Free link checker: verify any backlink in seconds
A bought link only has value if it is present, dofollow, on a page Google has actually indexed, and not diluted across dozens of outbound links. Link Verified runs that five-point backlink audit from your browser and hands back a single PASS, WARN or FAIL verdict. Check a placement before you pay for it, then monitor it after, so you catch a downgrade before your client does.
No account needed to try. Ten free audits a day.
Found: https://wolfstone.digital/
Dofollow - passes equity.
The page is indexable.
The page is in Google's index.
Score 3/5 - 50 outbound links.
A made-up audit, so you can see the shape of the answer. Run a real one below.
Check a link now, free
Paste the page that should be linking to you and the domain it should point at. Five checks, one verdict, about ten seconds. No account needed.
Verify a link now
Paste the page that should be linking to you, and the domain the link should point at.
Audit any backlink without leaving the page
Most link checks happen while you are already on the page you want to verify. The Link Verified Chrome extension lets you audit any backlink without leaving the tab: click the icon, confirm the target domain, and read the verdict in seconds. You get ten free checks a day with no account, which covers most people’s day-to-day QA.
- Checks link presence, dofollow status and indexability on the page you are viewing
- Confirms Google index status and scores link dilution
- Returns an instant PASS, WARN or FAIL verdict
- Ten free checks a day, no account needed
It is the fastest way to vet a placement mid-outreach, or to spot-check a link a publisher swears is live and dofollow. If you verify links at volume, the web tool adds monitoring, bulk audits and branded reports on top.
What does Link Verified actually check?
A backlink only passes value if all five conditions hold at once. Link Verified tests every one and rolls them into a single verdict, plus a branded PDF you can send to whoever sold you the placement. Here is what each check means and why it changes whether the link counts.
Confirms your link is genuinely on the page, and flags it the moment it disappears. A placement that has been quietly removed is the most common way paid links go to waste.
Detects nofollow, ugc and sponsored rel attributes, so you know whether the link passes ranking value. A nofollow guest post link still sends referral traffic, but it will not move your rankings the way a dofollow one does.
Checks robots.txt, the noindex meta tag and the X-Robots-Tag header. A page blocked from indexing passes no equity, however perfect the link looks in the HTML.
Verifies the host page is actually in Google's index, not merely live on the web. A link on a deindexed or never-indexed page is invisible to search and worth nothing for SEO.
Counts the outbound links on the page and scores how much equity your link realistically receives. One link among four is very different from one among ninety.
We were doing this by hand, fifty times a month.
Verifying one guest post link is a five-minute job: inspect the rel attribute, run a site: search, count the outbound links, then screenshot the lot for the client. Multiply that across every placement, every month, and it becomes hours of tedious QA nobody enjoys.
We felt it first-hand. We run our own international finance brand and buy links at volume, and those manual checks were quietly eating our time, while still missing the link that went nofollow at renewal or the host page that quietly dropped out of Google.
So we built the tool we wanted for ourselves: every check, one click, a single verdict and a branded PDF. We made it free because the five-minute manual version was never worth anyone’s time.
- By hand
- ~5 min
- With Link Verified
- 1 click
per link, five separate checks
all five, verdict and PDF
How do you check if a backlink is dofollow and indexed?
You can do it by hand, and it is worth understanding the manual methods before you automate
them. Doing it by hand for one link is fine; doing it for fifty placements a month is where
it stops being viable. Our step-by-step guide walks through how to check if a backlink is indexed, from the site: search to a definitive Search Console check.
rel attribute on the anchor
tag. If you see rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc",
the link does not pass standard ranking value. No rel attribute, or
rel="dofollow", means it is a follow link.
site: followed by the exact page URL. If the page returns in
the results it is indexed; if nothing shows, Google either has not crawled it or has chosen
not to index it. For a definitive answer, run the URL through the URL Inspection tool in
Google Search Console.
site: search, then
eyeballing the outbound links, for every single link. Link Verified runs all five checks in
one click and returns a verdict and a PDF: the difference between a thirty-second job and a
five-minute one.
