Outbound Links Audit

Five patterns to correlate: (1) External dofollow link volume — beyond 50 on an article page, that's abnormal. (2) Density per 1000 words — beyond 15 external links per 1000 words, the page is more boilerplate than editorial. (3) Footer concentration — if more than 50% of external links are in the footer, you're looking at a PBN or systematic link exchange. (4) Same-domain concentration — 30% of links to the same destination = self-promo or commercial dependency. (5) Little content for many links — <200 words with 5+ external links = disguised directory.

dofollow (default): Google treats the link as an editorial recommendation and passes PageRank. nofollow: doesn't pass, but Google can use it as a hint. sponsored (since 2019): indicates a paid/sponsored link — better than nofollow because explicitly honest. ugc: user-generated content (comments, forum) — protects the host page from spam juice injected by users. For a backlink you buy: aim for dofollow. If the publisher imposes nofollow or sponsored, direct SEO is zero — don't pay full price.

On an editorial page (article, guide), 5-15 external dofollow = healthy and natural. 15-25 = monitor — verify destination quality. 25-50 = a lot, check the page isn't a directory/listicle giving juice to paying partners. Beyond 50, don't buy a backlink: your link will be diluted (each external link shares the page's PageRank) and the page itself will be flagged "over-optimized" by Google.

Three concrete reasons. (1) Juice dilution: if you buy a backlink on a page with 100 dofollow, your link receives 1/100th of internal juice. If it has 10 dofollow, you receive 1/10th. Massive difference. (2) Algorithmic risk: being inside a link farm pulls Google's attention onto your backlink profile. Indirect penalty. (3) Opportunity cost: $100 on a clean page = 100× more value than $100 on an obvious PBN. This tool takes 10 seconds — always run the check before buying.