Rel Check After Buying Dofollow Links: Follow-Up Plan

The delivery notice has arrived, the page loads and your link is sitting in the text. But does it carry the attribute you thought you were paying for? Buyers who search for how to buy dofollow links tend to ask that question only after delivery, because until then all they have is a listing. This article builds a rel check after buying dofollow links into a calendar: what to read in the page source on delivery day, what to look at again after a week and a month, and which evidence to take to the seller if something does not match. The dates, sites and values in the table are invented for illustration. A rel value on its own promises no ranking, traffic or outcome; the goal here is to let a buyer confirm what was bought.

Why a Rel Check After Buying Dofollow Links Is Needed

A listing and a delivered page are different things

The listing describes how a placement will work; the delivered page shows what actually happened. Even a small gap between them can change what the buyer expected. The check is not an act of distrust. It exists because verification costs a few minutes, while a dispute left unrecorded can cost far more.

The attribute is invisible on screen

Opening the page and spotting a link tells you the link exists. The rel value leaves no mark on the screen, so "I saw the link" does not mean "I saw its attribute". You can read it only in the page source or in the browser's inspection tools, and that step is what this article is about.

Writing the expectation down first

A check means little unless you know what you expected. If you did not write down before ordering what the link's rel should be, the value you find on delivery is just an observation, and the seller can say the listing never promised it. Match your expectation to the listing text and, if needed, ask the seller before paying. That is the true first step of the check.

What Dofollow Means: The Absence of a rel Value

An everyday phrase, not an official label

Dofollow is not a value you write in HTML. When a link carries no rel value such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc, people call it dofollow in everyday speech. The term really names an absence. Searching the source for the word "dofollow" will therefore find nothing; what you look for is whether the anchor element has a rel attribute at all. The differences are laid out in dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and ugc links compared.

Why an absence needs proof

Proving that something is missing is harder than proving that it exists, because you must read every attribute on the link to say "nothing is there". When a seller says "we provide dofollow links", they may simply mean "we do not add a rel value". Read the listing for which attributes must be absent, and keep a separate column for that in your log.

What the buyer is actually purchasing

Even when the word dofollow appears in the listing, what you buy is a placement: a page, a context and a publication, not a link in the abstract. That distinction is opened up in dofollow sponsored posts: what you are buying. We do not repeat it here; this article only lists what to look at after delivery.

Checking at Delivery: Page Source and Browser Tools

Viewing the source

Open the delivered page, right-click, choose to view the page source and search for the link's address or anchor text. On the line you find, the anchor element lists its attributes: href, the rel if there is one, and others. If rel is missing, or carries a different value, write exactly that in the log. Copying the line itself fixes the answer to "what did I see?".

To make the search easier, type the link's domain first, and narrow it by anchor text if the page contains several links. Once you have the line, copy a few lines around it too: rel can sit after href, near the end of the element, and a one-line excerpt may miss it.

A second look with the inspector

The element inspector in the browser's developer tools shows the structure after the page has loaded. If it differs from the source, the link was added by a script. Save both views and note which shows what; the difference is a finding in its own right.

Four fields to match against the order

At every check, set these beside the delivery record:

• The link's real destination, meaning the href value.
• The anchor text and the sentence around it.
• The rel value, or its absence.
• The page address and the date of the check.

With all four filled in, the record becomes a complete reference for any conversation with the seller.

Dynamically Added Links and Crawlability

A script-added link can hide from the source

Some pages add the link in the browser through a script rather than sending it from the server. In the page source it looks absent, yet it shows on screen once the page loads. Reading only the source would mislead you here, so look at the inspector too, and record which view shows the link under which conditions.

How Google recognises a link

Google's links documentation says a link is generally crawled reliably when it is an anchor element carrying an href attribute. A script that works on click, or an element without an href, may not count as a link in that sense. As the buyer, check that your link is a genuine anchor with an href. It is a reasonable first step for confirming that what you bought is visible.

Where to read about rendering

How search engines process dynamic content is a separate subject, and this article does not go into it. If you want the basic logic, JavaScript SEO, rendering and indexing is a place to start. Here only one question matters: does the link you bought stand on the page as an anchor with an href?

