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Outbound Link Checker

Every external site your page links to, how those links are marked up, and whether any of it looks risky.

Free, no signup. We fetch the page once and read what your server sends back.

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What this checks

Who you link to is a signal, in both directions. Linking out to credible sources is normal editorial behaviour and helps establish what a page is about. Linking out to gambling, pharma or link-farm domains, or carrying paid links with no rel attribute, is a well-known way to get a site into trouble. This is the one part of your link profile you fully control, so it is worth knowing what is on the page.

  • Every external domain the page links to
  • rel="nofollow", "sponsored" and "ugc" counts
  • Links carrying no rel attribute at all
  • Domains on risky or commonly abused TLDs

How to act on the result

  • Any link you were paid for, or that was part of an exchange, needs rel="sponsored". This is a Google requirement, not a preference.
  • User-submitted links, in comments or forums, need rel="ugc".
  • If you cannot account for an outbound domain on your page, find out how it got there. Injected links are one of the first symptoms of a compromised site.

Frequently asked

Does linking out hurt my rankings?

No. That myth comes from the PageRank-hoarding era and has been wrong for over a decade. Pages that cite their sources are normal, and Google has said as much repeatedly. What causes problems is a specific pattern: many outbound commercial links with no rel attribute, particularly to unrelated industries.

Should I nofollow every external link?

No, and doing it sitewide looks strange. Use nofollow or sponsored where the link is paid, exchanged or otherwise not a genuine editorial recommendation. Leave ordinary citations alone.

What is the difference between nofollow, sponsored and ugc?

They are all hints that a link should not pass ranking credit, and they tell Google why. Sponsored means paid or an exchange. Ugc means someone other than you put it there. Nofollow is the general-purpose one and is still fine to use.

I found links I did not add. What now?

Treat the site as compromised until proven otherwise. Injected outbound links, usually to pharma, gambling or replica goods, are the classic payload of a hacked WordPress install. Check your plugins, your theme files and your database for injected content before you simply delete the links, or they will return.

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