How Can I Check Backlinks for My Website?

The short version: you check backlinks using a tool like Google Search Console (free, but limited to your own site), Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz Link Explorer, and no single tool shows every backlink because each one crawls the web differently. The real work isn't finding the links, it's deciding which ones are helping you, which are doing nothing, and which are actively dragging your rankings down.

Start with the free one you already have access to

If you own the website, open Google Search Console. Go to Links in the left sidebar and you'll see two sections: external links and internal links. This shows you backlinks Google itself knows about and has indexed, which is a useful starting point because it's the only tool telling you exactly what Google sees, rather than what a third-party crawler estimates.

The catch: Search Console only works for sites you've verified ownership of. You can't check a competitor's backlinks this way, and the data is often a few weeks behind what's live on the web.

For anything beyond your own site, you need a crawler-based tool

This is where Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz come in. They run their own web crawlers constantly, following links across billions of pages, and store what they find in a database you can search.

• Ahrefs Site Explorer has the largest live link index of the major tools and updates frequently. Paid plans start around £89 a month, but the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools version gives verified site owners a surprising amount of backlink data for nothing.
• Semrush Backlink Analytics is solid for combining backlink data with the rest of your SEO picture (keywords, traffic, competitors) in one subscription, roughly £100 a month on the core plan.
• Moz Link Explorer has a generous free tier (10 queries a month without an account, more if you sign up) and is the easiest one to hand to someone who's never looked at backlinks before.

None of these three agree with each other on exact numbers. If Ahrefs says you have 340 referring domains and Semrush says 290, that's normal. They're sampling the web differently, not lying to you.

A worked example: checking backlinks for a new site

Say you run a small online shop selling handmade candles, launched eight months ago. You want to know if your backlink profile is helping or if it's dead weight.

Step by step, this is what that check looks like:

• Open Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free, verified) and pull up Site Explorer for your domain.
• Sort referring domains by Domain Rating, highest to lowest. You find 42 referring domains total.
• Of those 42, six are good: a mention from a local lifestyle blog, a listing on a regional directory with real traffic, and a guest post you wrote for a home decor site.
• Twelve are neutral, low-authority directory listings from when you first launched and submitted your site everywhere. They're not hurting you but they're not helping either.
• Twenty-four are from what looks like a link farm, a cluster of sites with spun content and no real audience, all linking to you with the exact same anchor text "handmade candles online."

That last group is the problem. Identical anchor text across dozens of low-quality domains is one of the clearest patterns Google's spam systems look for, and it's a leftover from a cheap link-building package someone bought you, or that you bought yourself, early on. The fix is a disavow file submitted through Search Console, not panic, but it does need sorting.

What the numbers mean once you have them

Total backlink count is the number most people fixate on and it's close to meaningless on its own. A site with 3,000 backlinks from 40 referring domains is weaker than a site with 400 backlinks from 200 referring domains, because Google cares far more about how many separate domains vouch for you than how many times one domain links to you.

So when you're checking, look at three things in this order:

• Referring domains, not total backlinks. This is your real number.
• Domain Rating or Authority Score of those referring domains. A link from a domain scoring 70+ is worth more than fifty links from domains scoring under 10.
• Anchor text pattern. Natural link profiles have varied anchor text: your brand name, your URL, generic phrases like "click here," and some keyword-rich text mixed in. If 80% of your anchors are the exact same commercial keyword, that looks manufactured because it usually was.

The uncomfortable bit nobody wants to say out loud

Most sites checking their backlinks for the first time find a mess, and a decent chunk of that mess was put there on purpose by someone the site owner paid. Cheap "SEO packages" sold on Fiverr and similar marketplaces for £20-£50 that promise "100 backlinks" are almost always link farms or private blog networks, and they can do more harm than good once Google's spam detection catches up, which it increasingly does fast. If your backlink check turns up a wall of identical, low-quality links you don't recognise, don't assume it's a hack or an attack. Check your own invoices first. It's often you.

The other thing worth saying: checking backlinks once and filing the report away does nothing. Set a recurring 15-minute check once a month, same day each time, and watch for sudden spikes. A jump from 40 to 400 referring domains overnight is never organic growth, it's either a viral moment (rare, and you'd know) or a negative SEO attack someone is running against you.

Competitor backlink checks, and why they matter more than your own

Once you've audited your own links, run the same check on two or three direct competitors using the same tool. Look specifically at referring domains they have that you don't, particularly ones linking to multiple competitors in your space. These are often industry directories, trade associations, podcast appearances, or supplier pages you haven't approached yet, and they're a far more efficient outreach list than starting from nothing.

If you'd rather not spend a weekend learning three different tools and interpreting Domain Rating scores, this is exactly the kind of audit an AI consultant for small business can turn around in a few hours, flagging what's toxic, what's an opportunity, and what to ignore.

Quick reference: which tool for which job

• Checking your own site, free: Google Search Console plus Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
• Checking competitors, occasional use: Moz Link Explorer free tier, or Ubersuggest.
• Running this monthly, serious about SEO: Ahrefs or Semrush paid plan.
• Cleaning up spam links: export the list from any of the above, review manually, submit a disavow file through Google Search Console.

Frequently asked questions

How can I check backlinks for my website for free?

Verify your site in Google Search Console and check the Links report, then sign up for the free tier of Ahrefs Webmaster Tools or Moz Link Explorer for a second, broader view since no single tool sees every link on the web.

Why do different backlink checkers show different numbers?

Each tool runs its own crawler and indexes a different slice of the web at a different speed, so Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz will always show somewhat different totals. Trust the trend over time more than the exact figure.

Is it bad to have a lot of backlinks from low-quality sites?

Yes, if a large share of your links come from low-authority sites with identical anchor text, it can signal a manufactured link profile to Google and may suppress rankings. Disavowing them through Search Console is the standard fix.

How often should I check my website's backlinks?

Once a month is enough for most small businesses. You're mainly watching for sudden spikes in referring domains, which almost always means either a negative SEO attack or a link scheme that needs cleaning up, not organic growth.