How to Detect Nofollow Links

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: May 21, 2024

Many websites that allow visitors to post articles or comments use the nofollow attribute, such as wikiHow , WordPress , and YouTube . This value, which targets potential spam, instructs search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the ranking of the link’s target in the search engine’s index. You can detect nofollow links either by using source code, or by installing browser extensions or addons.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Using Source Code

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{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/c\/c6\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/c\/c6\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-1.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/94\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/94\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-2.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

2
Select “View page source”.
- Alternatively, right-click on the link you wish to inspect.
- Click on “Inspect element” in order to view the source.
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{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/c\/ca\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/c\/ca\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-3.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

3
Press ctrl+f to open a search box. Type in “nofollow” and press enter.
- If you can see rel=”nofollow”, that is a nofollow link.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Using a nofollow Addon/Extension in Google Chrome

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{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b6\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-4.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-4.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b6\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-4.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-4.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

Visit the Chrome Web Store .
{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/0\/02\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-5.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-5.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/0\/02\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-5.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-5.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

Search for the NoFollow extension .
{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/3\/3f\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-6.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-6.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/3\/3f\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-6.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-6.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

3
Click on “Add to Chrome” to install the extension.
- Alternatively, you can install the MozBar SEO Toolbar from Moz.
- To launch it, you can either click on the “M” icon on the top right-hand side of your browser, or use the hotkey, CTRL + Shift + Alt + M.
- Clicking on the “Highlight” icon will activate highlighting of dofollow and nofollow links.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Using a nofollow Addon/Extension in Mozilla Firefox

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{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b1\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-7.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-7.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b1\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-7.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-7.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

Install the Greasemonkey add-on .
{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-8.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-8.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-8.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-8.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
{"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/c\/c3\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-9.jpg\/v4-460px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-9.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/c\/c3\/Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-9.jpg\/aid880626-v4-728px-Detect-Nofollow-Links-Step-9.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}

3
Click on “Install Now” to restart your browser.
- To use the plugin, right-click and select “NoDoFollow”. It will automatically highlight all the links on the page in either red (nofollow) or blue (dofollow).

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Tips

A nofollow link is generated with the HTML tag, <a href=”http://www.website.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link Text</a>

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External links on almost all Wikimedia wikis are tagged with rel=”nofollow”.

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wikiHow also uses nofollow links to help reduce spamming.

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Warnings

You sometimes may not find nofollow links on blogs that have no user-generated content (such as a comment).

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Some links are masked, in order to conceal a nofollow link. The Pretty Link plugin from WordPress is one such example. If this is the case, you will not see the link anywhere in the code.

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How to Detect Nofollow Links

Steps

Using Source Code

Using a nofollow Addon/Extension in Google Chrome

Using a nofollow Addon/Extension in Mozilla Firefox

Expert Q&A

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