Backlinks play an important role in a website's natural referencing and help it climb in search results. When site A is cited as a reference within content on another site B, Google's crawlers will evaluate whether that content is relevant based on their analyses.
While adding external links is often the result of a link-building campaign, your links can also be included in content related to your activities without your knowledge. When the author of such pieces finds your articles relevant and believes the information may interest their audience, they will insert a link pointing to that page.
You should regularly check the gains and losses of external links in place to ensure good search rankings. To effectively find and analyze your backlinks, you need to use specific tools. Here are 18 tools that should help you reach your goals.
Why should you be informed about and know the links pointing to your site?
External links matter for your site's SEO when they are included in quality articles. As you understand, the relevance of backlinks depends on the quality of the web page where they are placed. Therefore, it's important to check them. You should also fix broken links, recover lost links, find error pages with backlinks, and so on.
Thus, backlinks should be monitored not only to improve the site's ranking in the SERPs but also to get a leg up on competitors. Today, there are many tools that allow you to analyze backlinks. They provide detailed information about those external links.
By using one or more tools, you first receive a list of all the links pointing to your site. You also get information about the sites where your links are placed. You will know the level of trust Google assigns to them. You can also find out each site's domain authority score.
By choosing the best backlink analysis tools, you'll obtain detailed information that will allow you to evaluate the quality of each external link. You can also receive the list of your competitors' backlinks and see on which sites their links were placed.
The results of these analyses will make it possible to define a more effective backlink strategy that will help you obtain better SEO results.
How to find and analyze your backlinks: free solutions available
If you're looking for free tools to find your backlinks, you should understand that features will be limited. Still, you can find solutions that allow you to check the links your site receives.
1. Google Search Console to check your links for free
The Google Search Console is the first free tool that lets you check your links at no cost. Simply go to the "Links" tab, then the "External links" group, click "More", then click the webpage you're interested in to discover the backlinks it receives.
Note that Google Search Console only lets you inspect backlinks by your pages. You won't see nofollow backlinks even if they are present. This free tool doesn't indicate link strength and offers no filtering options.
2. 6 tools for free backlink analysis
Here is a list of tools that allow you to analyze your backlinks for free. However, keep in mind that results remain limited and it's difficult to work with free versions over the long term.
In any case, you can still use them to obtain certain important information. Consider using multiple tools because the results displayed differ and complement one another.
SEMrush to analyze your backlinks
This tool, which you can try for free, allows you to perform a backlink profile analysis for any domain.
Ahrefs with its Backlink Checker
Renowned for its power, the free version of this tool lets you view domain- and page-level metrics for the target of your choice. You can check the number of referring domains, the number of backlinks, the Domain Rating and URL Rating, as well as the Ahrefs Rank. These data help you better assess the strength of an inbound link profile for a target. With this tool, you can track the growth or decline of an inbound link profile.
Small SEO Tools and its Backlink Checker
This free, easy-to-use tool stands out for its comprehensive presentation of features and the usefulness of the information produced by an online link check.
NeilPatel and its Backlinks feature
Free and easy to use, Neil Patel’s Backlinks offers options that are simple to understand. Although its performance is limited, this tool meets the needs of small businesses and blogs. If you need more precise information, this tool is not suitable.
Backlinkwatch
A free tool that lets you perform an insightful analysis of the links pointing to your site. Don’t hesitate to try it to discover all its features.
Rank Signals
It is among the free tools available for analyzing backlinks for all types of websites. Just enter the site URL to find existing backlinks. However, the tool is limited: only the first five backlinks are accessible.
How to find and analyze your backlinks more effectively?
Discover the best tools to analyze your backlinks and those of your competitors. You have a wide choice of platforms, but you should choose based on your needs and budget. Know that the information you can obtain by opting for a paid tool is important for improving your SEO on a daily basis.
SEMrush
This is a versatile tool that ranks among the most used on the market. Its link database is considered the best in the world and it suits all user profiles. However, that performance has a cost: €120/month. With the free version, you are limited to 10 analyses per month.
SEObserver
It is also one of the market-leading tools for backlink analysis. While the interface is not very attractive, you will appreciate the wide range of features available that other tools do not offer. Indeed, the tool collects a great diversity of data from different sources, which is then processed to present much more rationalized data.
Ahrefs
It is valued for the performance of its search index and its ease of use. With the free version, the search is limited to 100 referring domains per site. Users are satisfied with the results they obtain using this tool to monitor backlinks.
SE Ranking
Highly regarded in the United Kingdom. This tool stands out for the quality of its interface and the freshness of its links. Note that the last 20 links obtained are displayed for free. SE Ranking is a cloud-based platform that is highly sought after for its many other features: site rankings, full site audit, keyword suggestions, competitor site analysis, automated professional reports, etc.
Linkody
A tool that offers fairly comprehensive features starting at $15/month. It is also very interesting for all the data it makes available to users. This data comes, among others, from Moz, Alexa and Majestic.
Majestic
It's a Google Chrome extension developed by Majestic. This major player in the SEO world wanted to put a powerful tool at users' disposal. To access it, you must create a paid Majestic account.
SERPStat
It stands out for its versatility and clean interface. It lets you find useful data: you can know the number of indexed links and the links shared on social networks.
BUZZSUMO
Useful for monitoring competitors' posts and activities on social networks. You'll more easily find content shared related to your field and the posts that perform best and receive the most backlinks. This tool helps you find the most popular content and those you can use as templates to create your own.
Sitechecker
A tool that provides many features. For example, it allows you to track the evolution of the number of links over a given period. You can try Sitechecker for 7 days before committing.
Monitorbacklinks
It is available from $25/month. Prices vary depending on the data used.
RankActive
It is also a versatile tool, but with high prices. While its interface is not very user-friendly, the features are interesting. Among other things, it allows you to analyze competitors' actions.
Our tip
These different tools let you know the number of backlinks and their quality. However, each of them has limitations. If you are not specialized in external link analysis, or if you don't have time to dedicate to these technical tasks, consider working with qualified professionals.
Discover the SEO strategy packs on redacteur.com and choose the plan that best suits your needs. If you want personalized services, don't hesitate to contact the team to request a custom quote.
