Posts tagged "browser plugin"

Simple Tool To Check If A Link is Dofollow Or Not

There are several ways to check if a link in a website or page is dofollow or not, the most time consuming way is by checking the source code of the page and see if there is a “nofollow” tag in that pageor not.

While the easiest way is by using some software package that can do this automatically with broader functions that allow you do many SEO things with it. But of course you must pay for these particular softwares and sometimes it’s not worth it to open a program just to do a simple task and on a few pages.

What Is Dofollow Link?

Before I move on, let me explain what a dofollow link is. For any of you who are familiar with it, just skip this part.
A dofollow link is simply a link with NO nofollow tag attached to it. Let me give you an example:

If you check the source code, a regular link will usually look like this:

<a href=”http://www.xyz.com”>XYZ</a>

While this is a link with nofollow tag:

<a href=”http://www.xyz.com” rel=”nofollow>XYZ</a>

The first example is what we call dofollow link, simply for the absence of nofollow tag in it. The dofollow link brings you many SEO benefit. Though there is good use of nofollow links as well. I’ll post about it later.

The Solution

So, it will be a big deal if you are looking for dofollow links to build ranks for your site by checking the source code manually one by one.

The easiest and free way to see if a link is dofollow or not is using your everyday browser, like Mozilla Firefox and install a plugin that can do this particular job while you are browsing. My favorite one is SearchStatus plugin for Firefox.

Just click the “Download Now” button and there will be a popup box asking if you want to install it. Don’t forget to restart the browser after you’ve done with the installation process.

Once it’s ready you will see a small icon at the bottom right corner of the Firefox browser. Look at the image.

There you can also see the current PageRank and Alexa Rank for the page you are viewing. No need to go to any pagerank checking site and to Alexa.com itself to see that specific PageRank and Alexa Rank. You can also change the style of PageRank and Alexa Rank displayed from bar to text view. Just right click on it.

Right click on the “@” sign to view the available functions.

Click on “Highlight Nofollow Links” to highlight nofollow links on a webpage you are seeing. When you activate it there will be a check mark right in front of the selection and all nofollow links on the page will be marked with red color with dashed line around it.

Conclusion

This way you can quickly analyze if the webpage you are visiting providing dofollow links to external websites or not. No need to manually analyze the source code or pay for a software just to do this.

But even when you have paid softwares that are capable of doing this, still it is valuable to have this kind of small tool in your SEO arsenal. Rather than to shoot and open a software just for a quick check, I always find it comes in handy.