What backlinks are and why you'd want to find them
A backlink is a link from one website to another. When Site B links to Site A, Site A has gained a backlink. Finding backlinks to a site — whether your own or a competitor's — tells you where traffic and search engine attention might be coming from, which pages are getting linked to most, and what kind of content tends to attract links in your industry.
You might search for backlinks to your own site to understand your link profile, to spot broken links you should fix, or to find sites that linked to you but misspelled your URL. You might search for backlinks to a competitor's site to see which sources are linking to them and whether those same sources might link to you. You might also check backlinks to a site you're considering buying or partnering with, to see whether it has real authority or mostly low-quality links.
Unlike some SEO tasks, finding backlinks doesn't require special permissions or access to anyone's account. The data is public — you're just using tools to organize and display it.
Key Takeaways
- Free tools like Google Search Console (for your own site) and Ahrefs' free backlink checker show you real backlinks, though with limits on how many results you see.
- Paid SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz collect backlink data from crawling the web and let you filter by domain authority, anchor text, and link type.
- The same backlink may appear differently across tools because each tool crawls the web on its own schedule and may miss some links.
- Backlink data is never complete — tools see what they've crawled, not every link that exists, so use multiple sources to get a fuller picture.
- The most useful backlinks come from sites with high authority in your industry, not from the sheer number of links pointing to you.
Using Google Search Console to see your own backlinks
If you own the site, Google Search Console is the most authoritative source because it shows you links that Google itself has found and indexed. Log in to your Search Console account, select your property, and go to Links in the left menu. You'll see a list of the top linking sites, the top linked pages on your site, and the top anchor text (the clickable words in links).
Search Console shows you real links that Google has crawled, but it doesn't show you every link — it shows you the most important ones and a sample of others. You can download a CSV file of up to 1,000 links to analyze in a spreadsheet. This is free and requires no subscription, but the tradeoff is limited visibility compared to paid tools.
Search Console also alerts you to manual actions — cases where Google has determined that links to your site violate their guidelines. If you see a manual action, Google will tell you which links triggered it and give you a way to request reconsideration after you've removed or disavowed the bad links.
Free backlink checkers for any website
If you want to check backlinks to any site (not just your own), or if you don't have Search Console access, free tools give you a starting point. Ahrefs' free backlink checker lets you enter any domain and see the top backlinks, the referring domains, and the domain rating (Ahrefs' authority score). You get about 100 results per search, which is enough to spot major linking sources but not a complete picture.
Ubersuggest (owned by Neil Patel) also offers a free backlink lookup that shows referring domains and anchor text. Backlink Checker by Small SEO Tools is another free option. Each tool has different limits on how many results you see and how often you can search, so if one tool's results seem thin, trying a second one often reveals links the first missed.
The limitation of free tools is that they show you a sample of backlinks, not all of them. A site with thousands of backlinks might only show you the top 100 in a free tool. For a complete picture, you need a paid tool.
Paid tools that show the most backlinks
Ahrefs is the most widely used paid tool for backlink research. You enter a domain and see all the backlinks Ahrefs has found, sorted by relevance or by the authority of the linking site. You can filter by domain rating, country, language, and link type (dofollow vs. nofollow). Ahrefs crawls the web continuously and updates its backlink database regularly, so the data is relatively fresh. A subscription starts at roughly $100 per month for the basic tier.
Semrush offers similar backlink research in its Backlink Analytics tool. You can see referring domains, anchor text, link type, and the authority of linking sites. Semrush also shows you backlinks your competitors have that you don't, which can help you find new linking opportunities. Semrush pricing is comparable to Ahrefs, starting around $120 per month.
Moz provides backlink data through its Link Explorer tool, with filtering options and a spam score for each link. Moz's database is smaller than Ahrefs' or Semrush's, so you may see fewer total links, but the links it does show tend to be high-quality. Moz subscriptions start around $99 per month.
All three tools have different crawl schedules and data sources, so the same site may show different backlink counts across them. This is normal — no tool sees every link on the internet. Using two tools gives you a more complete picture than relying on one.
