Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: We Checked 39 of Our Own Listings

Every directory you submit to will tell you it gives you a "dofollow backlink." Most makers never check. I didn't either, for a long time.

So this week I did. DivvLaunches has profiles on a lot of launch sites and directories, and the badges for them sit at the bottom of our homepage. I took every badge that points to an actual DivvLaunches listing page, 39 of them, opened each one in a headless browser and read the HTML on the "Visit" button.

The results were messier than the marketing pages suggest. Here's what dofollow and nofollow really mean, what I found, and how to check your own listings in about a minute.

If you're brand new to backlinks, start with what a backlink is and come back. This post assumes you know the basics and want the details.

Dofollow vs nofollow in one paragraph

A link is just an <a> tag. If that tag has no rel attribute, or only something like rel="noopener", Google treats it as a normal link: a small vote for the page it points to. People call that "dofollow." If the tag says rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", the site is telling Google "this link isn't an endorsement." It still sends visitors. It generally doesn't pass ranking credit.

That's it. There is no dofollow attribute in Google's docs. "Dofollow" just means "no nofollow."

The rel values that actually matter

Google's own page on qualifying outbound links lists three values:

• `rel="sponsored"` for ads and paid placements. Google says this is the preferred tag for paid links. nofollow is still accepted for them.
• `rel="ugc"` for user-generated content like comments and forum posts.
• `rel="nofollow"` for everything else you don't want to vouch for.

For normal links, Google says you don't need a rel attribute at all.

Two details trip people up.

`noopener` and `noreferrer` are not SEO tags. They're browser security and privacy settings for links that open in a new tab. A link with rel="noopener noreferrer" and nothing else is a normal, followed link. I've seen makers panic over this one.

Nofollow is a hint now, not a hard rule. In a September 2019 post, Google said all three values became "hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search," and that nofollow would also become a hint for crawling and indexing from March 1, 2020. In the same post Google says that in most cases it will "generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes." So plan as if a nofollow link gives you zero SEO value. If it gives you a little, that's a bonus.

What we found on 39 of our own listings

Method, so you can repeat it: I loaded each listing page in headless Chrome, waited for the JavaScript to finish, found the main outbound link to divvlaunches.com and read its rel. Then I checked the page's meta robots tag. Checked on 5 November 2026.

Here's the split:

• 21 had a normal, followed link on a page Google can index. Examples: FoundrList, Turbo0, ToolRain, Productwatch, SaaS Lineup, Launch Panda, Findly and Spacerr Apps.
• 2 were nofollow on an indexable page: StartupBase and DealMyApp.
• 3 were on pages marked `noindex`: Huzzler, SaaSFame and BuildrShip. On Huzzler and SaaSFame the link was nofollow too.
• 2 went through a redirect instead of linking to us directly. More on these below.
• 4 had no real link to our site that I could find. One had a "Visit" button that pointed to #.
• 7 were dead or blocked: five returned a 404 (one of them after a redirect), one returned 503 and one returned 403 to my browser.

So roughly half of these listings give a clean followed backlink today. The rest range from "still useful for traffic" to "this page doesn't exist anymore."

A clean followed link

This is the FoundrList page for DivvLaunches. The Visit button is <a href="https://www.divvlaunches.com" rel="noopener">. No nofollow, and the page itself is set to index, follow. That's a real backlink.

A nofollow link

StartupBase is a well-known launch site, and our own directory list currently marks it as dofollow. When I checked the listing, the Visit website button carried rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer". Maybe it changed, maybe it differs by plan or by listing. Either way, the label on a list is not the same as the HTML on your page.

The weird ones

`rel="dofollow"`. Two sites literally write rel="dofollow" in the HTML. Google doesn't document that value, so it does nothing. On one of them (Launch Panda) the link points straight at our site, so it works like a normal link. On the other, the button pointed to # and the page was set to noindex, nofollow. The word "dofollow" in the code meant nothing there.

