How to Find Backlinks to Your Site (A Complete Beginner-to-Advanced Guide)

Backlinks are one of the powerful ranking factors in Google’s algorithm. Even your content is best but if you’ve not added any backlinks, then your website will not be ranked. That’s the main reason why backlinks are much more essential if you need to make organic traffic and domain authority as well.

This post will show you real, useful, and easy-to-follow strategies to locate your existing backlinks, look at them, and use that information to make your SEO approach better.

What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?

A backlink is a link from another website that points to your website. Google treats backlinks like “votes of trust.” When a reputable website links to you, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

Benefits of Backlinks:

  • Higher Google rankings

  • Faster indexing

  • More referral traffic

  • Strong domain authority

  • Better brand credibility

That’s why every serious website owner must know how to find backlinks to your site and track them regularly.

Why You Should Track Your Backlinks

Many people focus only on building backlinks but ignore tracking them. This is a mistake.

Tracking backlinks helps you:

  • Identify strong and weak links

  • Detect spammy or toxic backlinks

  • Understand what content earns links

  • Replicate successful link strategies

  • Protect your site from Google penalties

Before building new links, you must first understand your current backlink profile.

How to Find Backlinks to Your Site Using Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the most reliable free tool provided by Google itself.

Steps:

  1. Log in to Google Search Console

  2. Select your property

  3. Go to Links from the left menu

  4. Check Top linking sites and Top linking pages

Why Google Search Console Is Important:

  • Data comes directly from Google

  • Shows real backlinks Google recognizes

  • Helps identify linking domains

Limitation:
It doesn’t show all backlinks, but it’s a solid starting point.

How to Find Backlinks to Your Site Using SEO Tools

Professional SEO tools give deeper insights into your backlink profile.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful backlink analysis tools.

You can:

  • See total backlinks

  • Analyze anchor texts

  • Identify do-follow and no-follow links

  • Track new and lost backlinks

Just enter your domain in Site Explorer.

2. SEMrush

SEMrush provides detailed backlink audits.

Key features:

  • Toxic backlink detection

  • Authority score of linking domains

  • Competitor backlink comparison

This is especially useful for cleaning harmful links.

3. Moz Link Explorer

Moz is beginner-friendly and reliable.

It helps you:

  • Check domain authority

  • Analyze spam score

  • Discover top linking pages

Moz’s free version gives limited results but is still helpful.

How to Find Backlinks Without Paid Tools (Free Methods)

If you’re on a tight budget, don’t worry. You can still find backlinks for free.

Use Google Search Operators

Try this search:

link:yourwebsite.com

This shows some websites linking to you (not complete, but useful).

Check Referral Traffic in Google Analytics

Sometimes backlinks bring traffic.

Go to:
Google Analytics → Acquisition → Referral

You’ll see websites sending visitors to your site.

How to Analyze Backlinks the Right Way

Finding backlinks is not enough. You must analyze them properly.

Important Factors to Check:

  • Domain authority

  • Relevance of linking site

  • Anchor text naturalness

  • Link placement (contextual links are best)

  • Do-follow vs no-follow

Quality matters far more than quantity.

Identify and Remove Toxic Backlinks

Low-quality backlinks can hurt your rankings.

Signs of Toxic Backlinks:

  • Spammy websites

  • Irrelevant niches

  • Auto-generated links

  • Excessive exact-match anchors

Use SEMrush or Ahrefs to find toxic links and then disavow them via Google Search Console if necessary.

How Competitor Backlink Analysis Helps You Rank

One smart SEO trick is analyzing competitor backlinks.

When you see:

  • Where competitors are getting links

  • Which content earns backlinks

  • What anchor texts they use

You can replicate and improve their strategies.

This is an advanced but very powerful method.

Turn Backlink Data Into Growth Strategy

Once you know how to find backlinks to your site, use that data to grow.

Action Steps:

  • Create link-worthy content

  • Update pages that already attract links

  • Reach out to sites linking to competitors

  • Fix broken backlinks pointing to your site

  • Strengthen internal linking

Backlinks work best when combined with high-quality content.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to find backlinks to your site is not optional anymore — it’s essential. Whether you use free tools like Google Search Console or advanced platforms like Ahrefs and SEMrush, understanding your backlink profile gives you a serious SEO advantage.

Instead of blindly building links, focus on tracking, analyzing, and improving what you already have. With consistent effort and smart strategy, backlinks can push your website to the top of Google rankings — naturally and safely.