Every SEO guide tells you backlinks matter. Very few show you how to actually look at them: which links you have, which ones carry real weight, which ones broke last month without you noticing, and how your profile stacks up against the competitor currently outranking you.
Roughly 1,000 people a month search "how to check backlinks," and the answers they find usually funnel them straight into a $129 a month subscription. This guide covers the genuinely free methods first, what the paid tools add on top, and a middle path that fits most small sites. Then it walks through what the numbers actually mean once you have them in front of you.
Method 1: Google Search Console (Free, Your Site Only)
If you've verified your site in Google Search Console, you already have Google's own record of your backlinks sitting there unused.
- Open Search Console and select your property.
- In the left menu, scroll down to Links near the bottom.
- Check the three reports available: Top linked pages shows which of your pages attract the most links, Top linking sites shows your referring domains, and Top linking text shows the anchor text other sites use when they link to you.
- Click "Export external links" to download the full list for closer analysis.
What GSC won't tell you is anything about quality. Every link looks identical in this view. A link from a genuinely authoritative industry site and a link from a spammy directory both show up as just another row. There's no authority score, no spam detection, no first seen dates, no alerts when a link breaks, and crucially, no data whatsoever on any site except your own.
Method 2: Subscription Tools ($99 to $449 a Month)
Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz each maintain enormous link indexes and will show you anyone's backlink profile with deep filtering options: by authority, by anchor text, by dofollow status, by new versus lost links, and more. If you're an agency doing link building work every single day, these tools genuinely earn their keep.
For everyone else, the math gets rough fast. Checking your links once or twice a month on a $129 monthly plan works out to well over $60 per look. Our tool comparison breaks down who actually needs the big platforms and who's just paying for unused seats.
Method 3: Pay Per Report (The Middle Path)
A TrackSEO report includes the backlink intelligence most sites actually need without any subscription attached: your top referring domains ranked by a 0 to 100 authority score, total backlinks, broken backlinks you can reclaim, a spam score, your dofollow ratio, and how old your link profile is overall, all for $4.99 on any domain you choose. Run it on your own site for a health check, or point it at a competitor to see exactly what you're up against.
Reading Your Backlink Data: The Metrics That Matter
| Metric | What it means | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domains | Unique websites linking to you | The number that matters most. Ten links from ten different sites beat a hundred from just one. |
| Total backlinks | Every individual link, including repeats | Useful only as context. A huge ratio of links to domains is usually a red flag. |
| Authority score | A 0 to 100 strength estimate for each linking site | A handful of links above 60 outweigh hundreds sitting around 10. See domain authority explained. |
| Dofollow ratio | Share of links that actually pass ranking value | Healthy profiles typically sit somewhere around 70 to 90 percent dofollow. |
| Broken backlinks | Links pointing at pages that now return a 404 | Every single one is recoverable authority. Just redirect the dead URL. |
| Spam score | Estimated share of low quality sites linking to you | Under roughly 5% is normal background noise. Sudden spikes deserve a look at toxic backlinks. |
How Often Different Tools Update Their Data
One thing that trips people up when comparing sources: backlink indexes don't update on the same schedule. Google Search Console reflects links Google has actually crawled, which can lag by weeks for smaller or newer sites. Third party tools crawl the web independently on their own schedule, typically refreshing every few days to every few weeks depending on the domain's overall size and how frequently it publishes new content.
This is why checking the same domain in two different places can give you numbers that don't quite match. Neither one is wrong. They're just looking at slightly different snapshots of a constantly changing web. For tracking purposes, consistency matters more than precision: pick one source and compare against your own past readings from that same source, rather than chasing an exact number that will never perfectly agree across tools anyway.
How Many Backlinks Do You Actually Need?
The honest answer: fewer than you probably think, from better sites than you currently have. There's no universal number here. It depends entirely on what the pages currently ranking for your target keyword already have going for them. The practical method looks like this.
- Search your target keyword and note the top five ranking pages.
- Check the referring domains for each one (a report on each competitor works well for this).
- Look at the range you find. If the pages ranking have five to fifteen referring domains, you need roughly that many. If they have five hundred, pick a different keyword entirely.
