You can start checking your backlinks for free, and the best place is Google Search Console. It's a direct look at Google's own data, showing you which websites link to you without needing expensive software.
Why Your Backlinks Are Key for SEO Growth
Before we get into the how, let's quickly cover the why. People often see backlinks as just a list of websites. But they are a powerful sign of your website’s online reputation. In Google's eyes, each quality link is like a vote of confidence for your site.
Keeping an eye on these "votes" is a must-do task for any business serious about growth. It’s the clearest way to see which content is working well and getting attention from other sites. This process gives you more than just numbers.
Your backlink profile tells a story about your brand's authority and trust. Looking at it helps you understand which relationships are driving real growth and where new opportunities are.
Understanding Your Online Reputation
The main challenge is that Google doesn't make all its backlink data public. The most reliable way to check backlinks directly with Google is through your Google Search Console account. The "Links" report there shows you which websites Google has found that point to your site.
Of course, checking your existing links is only half the job. You also need a solid plan for getting new ones. For a deeper look at smart strategies, you can explore methods for earning high authority links.
This whole process is a basic part of SEO. If you want to master it, you might also be interested in our guide on https://seoroast.com/blog/how-to-build-quality-backlinks.
Finding Your Backlinks with Google Search Console
If you want to know what Google thinks about your backlinks, it’s best to go straight to the source.
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that gives you a direct, clear look at how Google sees your site. This includes a fairly complete list of the links pointing to you. I always start here—it’s not just for finding links, it's also free market research on your own brand.
First, you need to verify your site in GSC. Once you're logged in, it's easy. Look for the ‘Links’ report in the left-hand menu. Clicking this opens up a page full of data on your external and internal links.
Finding Your Biggest Supporters
The first place I always check is the ‘Top linking sites’ report. This is exactly what it sounds like: a list of the websites that link to you the most.
Think of these as your biggest fans. They’re the ones who have mentioned your content, given a shout-out to your product, or pointed to your expertise.
Getting lots of links from one high-quality site is a huge vote of confidence. If you're just starting out, finding these top sites is a big win. They aren't just names in a list; they're potential partners you should be building relationships with. One strong connection with a key linking site is often worth more than a hundred low-quality links.
This infographic shows how to find and understand this data right inside GSC.
It's a quick visual guide, from logging in to spotting your strongest supporters in the 'Links' report.
Seeing How Others Describe You
Next, go to the ‘Top linking text’ report. This one shows you the exact words, or anchor text, other sites use when they link to you. The anchor text is the clickable part of a link, and it tells both people and search engines what the linked page is about.
This report is a goldmine for understanding how your brand is seen online. Are people using your brand name? A specific keyword you’re targeting? Or just a generic phrase like “click here”? The language used here shows how others see you.
For example, if your company name appears a lot, that's great for brand building. If you see specific keywords tied to your services, it means your content is hitting the mark.
By checking this, you can see if your SEO and brand messages are working. This is the kind of insight you need to adjust your content strategy and make sure your message is being received as you intended.
Using Google Search to Find Untracked Links
Google Search Console is great for seeing the links Google has already found, but what about brand-new ones? Sometimes, you need a way to spot a fresh mention quickly, long before it shows up in an SEO tool.
This is where a simple but smart Google search can help.
Forget the old
link: search command. It's outdated and no longer reliable. The real trick is using a specific search query that finds mentions of your website across the web while filtering out results from your own site. It’s perfect for finding new press features, forum discussions, or blog posts that were just published.The Search Operator Trick
The search query is very simple. You’re telling Google to find the exact text of your domain name and then remove any pages from your own website.
Here’s the format you can copy and paste into Google. Just replace "yourwebsite.com" with your own domain:
"yourwebsite.com" -site:yourwebsite.comThis one little command tells Google to show you every indexed page that mentions your domain name, except for pages on your actual domain. Simple, right?
This method is a goldmine for spotting unlinked brand mentions. If you find a great review or an article that talks about your company but doesn't link back, that’s a perfect opportunity. You can reach out and ask them to add a link.
This technique is also a small part of a much bigger picture. To get a handle on your full online visibility, including mentions that aren't traditional backlinks, it's worth reading an ultimate guide to checking and managing your online presence.
Using this search operator is a fast, free, and surprisingly effective way to keep up with the conversation about your brand online.
Measuring Backlink Value with Google Analytics 4
While Google Search Console shows you who links to your site, it doesn't answer a more important question: which of those links are actually doing anything?
A backlink that looks great but sends zero visitors is just for show. The real value comes from links that bring real, interested users to your site. This is where Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is useful.
