Percentage of DoFollow External Links is the share of a page’s anchors that point to another host through an absolute HTTP or HTTPS URL and carry no nofollow. The denominator is every parsed anchor on the page — internal links included — so it is a descriptive ratio to observe, not a number to engineer.
| Factor ID | RG-LNK-019 |
|---|---|
| Family | Links on the page |
| Measurement | Percentage |
| Measured zone | Anchor links in the rendered page body |
What it measures
This factor reports the proportion of all recognized anchors that both point to another host through an absolute HTTP or HTTPS URL and do not contain nofollow. In other words, it isolates the editorial, follow-eligible links that hand context and authority to outside domains, then reads them against the full set of links on the page.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear classifies absolute links whose hostname differs from the page as external, filters out any that contain nofollow, divides the remaining count by all parsed anchors, and multiplies by 100. Note the denominator: this is not the percentage of external links alone — every internal link on the page is counted in the total as well.
What RankGear looks for
<a href="https://other-site.com/page">…</a> ← counts (absolute, external host, no nofollow)
<a href="https://other-site.com" rel="nofollow">…</a> ← external but excluded (nofollow)
<a href="/internal-page">…</a> ← relative, never external; still in the denominatordofollow_external_pct = ( external absolute anchors without nofollow / all parsed anchors ) × 100How to optimize it
Provide normal editorial links to reliable outside sources when they add evidence or utility to the reader. Choose relationship directives (nofollow, sponsored, ugc, or none) based on the nature of each link, not to manufacture a particular percentage. Treat this factor as an observation about how the page cites the wider web, not a target to move — the right number is whatever your genuine citations produce.
Important considerations
- Relative links are never treated as external in this calculation, no matter where they resolve.
- The denominator is every recognized anchor on the page, so adding or removing internal links shifts this percentage even when your external links are unchanged.
- An undefined result can occur when no anchors are parsed at all.
- Destination relevance and trust matter more than the ratio itself — a few links to authoritative, on-topic sources outweigh a high follow-external percentage.
- This is a measured signal that relates to position within a result set, not a lever that makes a page rank; correlation is not causation.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.