Use this free online backlink checker to check backlinks of any website or domain in seconds. Paste a URL, get an Authority Score from 0 to 100, the count of referring domains, and a ranked list of who links to that site. It works as a backlink analyzer for your own domain (check my backlinks) and as a backlink finder for competitors. No signup. No paywall. No daily account verification. The data comes from a live link graph rather than a quarterly snapshot, so the score reflects the current state of the web. Use it to audit your own site, scout competitor link sources, or qualify a guest-post target before reaching out.
Backlink Checker: Check Backlinks of Any Website Free
Check backlinks for any website or domain in seconds. See who links to you or a competitor. No signup. No paywall. No daily account verification.
What this backlink checker checks
A backlink checker counts inbound links and the unique domains those links come from, then weights them by quality to produce a single Authority Score. The score is not a Google ranking. It is a directional metric trained on the same signals Google uses: how many trusted sites link to you, how often, and from which sources.
Three numbers do most of the work. Total backlinks counts every individual link pointing at the target domain. Referring domains counts the unique sites those links come from (10,000 backlinks from 5 sites is weaker than 1,000 backlinks from 500 sites). Authority Score condenses both into a 0 to 100 number bucketed into bands like minimal, moderate, strong, and dominant. A typical SaaS startup sits in the 15 to 35 range. Established media sites push 70+.
How to check backlinks of any website (5 steps)
- Enter a domain. Type any URL into the input above. The checker accepts
example.com,www.example.com, orhttps://example.com/path. Subdomains are normalized to the root domain. - Hit Check backlinks. Results return in 1 to 3 seconds for indexed domains. The score appears as a 0 to 100 ring with a band label (minimal, moderate, strong, dominant).
- Read the score card. The top card shows your Authority Score, the band classification, and the total count of referring domains.
- Scan the table. The results table lists the top 50 referring domains ranked by estimated monthly traffic, with the link count from each.
- Export or compare. Run the same check on a competitor's domain. Compare both scores and the overlap in referring domains to spot link sources you can pitch next.
Try it with ahrefs.com. Authority Score is around 90 (dominant band), with 700,000+ referring domains. Now try yourcompany.com. The gap between your score and a market leader's is your link-building backlog.
Your backlink analyzer report: what's inside
- Authority Score (0 to 100), with a plain-English band: minimal, moderate, strong, dominant.
- Total referring domain count, the number that matters more than raw backlinks.
- Top 50 referring domains ranked by estimated monthly traffic.
- Link count per referring domain, so you see who links to you once vs. dozens of times.
- No signup, no daily account requirement. The free tier allows 10 unique domain checks per day per browser.
If the domain you check is not indexed, the tool returns a clear "not yet indexed" message rather than a fake zero. New sites with very few inbound links sometimes fall into this category.
Why backlink data is the strongest off-site SEO signal
Google has used backlinks as a ranking signal since PageRank shipped in 1998. Twenty-eight years later, the algorithm has added hundreds of signals, but link quality remains in the top three. A 2024 study of one million SERPs found that the number of unique referring domains correlated with rankings more strongly than any single on-page factor.
The reason is simple. On-page content is something you control. Links are something other sites give you. That third-party validation is hard to fake at scale (which is why PBN networks get deindexed in waves). A free backlink checker tells you where you stand on this signal in seconds, which is the input to every other SEO decision: which pages need more links, which competitors share your link sources, which prospects are most likely to link back.
A separate use case is competitive scouting. Run the checker on three competitors, compare their referring-domain lists, and you have a pre-built outreach prospect list of sites that already link to companies in your space. Pair this with a strategy guide like our roundup of the best link building services and you can decide whether to do outreach in-house or hand it off.