How to interpret backlink data and spot quality links
Not all backlinks are equally valuable. A link from a site with high authority in your industry (say, a major news outlet or an established industry publication) carries more weight than a link from a brand-new, low-traffic site. Most tools show you a domain authority or domain rating score — Ahrefs uses Domain Rating (DR), Moz uses Domain Authority (DA), and Semrush uses Authority Score. Higher numbers mean the linking site has more authority.
The anchor text (the clickable words in the link) also matters. If a link uses your brand name or a relevant keyword as anchor text, it's usually a natural, intentional link. If many links use the exact same keyword phrase, it can signal artificial link building, which search engines penalize. Most backlink tools show you the anchor text for each link, so you can spot patterns.
Links marked as nofollow don't pass authority to your site the way dofollow links do, but they can still drive traffic and build brand awareness. A nofollow link from a high-traffic site is often more valuable than a dofollow link from a dead site. Look at the actual referring site, not just the link type.
Watch for red flags: links from sites in unrelated industries, links from sites with spam scores or penalties, or a sudden spike in links from the same low-quality domain. These can indicate someone is trying to harm your site's reputation through negative SEO, or that you've accidentally been included in a link farm.
Finding backlink opportunities by analyzing competitors
One of the most practical uses of backlink research is finding sites that link to your competitors but not to you. In Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz, enter a competitor's domain and look at their top backlinks. Then check whether those same sites link to you. If they don't, that's a potential opportunity — the site is already linking to content in your space, so they might be open to linking to you if you reach out with relevant content.
Look for patterns in where your competitors get links. Do they have links from industry directories? From news sites? From educational institutions? From blogs? Once you see the pattern, you can pursue the same types of sources. You might not get links from the exact same sites, but you can target the same categories of sites.
Be cautious about copying a competitor's link-building strategy wholesale. Search engines can detect when multiple sites suddenly acquire links from the same sources in the same pattern, which can trigger a manual review. Instead, use competitor backlinks as inspiration for the types of sites and content formats that work in your industry, then build your own authentic links.
Understanding why backlink counts differ between tools
If you check the same site in Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz, you'll likely see different backlink counts. This isn't an error — it's because each tool crawls the web independently and on its own schedule. Ahrefs might have found 5,000 backlinks to a site, while Semrush shows 4,200 and Moz shows 3,800. All three numbers can be correct; they're just different samples of the total links pointing to that site.
Tools also differ in what they count as a backlink. Some include links from subdomains separately, others combine them. Some include links from the same domain multiple times if they're on different pages, others count only one link per domain. These methodological differences add up.
For your own site, Google Search Console is the most reliable source because it shows you links Google has actually indexed. For competitive research, use the tool that best fits your budget and workflow, but don't rely on a single tool's count as gospel. If you need a high-confidence picture, check two tools and note where they agree.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see who linked to my site without paying for a tool?
Yes. Google Search Console is free and shows you the backlinks Google has found. It won't show you every link, but it shows you the ones Google considers most important. For a more complete picture, you'd need a paid tool, but Search Console alone is useful for spotting major linking sources and monitoring changes over time.
What's the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?
A dofollow link passes authority to your site and helps with search rankings. A nofollow link tells search engines not to count it toward your site's authority. Nofollow links still drive traffic and build brand awareness, so they're not worthless — they're just not weighted as heavily in ranking algorithms. Most backlink tools let you filter by link type so you can see the split.
If I find a bad backlink pointing to my site, can I remove it?
You can try. Contact the site owner and ask them to remove the link. If they don't respond or refuse, you can disavow the link in Google Search Console, which tells Google to ignore it when calculating your site's authority. Disavow is a last resort — use it only for links you're confident are harmful or spam.
Why does my site show fewer backlinks in a free tool than in a paid tool?
Free tools show you a sample of backlinks, usually the top 100 or so. Paid tools have larger databases because they crawl the web more frequently and comprehensively. If your site has hundreds or thousands of backlinks, a free tool will only show you the most important ones. Paid tools let you see the full list and filter by criteria like authority or link type.
Can I use backlink data to improve my search rankings?
Backlink data helps you understand where your authority is coming from and where you might be weak. You can use that to pursue new linking opportunities, fix broken links, or identify low-quality links to disavow. But backlinks are just one ranking factor — content quality, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and user experience matter too. Backlink research is one part of a larger SEO strategy.