Here, we move from just counting links to measuring their real impact. We're going beyond SEO scores and looking at actual business results. It’s all about connecting your link building efforts to user behavior and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Finding Your Top Referral Partners
Your goal is to find which websites are sending you not just any visitors, but visitors who stay, engage with your content, and maybe even buy something.
Imagine finding out that a small, niche blog sends you five high-paying customers every month. That’s a backlink worth its weight in gold, and GA4 is how you find it.
To see this, go to your GA4 account and navigate to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. From there, you can filter your traffic to see only your 'referral' sources. This report shows which external websites are sending you visitors. More importantly, it lets you see the quality of that traffic based on how users behave on your site.
Finding your most valuable referral partners is less about SEO scores and more about business smarts. A single link from a highly relevant community can often do more than dozens of links from generic, high-authority websites.
This data-first approach lets you focus your outreach and relationship-building where it actually counts.
Once you know which sites are sending you quality traffic, you can do more of what works. Maybe you can create more content with them or look for similar opportunities with other sites in that niche. This is a key piece of the puzzle for understanding your true SEO return on investment (ROI).
If you want to get deeper into this topic, check out our full guide on how to measure SEO ROI for more useful tips.
Going Deeper with Third-Party Backlink Tools
While Google's own tools are a great starting point, they don't show the whole picture. To get a real competitive advantage, especially when looking at your competition, you’ll need to use powerful, third-party SEO tools.
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz are the industry standard for a reason. These services use their own web crawlers to constantly index the internet and build their own link databases. This gives them a much more complete and current view of the web's links than what Google shares publicly in Search Console.
The real power of these tools is in competitor analysis. They let you see exactly where your rivals get their best links, giving you a clear roadmap for your own link building campaigns.
Why Use a Dedicated Tool?
Investing in a paid tool is a good idea when you're ready to move from just watching your links to actively building your backlink profile. They offer several key benefits that free tools simply can't match.
- Competitor Insights: This is the most important one. You can find the exact links that are helping your competitors rank. Even better, you can see which sites link to them but not to you, which gives you a ready-made list of new sites to contact.
- Link Health Monitoring: These tools are key for finding potentially harmful or "toxic" links. They can flag low-quality or spammy links that could be hurting your site's reputation in Google's eyes.
- Dynamic Tracking: Get alerts for new and lost backlinks. Knowing the moment you lose a valuable link lets you reach out and try to get it back before it hurts your rankings.
Of course, not all tools are the same, especially when it comes to the accuracy of their data. One in-depth backlink checker study from Ahrefs analyzed 10,000 backlinks and found that their own tool reported the lowest number of dead links (8.3%).
This made it much more accurate than competitors like MOZ (17.6%) and Semrush (19.3%) in that particular test.
Choosing the right tool is just one part of the process. For a wider look at what’s available, explore our breakdown of the best SEO audit tools to find the perfect fit for your startup's needs and budget.
Common Questions About Checking Backlinks
As you start analyzing backlinks, you're likely to have a few questions. It happens to everyone. Let's clear up some of the most common questions I hear so you can move forward with confidence.
Why Can't I See All My Backlinks in GSC?
This is the most common point of confusion. You know you got a link from a certain site, but it's not showing up in Google Search Console. What's going on?
It’s not a mistake. GSC is designed to show you a large, representative sample of your links—not every single one. Google’s goal is to show you the links it thinks are most important for your site's ranking, giving you enough data to check your link profile's health without overwhelming you with information.
How Often Should I Check My Backlinks?
For most businesses, a monthly check-in is a good balance. It’s often enough to catch important changes without taking up too much time.
When you do your monthly review, look for a few key things:
- New high-value links: Did a major site link to you? That’s something to celebrate—and maybe a new relationship to build.
- A sudden increase in spam: Catching a negative SEO attack early is important. A quick check can save you a huge headache later.
- Lost valuable links: Good links sometimes disappear. Finding a lost link gives you a chance to reach out and try to get it back.
If you're in the middle of a big link building campaign or you're in a very competitive industry, you might want to check weekly instead.
What Should I Do About a Bad Backlink?
First: don't panic. Google's algorithm is very smart these days. It has gotten good at identifying low-quality or spammy links and simply ignoring them. 99% of the time, you don't need to do anything.
The only exception is if you get a manual penalty from Google or see a massive, targeted negative SEO campaign against your site. Only then should you think about using Google's Disavow Tool.
This is an advanced tool and should be used with extreme care, only as a last resort. Using it incorrectly can do more harm than good.
At SEO Roast, we turn these complex questions into clear, actionable strategies. Stop guessing about your backlink profile and get a founder-focused audit that delivers a prioritized plan to grow your organic traffic. See how we've helped startups like Framer and Resend at https://seoroast.co.
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