Free alternative to the Ahrefs backlink checker
Ahrefs' free backlink checker shows the top 100 backlinks and caps the rest behind a $129/month plan. Semrush and Moz follow the same model: a teaser, then a signup wall. This tool is a free alternative for the common case. You get the Authority Score, the referring-domain count, and the top 50 referring domains for any domain, 10 checks per day, no account. It will not replace Ahrefs for anchor-text audits, historical graphs, or lost-link alerts. For a quick "how strong is this domain and who links to it" answer, it gives you the same picture in the same 3 seconds, without the paywall.
Backlink finder: check a competitor's backlinks
Run the checker on a competitor's domain and the referring-domain table becomes a backlink finder. Every site in that list has already linked to a company like yours, which makes it a warm outreach target. Check three competitors, note the domains that appear in two or more lists, and you have a prioritized prospect list without paying for a prospecting tool. When that list gets longer than you can email by hand, one of the automated link building tools we compared will run the outreach for you. Competitors cannot see that you checked them; the data comes from public crawls, not from their servers.
Is there a Google backlink checker?
Google does not offer a public backlink checker. Google Search Console has a Links report, but it only shows links to a site you have verified, so you cannot use it to check backlinks of a website you do not own. This tool fills that gap: it checks any domain, yours or not. Use Search Console as the ground truth for your own site and this checker for everyone else.
Backlink tracker: monitor your backlinks over time
A single check is a snapshot. A backlink tracker is the same check repeated on a schedule, with the results compared. Paid tools automate this and charge $99+ per month for the alerts. The free version is a calendar reminder: re-run your domain on the first of each month and log three numbers in a spreadsheet, Authority Score, referring domains, and the number of new domains in the top 50 table. A rising referring-domain count with a flat score means the new links are weak. A flat count with a falling score means you are losing good links, usually to redesigns or deleted pages on the linking site. Either pattern is visible within two or three checks, which is all the backlink tracking most sites need.
Spam and backlink quality checker
The referring-domain table doubles as a backlink quality checker. Each row shows the linking domain's estimated monthly traffic. Real sites have traffic; link farms and PBNs do not. Scan the top 50 for domains with near-zero traffic, off-topic names, or dozens of links from one source. Those are the spam backlinks worth a closer look. This tool does not assign a per-link toxicity score; for that you need a paid audit tool or a manual review. It does give you the fast version: if most of your top referring domains are real, trafficked sites in your niche, your backlink profile is healthy. If the list is full of directories and foreign-language blogs, start with the disavow guidance in the FAQ below.
Backlink profile checker and referring domain checker
Your backlink profile is the full picture of who links to you, how often, and how strong those sources are. This page works as a backlink profile checker and a referring domain checker at the same time: the score card summarizes the profile in one number, and the table lists the referring domains that make up most of it. Bulk checks (pasting a list of domains and getting every profile at once) are part of the paid plan. On the free tier, run the domains one at a time, 10 per day.
Common mistakes
- Comparing Authority Scores from different tools as if they are the same metric. Ahrefs DR, Moz DA, Semrush AS, and our score all use different formulas. A 45 in one tool does not equal a 45 in another. Pick one tool and track the trend in that tool's score.
- Optimizing for total backlinks instead of referring domains. 10,000 sitewide footer links from one PBN site count as one referring domain to Google. The number that moves rankings is unique referring domains, not raw backlink count.
- Ignoring the link source's relevance. A link from a SaaS blog to your SaaS site is worth more than a link from a high-authority but unrelated site (a fashion magazine linking to a B2B accounting tool, for example). Authority is a starting point, not the full picture.
- Checking your own domain once and never again. Backlink profiles change every week. Lost links happen when sites get redesigned, deleted, or change owners. Track your score monthly to catch drops early.
- Skipping the audit before buying links. Toxic backlinks from previous SEO efforts can neutralize new gains. Run a check before spending a dollar on new outreach so you know your starting baseline.
Advanced tips
- Track the trend, not the snapshot. A score that climbs from 22 to 28 over six months means your link-building works. A flat score for a year means your strategy needs a rethink.
