Backlinks are like votes in an election where you’re the candidate and other webmasters are voters.
The more votes your website gets, the higher it climbs on the ladder of authority.
Here’s the difference though. In SEO, not all votes carry equal weight.
In fact, some of them can spoil everything you’ve been doing to gain a good reputation.
That’s why it’s crucial to put your link profile under scrutiny every once in a while.
In this post, we’ll talk about how to track backlinks to your website.
We’ll cover the top link-tracking tools (Free and paid) you can use with confidence.
By the end, you’ll also know some actionable tips on:
- Keeping your link profile clean
- Reverse-engineering your competitors’ link profiles
- And more
Let’s dive in.
The Importance of Tracking Backlinks in SEO
Before we answer the question “how to check backlinks of my website”, let’s quickly look at why it’s so important.
Assess Your Website’s Authority
First, you can check the quality of your content by assessing the type and number of backlinks to it.
When you have a good grip on who’s linking to your site, you can better improve its authority, and in turn, traffic.
Broken Links
Imagine there’s a page on your site that’s getting a lot of backlinks. And, it gets broken somehow.
What do you think the referring domain owner will do when they find out they’re linking to a broken link? Replace it with your competitor’s probably!
Tracking lets you reclaim these links before the competitor swoops in.
Competitor Research
By analyzing competing websites, you can know their link-building strategies. This lets you focus on what’s working in the industry, eliminating the guesswork.
How to Find & Check Backlinks (With Tools)
Here’s how to find the backlinks of a website using free and paid tools.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the best free tool for backlinks management.
To check the websites linking to yours, sign into your account and go to “Links”.
Scroll down to “Top Linking Sites” and click “More”.
You’ll get a list of domains linking to your site.
Note that you can’t do a competitor analysis with GSC.
It only works with the domains you can verify as your own.
Plus, it doesn’t get any further than giving you a list of referring domains.
If you want to go into further details and reverse-engineer competitors, you’ll need a different tool.
Semrush
This all-in-one SEO tool has powerful link-building features.
Its backlinks report tells you:
- The number of websites and pages linking to any website
- The quality of those referring domains
Just enter the URL of the website you want to check backlinks of and hit “Start now”.
The tool will fetch every piece of data you’d need for that domain.
There’s a free plan with limited features, but you can access premium features by getting the free trial.
Moz Link Explorer
Moz Link Explorer is another powerful tool for finding backlinks to a website.
Here’s how to check backlinks on a website with this tool:
Enter the URL of the domain and click on “Analyze”.
Then, click on the “Linking Domains” option.
You’ll get a list of referring domains.
Note that Link Explorer offers 10 free queries per month.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a powerful all-in-one SEO tool, but it’s a completely paid one.
The tool works like Semrush. It gives you a list of referring domains with metrics.
The metrics tell you how authoritative or reliable those linking domains are.
Ahrefs has a ton of data to provide you with helpful insights.
The tool also tells you new and lost links to a site.
However, the pricing can be steep and you’ll get limited features on the basic plan.
Monitor Backlinks
If you’re looking for a powerful yet affordable backlinks checker, Monitor Backlinks will interest you.
It has a free tiral, after which you can decide if it’s worth the investment.
You can monitor 1 domain at $25/month.
There are other effective link-tracking tools in the market, including:
- Ubersuggest
- Buzzsumo
- SE Ranking
- RankActive
Tips On Backlinks Analysis
Interpreting Backlinks Metrics
To effectively monitor backlinks, you need to understand some important metrics.
Domain Authority
Domain authority is the overall authority of a website, whereas page authority refers to the authority of a web page.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is text that links one page to another. Balancing the anchor text is crucial to keeping your link profile safe. Avoid using your target keywords too many times as anchor text.
Spam Score
Spam score is a Moz metric. It’s a number out of 100 that indicates how spammy your backlinks are. If your spam score is high, it’s time to put your link profile under the microscope.
Evaluating the Quality of a Backlink
You can evaluate a backlink’s quality based on the referring domain’s:
- Authority
- Relevance
- Content quality
The higher its authority, the more it can pass to you.