What is the difference between a link checker and a backlink checker?
Most tools called link checkers look for broken links on your own site. They crawl your pages and tell you which ones point at something that no longer exists. Useful, and not what this does.
This is a backlink checker. It looks at a link on somebody else's site pointing at yours, and answers a different question: is it still there, does it pass value, and does Google know about it?
Those are the five checks, and a link has to pass all of them to be worth anything. It can be present and nofollow. It can be dofollow on a page Google has never indexed, which means the link may as well not exist. It can be perfect and sitting alongside two hundred others.
If you are looking for broken links on your own website, a crawler is the right tool. If you are checking whether a placement you earned or paid for is actually working, this is. If you want to know what a link is worth before you buy it, that is our backlink value checker.
When should you verify a backlink?
Guest posts and paid placements decay over time. Links get switched to nofollow at renewal, host pages drop out of the index, or your link ends up diluted among dozens of others added later. Verify before you pay, and monitor after, so a downgrade is something you find rather than something your client points out.
From URL to verdict in three steps
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Open the extension
On any page you want to check, click the Link Verified icon - or paste a URL into the web tool.
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We run the 5-point audit
Presence, dofollow, indexability, Google index and dilution - checked in seconds.
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Get a verdict + PDF
A clear PASS / WARN / FAIL per check, with a branded report to keep or send on.
Start free. Upgrade when you scale.
Free forever for casual checks. Paid tiers when you’re verifying at volume or need monitoring, bulk audits and white-label reports.
- Full 5-point audit
- Branded PDF reports
- 5 monitored URLs with change alerts
- Everything in Free Plus
- 50 monitored URLs
- Bulk audits
- £0.02 per audit over allowance
- Everything in Pro
- 500 monitored URLs
- White-label PDF option
- Team seats
Anonymous checks are free and limited to 10 a day. Agency white-label and a £299+/mo API tier are also available, talk to us.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a backlink is dofollow?
Inspect the link's HTML and read the rel attribute on the anchor. A nofollow, sponsored or ugc value means it does not pass standard ranking value, while no rel attribute means it is a follow link. Link Verified reads this for you and reports it as part of the verdict.
How do I check if a backlink is indexed by Google?
Run a site: search for the exact page URL, or use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console for a definitive answer. Link Verified confirms index status automatically alongside the other four checks.
What is a dofollow link?
A dofollow link is an ordinary link with no rel attribute restricting it, so it passes ranking value, often called link equity, to the page it points at. It is the type of link that helps your SEO, as opposed to a nofollow link, which generally does not.
What is the difference between a nofollow and a dofollow link?
A dofollow link passes ranking value to the destination, while a nofollow link tells search engines not to pass that value. Both can still drive referral traffic, but only dofollow links reliably support your rankings.
Do guest post links count if they are nofollow?
A nofollow guest post link can still send referral traffic and brand exposure, but it will not pass the ranking value most people are buying a placement for. Verifying dofollow status before you pay is the single most useful check Link Verified runs.
What is link dilution?
Link dilution is the way a page's outbound ranking value is shared across all of its outbound links. The more links on the page, the smaller the share your link receives, which is why one link among ninety is worth far less than one among four.
Is Link Verified free?
Yes. Anonymous checks are free and capped at ten a day with no account, and a free account raises that to 100 audits a month with PDF reports and monitored URLs.
Is there a Chrome extension?
Yes. The Link Verified Chrome extension runs the full five-point audit on any page you are viewing, with ten free checks a day and no account needed.
How is this different from a backlink checker like Ahrefs?
A tool like Ahrefs is built to discover every backlink pointing at a domain across the web. Link Verified does the opposite job: it tells you whether one specific link you already know about is present, dofollow, indexed and undiluted, which is the check you need when you are buying or QAing a placement.
Next step
Verify your next link before you pay for it
Add the free Chrome extension, or create an account for monitoring, PDF reports and bulk audits.