What is a backlink checker?
A backlink is a link from one website to another, and backlinks are still one of the strongest signals Google uses to rank pages. A backlink checker lets you see those links: who is linking to a page, the anchor text they use, and how strong each linking site is.
Most backlink checkers are separate websites you have to open and paste a URL into. Keywords Everywhere is different. It shows the backlinks for any result right inside the Google search page, so you can check a competitor's links while you are already looking at them in the search results.
Check any site's backlinks on the Google SERP
On the Google search results page, at the bottom of every result, you already see the link metrics from Moz. Next to that data is a link called "Show backlinks", as shown in the screenshot below.
Clicking it opens a new panel underneath the result that shows the top 10,000 backlinks to that page, depending on your subscription plan.
For each backlink you see three things:
| What you see | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Source URL | The exact page that links to the site, so you can visit it or reach out to the owner. |
| Anchor text | The clickable text of the link, which is the keyword the other site used to describe the page. |
| Moz Domain Authority | Moz's 1 to 100 strength score for the linking site, so you can judge the quality of each backlink at a glance. |
By default the tool shows just one backlink per source domain, so the list is not flooded by a single site that links to a page many times. To see every link from each domain, click the "Show all backlinks per subdomain" button.
Check the backlinks for an entire domain
You will often want the full picture for a whole site, not just one page. Click the "Show backlinks for entire domain" button and the tool works as a domain backlink checker, listing the top backlinks across every page on that domain.
You can copy these backlinks to paste into Google Docs, or export them to a CSV file that opens in Excel.
Prefer not to install an extension? Our free online Backlink Checker looks up the backlinks for any page or domain right in your browser.
How to use backlink data
Backlink data is most useful when you turn it into action. A few quick ways to use it:
- Study a competitor. Run a competitor's URL through the tool to see exactly which sites link to them, then pitch those same sites for a link of your own.
- Prioritize quality. Use the Moz Domain Authority column to find the strongest links worth chasing first, and skip the low-value ones.
- Read the anchor text. The anchor text shows which keywords other sites use to describe a page, which hints at what it ranks for.
- Confirm your own links. Check your pages to see whether a link you earned has been picked up yet.
To compare two sites' link profiles side by side and find the domains that link to a competitor but not to you, use our free Backlink Gap Analyzer.
How often is the backlink data updated?
We update the backlink data every month. It takes our system at least a month after a link is placed for it to show up in the tool, so a backlink you earned in the last month may not appear yet. It should show up in the next month's update.