In any SEO workflow, checking your backlinks is one of the most critical jobs. It tells you who is linking to your site, which pages are getting the most links, and if any poisonous links might be hurting your results.
The good news is that you don’t have to buy pricey software to get started. Here are five tools that allow you to check backlinks for free.
Your backlink profile is the image of your website. New links appear, old links vanish, and poisonous links might appear from nowhere. Regular monitoring of your backlinks can:
Google Search Console is the most authoritative free backlink checker available because Google itself provides it. The “Links” tab will show your most connected pages, the websites that link to you the most, and your most common anchor texts. Download here.
The data is accurate, although it provides a smaller sample of your overall backlinks than third-party programs. Best used alongside other tools to get a full picture.
The free Ahrefs backlink checker displays the top 100 backlinks for any website, including data on Domain Rating, URL Rating, and anchor text. It is fast, accurate, and no account is needed to use it. If you want to go deeper, you’ll need to pay for Ahrefs, but the free version is good for a brief overview.
Moz Link Explorer offers a free tier where you can perform up to 10 backlink enquiries a month. Shows Domain Authority, Page Authority, spam score, and a sample of your backlinks. The spam score tool is especially beneficial for identifying possibly damaging links.
Ubersuggest by Neil Patel offers a free backlink analysis with data on the number of referring websites, anchor text distribution, and new and lost backlinks. The free version has limits on daily usage, but it is more than adequate for routine monitoring of one website.
SEMrush offers a limited free account with a backlink audit feature. It displays your backlink profile, referring domains, and toxicity scores. The free tier is limited to a handful of reports every day but gives good data for basic monitoring.
Once you have your backlink data, here is what to look for:
Check out the Domain Authority or Domain Rating of the sites connecting to you. The most beneficial links are from high-authority, relevant sites. You should investigate links from sites with a very low score or no organic traffic.
A good anchor text profile is diversified and natural. Having too many links with the same exact-match keyword as the anchor text could seem manipulative to Google. Read our article on anchor text in SEO to learn how to maintain your profile’s authenticity.
When backlinks go away, they cut into your authority. Monitor for lost links with your tool and explore outreach to recapture essential ones. Check out our guide on finding backlinks to your website to learn more.
If you are seeing links coming from recognised spam sites, adult content networks, or link farms, utilise the Google Disavow tool to instruct Google to disregard these links. Our poisonous backlinks tutorial walks you through the whole process step-by-step.
If you’re looking to avoid the hard work and have high-quality backlinks produced for you, Backlinkier’s link-building service produces clean, high-authority backlinks from relevant websites to boost your profile and move your rankings.
Discover more backlink guides in our insights area.
Your customers are searching. Make sure they find you first. Let’s build a strategy that actually moves the needle—more visibility, more traffic, more revenue.