- Cross-reference with on-page audits. Run our website metadata checker and canonical checker alongside backlink data to see whether weak rankings come from link gaps or technical issues.
- Build a referring-domain overlap map. Check three competitors. Domains that link to all three are your highest-confidence outreach targets. Domains that link to one or two are tier-two prospects.
- Watch for new referring domains weekly. A spike in new referring domains often signals viral content, a major mention, or a competitor's coordinated launch you should respond to. Most paid tools charge for change alerts. Re-running a free check weekly gives you the same signal at zero cost.
- Pair backlink data with crawler audits. A crawler simulator like our robots.txt checker confirms Google can actually see the pages those backlinks point at. A great link to a noindexed page wastes the link.
Once you have a baseline score, the next step is closing the gap. If your score is below 25 and you sell to small businesses, look at our breakdown of affordable link building services for managed packages in the $99 to $500 range. If your score is above 40 and you need scale, our best link building services roundup compares full-service agencies. Either way, recheck the score every 30 days. The trend line is the metric that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this backlink checker really free?
Yes. The tool runs without a signup, account, or credit card. The free tier allows 10 unique domain checks per day per browser, which covers most use cases (auditing your own site, scouting two or three competitors, qualifying a few outreach targets). The 10-domain cap exists to keep the service available for everyone and to prevent automated scraping. After the daily limit, the tool prompts you with an upgrade option for unlimited checks. There are no email walls, no "free trial" credit-card capture, and no paid plans hidden behind a free badge. If you check the same domain twice in one day, the second check does not count against the cap (results are cached for 24 hours per domain). For most marketers and SEO consultants, the free tier covers a normal workday of research without ever hitting the limit.
How do I check my backlinks?
Type your domain into the box at the top of this page and click Check backlinks. In a few seconds you see your Authority Score, how many unique domains link to you, and the top 50 of those domains ranked by traffic. To check backlinks of a specific competitor, repeat the step with their domain. For a full export of every link Google has on file for your own site, pair this check with the Links report in Google Search Console.
Is this an SEO backlink checker or just a link counter?
It is an SEO backlink checker. Raw link counts are shown, but the tool weights links by the authority and traffic of the referring domain to produce the Authority Score, and it separates total backlinks from unique referring domains, which is the number that moves rankings. That is the same analysis a paid backlink analyzer performs, minus the history and alerting layers.
How accurate is the Authority Score?
Authority Score is a directional metric, not a Google ranking. It is calibrated against patterns in the open web link graph and updated continuously as new crawl data arrives. The number correlates strongly with rankings (a domain at 70 ranks for more keywords than one at 30, on average), but it is not a guarantee that a higher score will outrank a lower one for any specific query. Treat the score the way you treat blood pressure: a reliable signal of overall health, not a prediction of any single outcome. For competitor comparison, the score is most useful when you compare relative positions ("we are at 25, they are at 60, the gap is X") rather than absolute numbers. For tracking progress, the trend over 30 to 90 days matters more than any single check. New domains under 100 referring domains can fluctuate by 5 to 10 points week to week, which is normal noise rather than meaningful change.
How does this compare to Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz?
Paid tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz crawl the web independently and maintain proprietary link indexes that include billions of URLs and detailed historical change logs. They cost $99 to $500+ per month and are aimed at SEO professionals who need deep historical data, lost-link alerts, anchor-text distribution, and campaign-level link tracking. This free backlink checker uses a continuously updated open-web index and reports the same core metrics (referring domains, Authority Score, top backlink list) without the depth, history, or alerting features. For 80% of one-off checks (auditing your own site, qualifying a guest-post target, comparing two competitors), the free tool gives you the answer you need. For ongoing campaign tracking with weekly reports and lost-link alerts, a paid tool is worth the spend. Our writeup on Moz alternatives covers the better-priced paid options if you outgrow the free tier.
Can I check competitor backlinks for free?
