How to check backlinks to any website
Type a domain such as example.com to check backlinks to the whole site, subdomains included. Paste a full page URL instead to see only the links that point to that one page. The checker returns a summary of the link profile and up to 100 of the strongest backlinks, one per referring domain.
You can check any site, not only your own. The same report works for auditing your links, sizing up a competitor and vetting a website before you ask it for a link.
What is a backlink, and why does it matter?
A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. Search engines such as Google treat links from other sites as one of the signals that a page is trustworthy and worth showing. Good links also send visitors who are already interested in your topic.
Not every link counts the same. One link from a relevant, respected site in your industry usually does more for you than many links from small sites that have nothing to do with your business. That is why the checker sorts backlinks by the strength of the linking site instead of listing them in random order.
How to read your backlink report
The summary at the top describes the whole link profile. Here is what each number tells you:
- Authority score: a 0 to 100 measure of backlink strength. Use it to compare sites checked with the same tool.
- Backlinks and referring domains: backlinks are individual links, while referring domains are the different websites they come from. One site can link to you many times from a sitewide footer, so referring domains is usually the better measure of reach.
- Dofollow share: the share of links without a nofollow attribute, which are the links search engines are most likely to count for ranking. A natural profile has a mix of both.
- Referring IPs: how many different server addresses the links come from. Many links from very few IPs can point to a group of sites run by one owner.
- Spam score: a warning sign for low-quality links. A high score is a reason to look closer, not proof of a problem.
- Top TLDs and countries: where your links come from. If you sell in one market and most links come from unrelated countries, that is worth knowing.
How to judge the quality of each link
The table lists the strongest backlink from each referring domain, with the page title and URL, the anchor text, the page it points to on your site, dofollow or nofollow, the link type and the date it was first seen. Ask four questions about each one:
- Is the linking site relevant? A link from a site your customers read is worth more to you than a link from an unrelated directory.
- Is it a real editorial link? A text link placed inside an article is usually stronger than a link in a sidebar or footer. The link type column shows whether a link is text, an image or a redirect.
- Does the anchor text read naturally? Most natural links use your brand name, the page title or plain words. A profile full of exact-match keyword anchors can look manipulated.
- Which page does it point to? The target URL shows which of your pages earn links. Keep those pages up to date and link from them to your key service pages.
Use backlink checks to find new link opportunities
Your competitors' backlinks are a ready list of sites that already link to businesses like yours. Check two or three competitors that rank above you, export each list to CSV and look for:
- Sites that link to several competitors but not to you. They already cover your topic, so your pitch has a real reason behind it.
- Pages that earn links for competitors, such as guides, research or free tools. Plan a better version on your own site.
- Industry lists, partner pages and resource pages where your business fits but is missing.
Before you pitch a site, run it through the website authority checker to see its score, spam score and how long it has been earning links. If you would rather have a team earn the links for you, see our SEO services or start with a free audit of your site.
Limits to know before you act
A few limits are worth knowing before you make decisions from the report. Keep these in mind:
- Live links only. The checker lists backlinks that are live now. Links that were removed are not shown, so this is not a lost-link report.
- One link per site in the table. The table shows the strongest backlink from each referring domain, up to 100. The summary numbers count all the backlinks found.
- Every tool sees a different web. Each backlink tool uses its own crawler and index, so totals here will not match other tools exactly. Compare like with like.
- Short cache. Backlink data is cached for up to 3 days, so a repeat check is instant, and very new links can take a little while to appear.