The Tension Between Google Guidance and Dofollow Expectations

What the spam policy says

In the link spam part of its spam policies, Google names trading links in order to influence ranking. The same document adds that links placed for advertising or sponsorship stay within its policies once they are qualified with a nofollow or sponsored rel value. In other words, the page treats an unqualified paid link as the problem, not the existence of paid links as such.

What the outbound links guidance adds

The page on qualifying outbound links tells site owners to mark advertisements and paid placements, with sponsored as the preferred value; nofollow is described as still acceptable. Read together, the two pages say that Google expects paid placements to be flagged.

The position this puts a buyer in

A buyer who wants a link with no rel value, a dofollow link, may find that wish at odds with the framework Google describes for paid links. This article neither recommends dofollow purchases nor forbids them; it says only that the tension exists and the decision rests with the buyer. For the wider context, safe link building under Google's spam rules is useful background, and your order note should record which rel value you accepted and why. None of these pages says a link will lift rankings, so a rel value should never be read as a promised result.

If the Attribute Changes Later

A link's attribute is not fixed

Finding the expected rel at delivery does not mean it will stay that way. The publisher can edit the page, the site's theme or plugin can change, and the publisher may rethink its approach to paid links. Such changes can occur without notice and leave no trace on your side.

Not guessing at causes

When the attribute changes, record what you observe rather than guessing why: on which date, from which value to which? The reason stays speculation until the publisher supplies it. Describing what you saw, not what you assume, opens a more productive conversation with the seller and does not put them on the defensive.

It helps to know where such changes commonly come from, so that you can read the record sensibly:

• A theme or plugin on the publisher's site may have been updated.
• The page may have been rebuilt and the link added again.
• The publisher may have changed how it treats paid placements.

These are only possibilities; the actual cause comes from the publisher.

The cost of noticing late

If you check only at delivery, you may spot the change months later, perhaps while preparing a report. You will not know the exact date and will have no clear evidence for the seller. A dated schedule narrows this uncertainty, because the gap between the last sound check and the first deviant one becomes the window in which the change occurred.

Check Calendar: Delivery, First Week, First Month

Delivery day: the full check

The delivery-day check is the fullest one: page source, inspector view, href, anchor, rel, page address and a screenshot. It becomes the baseline for every later check. How to follow a delivery is covered in backlink package delivery tracking.

First week: the short confirmation

A week later the check is brief: does the page still open, is the link in place, is the rel the same? Three questions, a few minutes. The point is not to gather detail but to catch early edits or publisher-side changes. A week is a suggestion and can be adjusted to your own routine. Use the same table so that the results of the three dates read in a column and any change shows at a glance.

First month: the second full check

After a month, repeat the delivery-day check and compare the two records. If nothing differs, writing "unchanged" is enough; if something does, you now hold your first deviation record. Choose later intervals to suit your needs. The days given here are a workable frame, not a Google rule. If you expect a seasonal publishing change around delivery, shift the calendar to match; what counts is that checks are dated and comparable.

Checking Footer and Sitewide Links

One page is not enough for a footer link

A footer link may appear on every page of a site, so checking one page does not show that the others carry the same value. Sample a few page types, such as the home page, an inner page and a blog post, and record the rel on each separately. For the general method, see how to check footer backlinks.

Recording anchor and placement

For a footer link the anchor text and its position are part of the expectation too. Compare the text in the listing with the text on the page, and note which part of the footer holds the link. Choosing anchor wording and position for a footer link goes deeper; here we only see how those details enter the check log. A footer appearing everywhere does not require a row for every page, as sampling is enough, but record which pages you sampled.

The footer link product and its rel value

On Akua Adforce the footer link is a product, and its rel value follows the listing and the publisher's own terms. The platform does not undertake to offer a particular rel value in every listing. Read what the listing says about rel when you choose it, and if it says nothing, ask the seller before paying and keep the reply.

Reporting a Deviation to the Seller

A deviation is not the same as a difference

Not every difference is a breach. If the listing says nothing about rel, a value you find may not count as a deviation; it is merely a gap between your hope and the facts. A deviation is something stated in the listing that comes out otherwise on delivery. Settle that distinction before you write, or you will start a pointless argument with the seller.