Yes, that is one of the most common uses for the tool. Paste any competitor's domain, get their Authority Score, total referring domains, and top 50 link sources. The data is the same the competitor would see if they ran the check on their own domain. Cross-reference three or four competitors in the same space and you can build a pre-qualified outreach list: every domain that links to a competitor in your industry is a domain that has already proven willing to link to a similar product. The free tier's 10-checks-per-day cap covers most competitor-research workflows. For a 10-competitor analysis, spread the checks across two or three days. Pair the data with our breakdown of affordable link building services when you are ready to start outreach.
How often is the backlink data updated?
The underlying link index updates continuously as new crawl data arrives. Most domains see their referring-domain counts refresh every 7 to 14 days, with high-traffic sites updating more frequently. The Authority Score recalculates on the same cadence. If you check a domain today and again in two weeks, expect a small variation even with no real link changes (this reflects normal index refreshes, not score volatility). For a meaningful trend, compare scores 30 to 90 days apart rather than week-to-week. New domains with very recent inbound links may show "not yet indexed" for a few days while the crawl catches up.
How many backlinks should my site have?
The right number depends on your niche, competitors, and goals. A local service business in a small market can rank with 50 referring domains. A national SaaS competing against established players needs 500 to 5,000+. A media site competing for top positions on broad informational queries needs 10,000+. The better question is: how many referring domains do the sites currently ranking on page 1 for your target keyword have? Run the free checker on the top 5 results for your main keyword. The median referring-domain count of those 5 sites is your benchmark. If your domain has 30% of the median, you have a clear link-building backlog. Track progress monthly until you cross 60% of the median. At that point on-page optimization usually moves you into top 5 contention.
Do nofollow backlinks count?
Yes, but less than dofollow links. Google publicly stated in 2019 that nofollow became a "hint" rather than a strict directive, meaning the algorithm now considers nofollow links as soft signals of relevance and trust rather than ignoring them entirely. A nofollow link from a high-authority publication (Forbes, TechCrunch, Wikipedia) still passes value, including referral traffic and brand mentions Google's natural-language models pick up. The Authority Score in this tool weights dofollow links higher than nofollow, but counts both. Sponsored links (rel="sponsored") and user-generated content (rel="ugc") are treated similarly to nofollow. The practical takeaway: pursue any high-quality link, but a dofollow placement is worth roughly 3 to 5x more than the same link with a nofollow attribute.
What is a good Authority Score?
For most B2B SaaS startups, anything above 25 puts you ahead of the median competitor in your space. Above 40 starts opening up rankings on competitive informational keywords. Above 60 lets you compete for buyer-intent queries against established players. Above 80 is the territory of category-leading domains and major media. The score is most useful relative to your direct competitors. Run the free check on the 3 sites you most want to outrank. If their average score is 45 and yours is 22, your goal is to close the gap to under 10 points before expecting to rank above them on competitive queries. Below 15 means your domain has very few signals to work with and your first priority should be earning the first 50 referring domains rather than optimizing on-page content.
Can I see the anchor text of each backlink?
The free version of this tool shows the referring domain, link count from that domain, and traffic estimate. Detailed anchor-text breakdowns (the actual words used in the link text) are part of the paid tier. Anchor text matters because Google uses it as a relevance signal: if 200 sites link to your "free backlink checker" tool with the anchor "free backlink checker," that exact-match anchor distribution boosts your ranking for the target keyword. For a quick anchor sample, click through to a few of the top referring domains in the results table and inspect the actual link in their HTML. For a full anchor-text audit, paid tools like Ahrefs or our paid plan provide it.
Does Google use the same data this tool shows?
No. Google maintains its own proprietary link graph that is several times larger than any public crawl. The free backlink checker uses an open-web index (built primarily on Common Crawl data and supplemented with our own crawls) that captures most high-traffic public links but misses some pages Google sees. The Authority Score correlates with Google rankings (a domain Google scores highly tends to score highly here), but the underlying link counts will differ. Use this tool to spot trends, qualify outreach prospects, and benchmark against competitors. For ground-truth backlink data on your own site, supplement with Google Search Console's Links report, which shows what Google actually has on file.
