What is rel="nofollow"?

It tells search engines not to pass ranking signals through that specific link — commonly used for untrusted user-generated content, paid or sponsored placements, or links you don't want to vouch for editorially. It doesn't hide the link from visitors or stop them from clicking it; it only affects how search engines treat it.

Why does target="_blank" need rel="noopener"?

Without rel="noopener", the page you just linked to can access your original page's window object via JavaScript (window.opener) — a known security risk called tabnabbing, where the new page could redirect your original tab to a malicious look-alike site. It also has a minor performance cost, since the two pages share a rendering process without it.

What's the difference between nofollow and sponsored?

Both tell search engines not to pass ranking credit, but sponsored is the more specific, correct choice for paid links or advertising, while nofollow is the general-purpose signal for any link you don't want to editorially endorse. Google recommends using sponsored specifically for paid placements rather than defaulting to nofollow for everything.

Should every external link use nofollow?

No — genuinely earned, editorial links to trustworthy sources are normal and fine to leave as regular dofollow links. Nofollow and sponsored exist for specific cases: paid content, untrusted user submissions, or links you can't vouch for, not as a blanket default for anything leaving your site.

Does this tool check if the external links actually work?

No — it audits link attributes (nofollow, sponsored, target, rel) rather than checking whether each URL resolves successfully. Use a dedicated broken-link checker alongside this if you also need to verify the destination pages are still live.

External Link Checker

Audit external links, nofollow & noopener.

TL;DR: External Link Checker is a free, browser-based tool that lets you audit external links, nofollow & noopener.

Your domain (optional)

Paste your page HTML

What Is the External Link Checker?

External Link Checker audits all outbound hyperlinks pointing off your domain, checking response codes, anchor text, domain reputations, and `rel='noopener noreferrer'` security tags.

Step-by-Step: Using This Tool

Enter your webpage URL to extract all outbound links.
Review external destination domains, status codes, and rel attributes.
Identify broken external links and outdated references.
Update citations with fresh, authoritative industry sources.

Maximize Your Results

Target `_blank` Security: Always pair `target='_blank'` links with `rel='noopener'` to prevent reverse tabnabbing security exploits.
E-E-A-T Reference Signals: Citing high-authority scientific, government, or academic sources boosts your content's factual trust signals.
Affiliate Link Tagging: Google guidelines mandate `rel='sponsored'` on all paid affiliate partner links.

Related Guides & Tutorials

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Robots Txt Rules Best Practices — Learn in-depth concepts, best practices, and expert tips.

100% Client-Side Privacy Guarantee

All processing runs locally inside your browser using JavaScript and HTML5 APIs. Your data, files, and inputs are never uploaded to any remote server. Complete privacy by design.

Frequently Asked Questions

: It tells search engines not to pass ranking signals through that specific link — commonly used for untrusted user-generated content, paid or sponsored placements, or links you don't want to vouch for editorially. It doesn't hide the link from visitors or stop them from clicking it; it only affects how search engines treat it.
: Without rel="noopener", the page you just linked to can access your original page's window object via JavaScript (window.opener) — a known security risk called tabnabbing, where the new page could redirect your original tab to a malicious look-alike site. It also has a minor performance cost, since the two pages share a rendering process without it.
: Both tell search engines not to pass ranking credit, but sponsored is the more specific, correct choice for paid links or advertising, while nofollow is the general-purpose signal for any link you don't want to editorially endorse. Google recommends using sponsored specifically for paid placements rather than defaulting to nofollow for everything.
: No — genuinely earned, editorial links to trustworthy sources are normal and fine to leave as regular dofollow links. Nofollow and sponsored exist for specific cases: paid content, untrusted user submissions, or links you can't vouch for, not as a blanket default for anything leaving your site.
: No — it audits link attributes (nofollow, sponsored, target, rel) rather than checking whether each URL resolves successfully. Use a dedicated broken-link checker alongside this if you also need to verify the destination pages are still live.

Cite This Tool

Referencing this tool in a paper, article, or bibliography? Copy a ready-made citation below.

NexLove.org. (2026). External Link Checker [Software]. https://nexlove.org/tools/external-link-checker.html

“External Link Checker.” NexLove.org, 2026, nexlove.org/tools/external-link-checker.html.

NexLove.org (2026) External Link Checker. Available at: https://nexlove.org/tools/external-link-checker.html (Accessed: 2026).

@misc{nexlove_external_link_checker,
  title = {External Link Checker},
  author = {{NexLove.org}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://nexlove.org/tools/external-link-checker.html}
}

Embed This Tool

Add the live External Link Checker tool to your own website with this snippet — it loads the real, working tool in an iframe, not a static screenshot.

<iframe src="https://nexlove.org/embed/external-link-checker.html" width="100%" height="600" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px" title="External Link Checker — NexLove.org" loading="lazy"></iframe>

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