Moz’s DA and Ahref’s DR are two metrics that are commonly used to gauge the authority of a domain.
You also want referrals from websites that are relevant to yours.
Lastly, the quality of the content on the linking page affects how powerful the backlink is.
Managing Toxic Backlinks
Toxic backlinks are harmful to your site’s SEO.
They can tank your site’s traffic, or worse, attract a manual Google penalty.
You can find these backlinks by using a tool like Semrush.
Then, use Google’s Disavow Tool to disassociate them from your domain.
Disavowing Unnecessary Backlinks
You want to disavow any spammy, toxic, and unnecessary backlinks.
To do that, just go to the Google Disavow Tool and select the right property.
After selecting the property, you’ll be able to upload a .txt file.
Note that you can request to disavow web pages as well as entire websites.
To disavow a domain, just add “Domain:” before the URL.
Also, you can add any comments to the file by adding the symbol “#” in front.
Google will ignore anything that starts with this symbol.
Here’s an example:
Conducting Competitor Research
Competitor research lets you skip guesswork and build links that are proven to work.
Start by choosing your top competitors whom you want to outrank on Google.
Then, plug their URLs into a backlinks analysis tool like Semrush.
Download the list of backlinks to those websites.
Lastly, create a strategy to replicate those backlinks and outrank the competition.
This is probably the fastest way to outrank any competing web page on Google.
Building a Strong Strategy
Create a safe and effective link-building strategy right from the word go.
When you move in the right direction, there’s less chance of attracting low-quality backlinks.
Avoid investing your resources in Blackhat link-building tactics.
Search engines are smart enough to detect such practices.
So, although quality backlinks require time, they’re worth the wait.
When you build only quality links, you won’t have to worry too much about your link profile.
However, it’s normal to attract a few spammy backlinks.
Plus, links can get broken or lost for reasons that are not in your control.
So, backlinks monitoring remains an important aspect of off-page SEO.
Tracking Changes
So, what changes should you be aware of while monitoring your backlink profile?
- Fluctuations in the number of referring domains and backlinks
- Quality of the backlinks
- Anchor text distribution
Having knowledge of where your links come from helps you keep your profile clean.
Plus, even when you’re getting high-quality backlinks, the anchor text distribution matters.
You don’t want everyone to link to you with the same anchor text.
It’ll look unnatural, increasing the risk of a penalty.
How to Check Backlinks of My Website: FAQs
Here are a few frequently asked questions about how to search for backlinks.
How Do I Check My Backlinks on Google?
Wondering “How to find backlinks to my website?” You can do that with SEO tools. Some popular and effective ones are Google Search Console (free), Semrush, Ahrefs, and Monitor Backlinks. Google Analytics 4 also gives you a list of backlinks in the “Traffic Acquisition Report”.
How Can I Check My Backlinks for Free?
Here’s how to check backlinks to your website for free: Go to the “Links” report of your Google Search Console account. Go to the property you want to check the backlinks of, click on links, and open the “Top linking domains” report.
How to Check Backlinks to Your Website?
To find backlinks to a page or website, you can use Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Semrush, Ahrefs, and several other SEO tools. In GSC, you can find it under the “Top linking sites” option. In Google Analytics 4, you can access it in the traffic acquisition report.
What are Backlink Checkers?
You can use backlink checkers to find backlinks to a page or a website. Tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, and Ahrefs have this feature that fetches all the backlinks of a website. All you need to do is provide them with a URL.
Conclusion
There you have it. A detailed guide on how to see how many backlinks a website has. If you’ve read this far, you’d know how to find backlinks to a specific page and a domain. Your link profile never stays the same. It’s changing. Building only quality backlinks helps you keep it clean, but it still needs monitoring. You never know when a link gets broken or lost, or an irrelevant website links to you. Keep an eye on your link profile with any SEO tool of your choosing. Disavow the backlinks that are irrelevant, spammy, toxic, or low-quality.
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