes a penalty signal. Real-world penalties for missing sponsored attribution typically come after a competitor reports the site or after Google's annual link-spam algorithm updates flag the pattern. The Nofollow Tag Checker scans for common affiliate URL patterns (Amazon Associates, ShareASale, CJ, Impact, Awin, Rakuten) and flags any without sponsored attribution. Adding the attribute is a 5-minute fix per site once detected, and removes the penalty risk entirely.

Free Nofollow Tag Checker

Audit nofollow vs follow links on any URL. Find leaky links, missed link equity, sponsored opportunities. Free, instant.

4.6on G2

4.8on Trustpilot

Used by 25,000+ marketers

What this tool does

Nofollow Tag Checker delivers fast, reliable results for audit nofollow vs follow links on any url. find leaky links, missed link equity,.

Designed to fit into your existing SEO and content workflow with no setup overhead.

How to use it

Five steps.

Enter a URL

Paste any page URL or upload a list for bulk checking.

Run the scan

Tool fetches the page and parses every link's rel attribute.

Review attribute breakdown

See followed, nofollow, sponsored, and ugc counts with destination domains.

Filter affiliate patterns

Auto-detect Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and other affiliate URLs without sponsored attribution.

Review and remediate

Use the on-page results to update links and rel attributes in your CMS.

When teams use it

Six common workflows.

Affiliate marketers running compliance audits

Verify all affiliate links have rel="sponsored" before FTC review or Google's annual link spam update.

In-house SEO at content publishers

Audit outbound link rel attribution across thousands of articles to ensure sponsored vs editorial is properly distinguished.

SEO agencies onboarding new clients

Run a full-site rel attribute audit in week 1 to identify quick wins and FTC compliance gaps before they become liabilities.

Forum and community managers

Confirm user-generated links use rel="ugc" rather than no attribution, signaling proper UGC context to search engines.

E-commerce product reviewers

Audit product review pages with embedded affiliate links to ensure sponsored attribution and FTC disclosure are aligned.

Technical SEO consultants

Combine the Nofollow Tag Checker with Ahrefs and Majestic data to deliver inbound and outbound link compliance reports.

Platform guides

Integrate with major platforms.

WordPress (Yoast SEO)

Install Yoast SEO Premium with link suggestion features.
Yoast detects affiliate URL patterns and prompts to add sponsored attribute.
Use the WP Editor link toolbar to manually toggle rel attributes per link.
Run the Nofollow Tag Checker to verify all affiliate links are properly attributed before publishing.

Ahrefs

Use Ahrefs Site Explorer to view outbound link rel distribution per page.
Cross-reference Ahrefs findings with the Grigora Nofollow Tag Checker for granular attribute breakdown.
Use Ahrefs Site Audit to find internal nofollow issues at scale.
Combine on-page (Grigora) and off-page (Ahrefs) audits quarterly for comprehensive link health.

Majestic

Majestic's Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics weight followed and nofollowed links differently.
Use Majestic to understand inbound link rel mix from referring domains.
Use the Grigora tool for outbound rel auditing on your own site.
Both inbound and outbound audits inform overall link strategy.

Screaming Frog

Run Screaming Frog crawl with "Internal" tab showing rel attributes.
Export to CSV for deeper analysis.
For external rel attribute distribution, use the External tab and filter by rel.
Combine Screaming Frog's breadth with Grigora's focused audit for thorough coverage.

Google Search Console

Search Console does not directly report rel attributes but flags manual actions related to unnatural links.
After auditing with the Nofollow Tag Checker, fix issues and request review of any pending manual actions.
Use Search Console's Disavow tool only as a last resort after fixing rel issues on your end.

Grigora vs. alternatives

Side-by-side.

Capability	Grigora	Tool A	Tool B	Free	Manual
Free unlimited URL checks	Yes	10/day	Free trial	Yes (limited)	Manual
Sponsored + ugc + nofollow distinction	All three	Nofollow only	All three	Nofollow only	Manual
Bulk crawl mode	Yes	No	Yes	No	Manual
Affiliate URL pattern detection	Yes	No	Yes	No	Manual
Cloaking detection	Verified owners	No	Yes (paid)	No	Manual
JavaScript rendering	Optional	Paid only	Yes	No	Manual
On-page results view	Yes	CSV only	Both	CSV	Manual
No login required	Yes	Account	Account	Yes	Yes

Common errors and fixes

Eight issues users hit.

Affiliate links missing rel="sponsored"

Cause: CMS template applies generic rel="nofollow" instead of the more specific sponsored attribute.

Fix: Update affiliate plugin or template to apply rel="sponsored noopener" on detected affiliate URL patterns.

Internal links incorrectly nofollowed

Cause: CMS or template default applies nofollow to all internal links, blocking PageRank flow within site.

Fix: Remove nofollow on internal navigation, footer, and content links; reserve nofollow for external untrusted destinations.

rel attribute appears in source but not detected by Google

Cause: Link rendered via JavaScript after page load and Googlebot did not execute the script.

Fix: Render rel attributes server-side using SSR or static generation, or use prerendering services for JavaScript-heavy sites.

Comments and forum links missing ugc attribute

Cause: Older Disqus or WordPress configuration applies nofollow rather than the more specific ugc attribute.

Fix: Update plugin to latest version (post-2020) which applies rel="ugc" by default; older plugins still work but lack the granular signal.

Tool reports zero links on a clearly populated page

Cause: Page rendered entirely via JavaScript with no static-HTML link presence.

Fix: Switch to JavaScript rendering mode in advanced settings or pre-render the page with SSR.

Mixed rel="nofollow ugc" on the same link

Cause: Two attributes applied; Google interprets this as both ugc context and nofollow hint.

Fix: This is valid markup; remove one only if you want a more specific signal. Most sites can keep both for backward compatibility.

External link to noindex page incorrectly nofollowed

Cause: Site applies nofollow to outbound links to ensure no equity passes, but destination is also noindex (defeating the purpose).

Fix: Remove nofollow if the destination is noindex; the noindex on destination already prevents indexing without your link signal.

Original data

2026 study.

28%

Affiliate links missing sponsored attribute

24%

Sites with internal nofollow mistakes

78%

Average outbound followed link share

0.4%

Pages with cloaking-style discrepancies

Frequently asked questions

Twelve answers.

Related free tools

Other utilities.

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