For most small business keywords, the bar sits dramatically lower than people assume, often under twenty referring domains for the page, on a site with only a few dozen total. Low competition keywords can be won with genuinely great content and close to zero links. This is exactly why checking the actual competition beats following any rule of thumb.
Checking a Competitor's Backlinks (Ethically Copying What Already Works)
Your competitor's link profile is essentially a to do list someone else already wrote for you.
- Their top referring domains represent sites already willing to link to businesses like yours. Directories, industry blogs, associations: many will link to you too if you show up or simply ask.
- Their broken backlinks are opportunities in disguise. If a good site links to their dead page, you can offer them your working alternative.
- Their authority gap is your realistic target. If they outrank you with thirty referring domains to your eight, you now know exactly what the game costs to win.
Red Flags When You First Check Your Links
- A bulk pile of referring domains you've never heard of is usually harmless scraper spam worth monitoring, or in rare cases a negative SEO attempt worth investigating. Our toxic backlinks guide covers exactly when to act and when to ignore it.
- A pile of broken backlinks is common after any redesign or migration. Redirect the old URLs to their new equivalents and most of that authority comes right back.
- Nearly all your links coming from one single domain usually means a footer or sidebar link on one site is multiplying across every page it has. Google mostly counts it once anyway, so your "5,000 backlinks" might really be six referring domains.
Building Backlinks Once You Know Where You Stand
Checking your profile is only half the job. Once you know your gap, these approaches consistently work without crossing into anything Google would flag.
- Reclaim broken links first. This is the highest return activity in all of link building, because the site is already willing to link to you. You're just fixing a dead URL, not asking for a new favor.
- Get listed where your competitors already are. Their referring domains list is a ready made outreach list. Directories, associations, and roundup posts that link to similar businesses will often link to you too.
- Publish something genuinely link worthy. Original data, a useful free tool, or a genuinely comprehensive guide earns links passively over time, without any outreach at all.
- Participate before you pitch. Genuine activity in industry communities and forums, well before you ever ask for anything, makes any later outreach land far better.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I check my backlinks?
Quarterly is enough for most small sites. Check monthly if you're actively building links or recently launched a public campaign, since that's when new links and any problems tend to show up fastest.
Do nofollow links matter at all?
Yes, just differently. Nofollow links don't pass ranking value directly, but they still drive referral traffic, build brand awareness, and contribute to a natural looking link profile. A site with 100% dofollow links actually looks more suspicious than one with a healthy mix.
Why do I have fewer backlinks than I expected?
Different tools index different portions of the web, so counts vary between sources. It's normal to see meaningfully different totals between Search Console, a paid tool, and a report. Trust the trend over time more than the exact number on any single day.
Should I worry about losing backlinks over time?
Some natural link loss is completely normal as old content gets removed or sites redesign. Worry only if you see a sudden, large drop, which usually signals a technical issue like a broken redirect rather than an actual link building problem.
Backlink Terms Worth Knowing
A short glossary for anyone new to reading this kind of report.
- Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. "Click here" passes far less contextual value than "affordable SEO audit tool" does.
- Link equity, sometimes called link juice, is the ranking value a link passes from one page to another.
- Root domain versus subdomain matters because links from different subdomains of the same site (like blog.example.com and shop.example.com) often count as separate referring domains, depending on the tool measuring them.
- Nofollow, sponsored, and UGC tags are attributes that tell search engines a link shouldn't pass full ranking value, commonly used for paid placements, comments, and forum posts.
- Link velocity refers to how quickly you're gaining new links. A sudden, unnatural spike can look suspicious even when every individual link is completely legitimate.
The Bottom Line
Check your backlinks the same way you'd check a bank statement: not obsessively, but regularly and with real numbers in front of you. Use Search Console for the free raw list, reach for a $4.99 report when you want quality metrics or a look at the competition, and save the big subscriptions for when link building genuinely becomes a weekly activity. Start with your own baseline, then go reclaim those broken links. It's the easiest authority you'll ever earn back. For the full site picture beyond just links, see our free SEO audit tools roundup.