How long does a backlink take to affect rankings?
Google needs to discover the link, recrawl the linking page, and reprocess your domain's link profile before any ranking change happens. Discovery takes 1 to 30 days depending on how often Google crawls the linking site. Recrawl and reprocess add another 1 to 14 days. So a single new backlink typically shows ranking impact 2 to 6 weeks after it goes live. The exception is links from high-traffic, frequently-crawled sites (major news sites, Wikipedia, top blogs in your space), which can move rankings within a week. The Authority Score in this tool updates on the index's refresh cycle (7 to 14 days). If you placed new links and want to see them reflected, give the index two weeks before re-checking. For monitoring real-time placement, check the linking page directly with a website metadata checker to confirm the link is live and indexed.
Can I check the backlinks of a specific page, not just a domain?
The free version reports domain-level data: total backlinks to the entire domain, total referring domains, and top referring sources for the whole site. Page-level reports (backlinks pointing to a specific URL like /blog/specific-post/) are part of the paid tier. For most strategic decisions (evaluating a competitor, benchmarking your domain, qualifying an outreach target), domain-level data is what you need. Page-level data matters when you are tracking the link velocity of one specific high-priority piece of content (a launch page, a viral blog post, a category page) or when you need to spot which of your pages a competitor is linking to.
What is a referring domain vs a backlink?
A backlink is a single hyperlink pointing at your site. A referring domain is the unique website that link comes from. If bigblog.com links to your homepage three times (in three different posts), that counts as 3 backlinks but 1 referring domain. The number that matters for SEO is referring domains, not raw backlink count. 50 backlinks from 50 different domains is far stronger than 5,000 backlinks from one domain. This is also why footer or sidebar "site-wide" links (the same link repeated on every page of one site) are weighted as a single referring domain by both this tool and Google. When evaluating link-building progress, track unique referring domains as your headline metric.
Should I disavow toxic backlinks?
Disavow only when you have evidence that toxic links are actively hurting your rankings (a manual penalty from Google, or a clear ranking drop you can correlate with a spam-link surge). For most sites, Google's algorithms automatically discount low-quality links and disavow files do nothing. The free backlink checker shows your top 50 referring domains by traffic, which is the strong half of your link profile. To audit the long tail for spam, you need a paid tool with a full link export or Google Search Console's Links report. If you do find a clear pattern of low-quality links you cannot remove (negative SEO attack, leftover SEO agency damage), the disavow file goes through Google Search Console. For a deeper read on which link types help vs. hurt, our guide on types of links every SEO should know breaks down the categories.
Why does my backlink count differ across tools?
Every backlink tool maintains its own crawl index. No two indexes overlap completely, which is why Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and this free checker all return slightly different counts for the same domain. The differences are usually 10% to 30%. Larger gaps appear when one tool indexes a region or language better than another (Ahrefs is strong on global English, Semrush is strong on European languages, smaller tools focus on different slices). For a single domain, expect numbers to differ but trend lines to agree: if Ahrefs shows your referring domains climbing month-over-month, this tool will show the same trend. Pick one tool for ongoing tracking and stick with it. Switching tools mid-campaign creates phantom score changes that come from index differences, not real link movement.
Is this tool safe to use on competitor domains?
Yes. The tool only queries publicly available link data. Competitors cannot see who checked their backlinks, the same way they cannot see who Googles their company name. The check leaves no trace on the target site and consumes no resources from the competitor's servers. This is the standard model for every backlink tool: the data is collected from public crawls of the open web, not from the target site itself. Run as many competitor checks as you need within the daily 10-check cap. For ongoing competitive monitoring across more than 10 competitors, look at the paid plan or rotate browsers/days for the free tier.