Dofollow, nofollow, UGC and sponsored backlinks

"Dofollow" is an SEO label, not an HTML attribute you need to add. It usually describes an ordinary link without a nofollow, ugc, or sponsored qualification. Here is a quick comparison based on Google's outbound-link documentation.

Several values can appear together. A community profile might use rel="nofollow ugc". Treat that as one backlink with multiple attributes, not two backlinks. Attributes such as noopener and noreferrer serve different purposes and should not be used alone to classify a link as nofollow.

Store the raw attribute value when possible, alongside a readable label. That gives you the detail you need to investigate a change later.

Open the public page that contains your product listing, not the submission form or account dashboard. Find the actual website link. In a desktop browser, right-click it and choose Inspect to examine the anchor element.

<a href="https://your-product.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Visit website</a>

Check the href destination and the rel value. Follow the link as well: a button can lead through a redirect, to an outdated domain, or to a different page than you expected. If the destination is an intermediary URL, record it and the final destination separately.

• Confirm the listing is accessible when you are signed out.
• Check the product URL, including its path, rather than only the visible button text.
• Record the link attributes exactly as found.
• Save the listing URL and the date of your check.

Inspect the rendered page if the link is added by JavaScript. Searching the initial page source alone can miss elements that appear after the page loads. For a disputed result, a saved HTML snippet makes a better reference than a badge with no supporting detail.

Also check page-level instructions. A robots or googlebot meta tag, or an X-Robots-Tag response header, can apply nofollow to the page's links. In browser developer tools, inspect meta tags in the document and response headers in the Network tab. Google's robots documentation explains these rules. An empty link-level rel alone does not tell you the whole picture; noindex is a separate instruction about showing the page in search results.

Our saved check for MRRGlobe's Endors.me listing, retained in the 7 September 2026 snapshot, recorded this attribute value:

rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc"

The record was live and displayed as UGC, while the underlying value also included nofollow. It is one live backlink, not a separate UGC link plus a nofollow link. This is a historical check of that listing, not a claim about every link on Endors.me or its current settings.

A pending submission is not a verified live backlink, even when you expect the website to publish ordinary followed links. Label any anticipated type as an expectation until you can inspect the specific public listing.

Once the listing is live, a nofollow link is still a link a visitor can use. Count it in your inventory of live backlinks, while keeping its type visible. Do not silently exclude it from one report and include it in another under the same heading.

For example, if a campaign has eight live listings and twelve pending submissions, report those two totals separately. If three of the live listings use nofollow, they belong inside the eight, not on top of them. This is an illustrative example, not a Backdrip customer result.

A percentage split cannot tell you whether a campaign is appropriate. An accurate profile on a relevant website and an unrelated paid placement can have the same link attribute while serving very different purposes. Judge the placement before judging the label.

Google treats these link qualifications as hints, and qualified links generally are not followed. None of the labels guarantees indexing or improved rankings. The publisher controls its markup, and its settings may change after your submission.

Evaluate a placement on relevance, accuracy, accessibility, and the opportunity for discovery. For paid placements, request the appropriate qualification rather than paying extra for an unqualified ranking link.

In Backdrip, review the status and type together, then open the listing when it is available. For the rest of your report, use our guide to tracking backlinks and organic performance. It explains why a live-link total, Domain Rating, and search traffic should not be treated as interchangeable measures.