How to word the report

Keep the message short and anchored in observation: which order, which page, the date of the check, the rel value in the listing and the value found, and the attached evidence. Avoid accusing language and say in one sentence what you want, whether that is an explanation, a correction or a refund request. Clarity speeds up a reply. Name the files in your evidence folder so the seller knows what you looked at without asking.

Where this sits in the platform flow

On Akua Adforce, payment sends the order on to the seller; once the seller accepts, the placement is made and a delivery notice follows. If what arrives differs from the listing, an objection can be raised at that stage, and the rows of your log serve as its basis. The platform promises nothing about how the objection will end or how long it will take.

Preparing the Evidence File

What goes in the file

An evidence file is a single folder holding the listing text, the order record, the delivery notice, the link line copied from the source, an inspector screenshot, dated screenshots and the check log. Name it after the order number so that, years later, it is clear which order it documents.

Dates and unaltered files

Each piece of evidence needs the date it was captured. An undated screenshot is weak in a dispute because it cannot show that the page looked that way on that day. Do not edit files afterwards; if a correction is needed, add a new version and keep the old one. The value of evidence comes from its being unchanged.

Separating personal and commercial detail

Seller correspondence can contain personal data. When you share the file with a third party, leave only the relevant parts and cover unnecessary detail. An evidence file exists to document a dispute, not to circulate every message.

Before you close the folder, run a final check: are the dates consistent, does each item say which check it belongs to, and is the listing text kept apart from the delivered page? If all three answers are yes, the file is clear to both you and the seller. If a piece is missing, write "no record" rather than inventing one; a gap is acceptable, a made-up item cannot be defended.

Example Template: rel Check Log Table (Hypothetical)

The sites, dates and values in this log are invented and point to no real publisher. Copy the table for your own process. The delivery, first-week and first-month rows show three checks of the same link.

The third row shows why records matter: the first week raised no concern, but by the end of the month the value had changed, and the change fell inside a known window. That row goes into the evidence file and the message to the seller rests on it. Before adding a column to your version, think about which decision it would affect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you run a rel check after buying dofollow links?

Open the delivered page's source, find the link, look at the attributes of the anchor element and record the rel value. Then compare it with the structure in the browser's element inspector. Add the date, page address and a screenshot, and repeat the same check after the first week and the first month.

Does dofollow simply mean a link with no rel value?

In everyday use, yes: a link without a rel value such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc is called dofollow. It is not an official label, and the word never appears in the source. For that reason, ask the seller to define the term in the listing so the attributes expected on the link are written down.

Can a link rel value change later?

Yes. The publisher may edit the page, a theme or plugin may change, or the publisher's approach may shift, and nobody has to tell you. A dated check calendar narrows the gap between the last sound check and the first deviant one, which shows when the change happened.

What does Google say about paid links?

Under link spam, Google's policies include trading links to influence rankings, and they add that advertising or sponsorship links stay within the rules when marked nofollow or sponsored. The outbound links page prefers sponsored and accepts nofollow. The pages promise no ranking result.

Is the rel check different for a footer link?

The method is the same, but a footer link may show on many pages, so sample several page types. Record anchor text and placement as well. On Akua Adforce the rel value of a footer link follows the listing and the publisher's own terms, so read the listing and ask the seller if needed.

What if the rel value differs from what was expected?

First check what the listing actually says; with no written commitment the difference may not be a deviation. If it is one, send the seller a short, observation-based message with dated evidence and say what you want. You can use the objection step in the order flow if needed; no outcome or timing is promised.

Conclusion and Next Step

If a link was delivered recently, open a single line in your log today: expected rel, found rel, date. Put the same line on the calendar for a week and a month from now. If expectation and finding agree, nothing more is required; if they diverge, the evidence folder and the reporting step from this article are ready to use.

To read how a footer placement describes its rel before you order, browse the listings on the footer link page. You confirm the chosen listing with payment, the seller publishes, and once the notice arrives you compare it with your log. Dofollow, sponsored and nofollow are none of them a promise of ranking or any other result, and the platform commits to nothing about rel values.