When a link has the nofollow HTML attribute value, it basically tells search engines it should not be followed. This value is used mainly for SEO purposes and to prevent spam in places where the public can add content (such as blog comments and forum posts). Obviously, a dofollow link is the opposite but you can’t tell which is which just by looking at it in a web page.
You can use browser add-ons and other third-party tools to see if links on a web page are dofollow or nofollow. These tools can be particularly useful if you perform such verifications often. However, if you only do this occasionally there’s another way that doesn’t involve installing extra software (other than a web browser of course).
This method works for Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome (and probably in other browsers too).
How To Check If A Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow
1. Open up the web page where the link is located.
2. Right-click on the link and select “Inspect element”.
3. A panel will open (called Developer Tools in Firefox, DevTools in Chrome and DOM Explorer in IE) highlighting the HTML code for the element you’re currently inspecting. If the “rel=nofollow” attribute is present, the link is nofollow, otherwise it’s dofollow.
How To Check Which Links are Nofollow on a Web Page
1. In a web browser open up the web page you want to analyze.
2. Right-click on a blank area in your browser and select “View Page Source” in Firefox/chrome or “View Source” if you’re using Internet Explorer, from the context menu.
3. In the newly opened window/tab press Ctrl+F to open a search box and type “nofollow”.
4. Now you can browse through the results to see all the nofollow links on that web page. If the search yields no result, it means all the links on the page are dofollow.