Redirect links. Shipyard's Visit button goes to shipyardhq.dev/r/divvlaunches, which 307-redirects to us. Their robots.txt has Disallow: /r/, so Google isn't allowed to crawl that path at all. ListBulb uses /go/divvlaunches with a 302 redirect, and its robots.txt doesn't block that path. Redirect links can pass value when Google can crawl them, but they're less certain than a direct link. I'd count the blocked one as traffic only.

Mixed signals on one page. BuildrShip had three links to us. The big "Visit DivvLaunches" button was nofollow, two smaller ones weren't, and the whole page was noindex, follow. Toolfio had a followed Visit button and a nofollow text link right next to it. This is common. Check the main button, but look at the page as a whole.

Dead listings. Five of the 39 badges on our homepage now lead to a 404. Those directories either removed listings, changed their URL structure or shut down. If you link out to "featured on" badges, check them every few months.

What this means for your launch

Nofollow isn't worthless

The reason you launch on a platform is people. A nofollow link from a page that real makers browse every day can send you more signups than ten followed links on directory pages nobody visits.

Where nofollow links really come from: Reddit, X, LinkedIn, most comment sections, and plenty of launch sites. You still want those. They're how people find you on launch day, and the people who find you might write about you later and give you a normal link from their own site.

Followed links are for the long game

Followed links from sites with real authority help your domain rating and, slowly, your rankings. On a new site that slowness is the whole point. They keep working after launch day is over.

My rule of thumb: submit to the big launch sites for attention, regardless of rel. Submit to directories mainly for followed links, and only after checking the live listing.

Don't pay for "dofollow" without proof

If someone sells you a dofollow listing, ask for the listing URL and check it yourself before you pay twice. Also know that Google's own guidance says paid links should be marked sponsored or nofollow. Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit is listed as link spam in Google's spam policies. A site openly selling followed links is taking a risk, and you're the one paying for it.

Where DivvLaunches stands

Fair question after all that, so here's our own HTML.

I checked all 99 product pages in our sitemap on the same day:

• 92 free launches link out with rel="nofollow noopener". Example: the DiskSense page.
• 7 First Class launches link out with rel="sponsored noopener". Example: Muscle Man.

So no, a DivvLaunches launch page doesn't give you a followed backlink today. First Class is paid, and sponsored is exactly what Google asks for on paid placements. What a launch here does give you: a permanent, indexable product page, a spot in the daily email, launch-day voting and a shot at the podium, and clicks. Our pricing page shows First Class launches getting 6.2x more clicks than free listings, from our live click data.

If followed links are what you're after, our directory list shows the link type we have on record for each of the 74 directories we work with. Treat that column as a starting point and run the check below on your live listings. That's the lesson from this whole exercise.

How to check any listing in 60 seconds

1. 1
   Open your live listing page. Not the directory's homepage, not their pricing page. The page with your product on it.
2. 2
   Right-click the Visit button and choose Inspect. Find the <a> tag and read the rel. No rel, or only noopener/noreferrer, means followed. nofollow, sponsored or ugc means not followed.
3. 3
   Read the `href`. It should point at your domain. If it points at /go/, /r/, # or a tracking domain, it's a redirect or a JavaScript button.
4. 4
   Press Ctrl+U and search for `robots`. If the page says noindex, don't count on it passing anything.
5. 5
   If it's a redirect, open the directory's `/robots.txt`. If the redirect path is disallowed, Google can't follow it.
6. 6
   Put a reminder on your calendar for 30 days. Sites change their templates, plans and rules. One of our "dofollow" listings wasn't one when I looked.

If you'd rather not do this by hand, browser extensions that highlight nofollow links work too. Just know they read the same rel attribute you're reading.

Launch where people are, then build links that last

A good launch week has both: places with traffic, where rel doesn't matter much, and a short list of directories where you've checked the link yourself. Our step-by-step launch guide and the 25 places to launch cover the first part.

If you have a product ready, launch it on DivvLaunches. It's free, and you'll get a permanent page, a spot in the daily email and real people clicking through on launch day. If you want the followed links handled for you, our directory submission service submits you by hand and sends you every live link so you can check them yourself.