Free plan: up to 100 URLs/domains per submission, 500 backlink lookups per day across all our backlink tools combined. Upgrade for up to 1,000 URLs/domains per submission.
Debug: upstream API calls (click to expand)
| Source URL | Destination URL | Domain Authority |
Page Rank |
Spam Score |
Domains/URLs |
|---|
How it works
The Backlinks Checker queries a third-party index of the public web's link graph and returns every page our source knows of that links to your target URL or domain. For each backlink we attach metrics about the source domain so you can judge link quality at a glance.
Single mode processes one URL or domain in a single submission. Bulk mode queues up to 100 URLs or domains and processes them asynchronously, so you can keep working while the job runs.
Auto-detection. If you leave the type set to Auto, anything starting with http:// or https:// is treated as a Page URL; everything else is treated as a Domain. Page URLs return backlinks to that specific page; domains return backlinks across every page on that host. You can override the auto-pick from the type dropdown.
Metrics we attach to each row:
- Domain Authority from Moz (a 0-100 ranking-strength prediction).
- Page Rank on a 0-10 scale (a modeled score derived from Google's original PageRank algorithm, computed independently).
- Spam Score from Moz (0-100; higher = more spam signals on the source domain).
Plan caps. Per-target depth is capped by your plan (currently 500 backlinks per URL/domain on the Free plan). Each submission counts as one job toward a daily quota shared with the Backlink Gap Analyzer and Listing Checker tools.
Known limitations.
- Not a complete count. No single backlinks index covers the entire web. Smaller or freshly-published pages may have backlinks that our source hasn't crawled yet, so the numbers here are a strong sample, not a census.
- Refresh cadence is upstream-controlled. New backlinks typically appear in the index within a few days to a few weeks of being crawled, depending on the source page's popularity. Expect a lag for very recent links.
What the columns mean
- Source URL
- The page on another website that contains the link to your target. Click to open it in a new tab and inspect the source link in context.
- Destination URL
- The exact URL on your target that the source page links to. When you check a domain, multiple pages on the same domain often have different backlinks, this column shows which page each row points at.
- Anchor Text
- The visible text that was wrapped in the
<a>tag. Anchor text gives search engines a hint about what the linked page is about. Generic anchors like "click here" carry less weight than descriptive phrases. - Domain Authority (DA)
- Moz's prediction of how well a domain ranks in search results. Scored 0-100 on a logarithmic scale, so jumping from 20 to 30 is meaningful but jumping from 80 to 90 is much harder. 90+ is exceptional; 30-60 is typical for established sites. Higher-DA links generally pass more ranking value.
- Page Rank (PR)
- A modeled score derived from Google's original PageRank algorithm, computed independently by a public-link-graph project. 0-10 scale, where the open web's heaviest hitters (Wikipedia, major news sites) score 8-10. Useful as a second opinion alongside Domain Authority.
- Spam Score
- Moz's measure of how many spam signals a domain shows (0-100). Domains over ~60 may carry SEO risk if they're linking to you. If you see clusters of high-spam-score links pointing at your site, the Spam Score Checker tool can audit each one in more detail before you consider disavowing.
- Domains/URLs (bulk mode only)
- Which of your submitted inputs the row came from. Useful when filtering or sorting across a large bulk submission to see which target produced which links.
Frequently asked questions
How can I check backlinks for a URL or domain?
Enter a URL (e.g. https://example.com/post) or a domain (e.g. example.com) in the box above and click Check Backlinks. We return every page our index knows of that links to that target, along with the anchor text used, the source domain's authority score, its Page Rank, and its spam score. Bulk mode lets you process multiple URLs or domains in one submission, queued in the background while you keep working.
How can I check backlinks using Google directly?
Google retired the link: operator years ago, and Search Console only reports backlinks for properties you've verified. There's no general-purpose way to ask Google "who links to this URL" for an arbitrary site. A backlinks checker like this one queries an independent crawl of the public link graph instead. If you own the target site, you can complement this tool with Search Console's Links report to see how many backlinks Google itself reports for your verified properties.
How can I tell if a backlink is do-follow or no-follow?
Our underlying data source doesn't currently expose the rel="nofollow" / rel="ugc" / rel="sponsored" attribute per backlink, so we don't show a Followed column. The most reliable way to check follow status for a specific backlink is to open the Source URL in a browser, view the page source, and find the <a> tag for that link, then look at its rel attribute. We'll add the column the day the upstream API starts returning the signal.
Which backlink checker is the most accurate?
There is no objectively "most accurate" backlinks checker: every tool crawls the web independently and indexes a different slice of it, so coverage varies by domain. The largest commercial indexes are Ahrefs and Majestic, but both gate even small lookups behind paid plans. Our index is a third-party data source that's strong on mid-to-high-traffic sites and less complete on freshly-published or low-PageRank pages. Treat the data here as a starting point, not as a complete census.
What is a backlink (with an example)?
A backlink is any hyperlink from one website to another. If a Wikipedia article links to yourdomain.com/article, that is a backlink to your site: Wikipedia is the source, your domain is the target, and the visible link text is the anchor text. Search engines treat backlinks as a vote of confidence from one site to another, which is why "off-page SEO" largely means earning more good-quality backlinks over time.
What are the three types of backlinks?
The conventional split is:
- Editorial backlinks, earned naturally because someone chose to cite your content in their own. These carry the most weight in search rankings.
- Manual backlinks, placed because you specifically asked. Examples: guest posts, partner pages, resource lists. Quality is on a spectrum here, the link is only as good as the site it sits on.
- Self-created backlinks, placed on platforms anyone can post to. Examples: forum signatures, blog comments, low-tier directory listings. Search engines routinely devalue or ignore these, and at scale they can trigger spam penalties.
Are backlinks still important for SEO in 2026?
Yes, backlinks remain one of the strongest signals in Google's ranking algorithm, but the bar has shifted. Sheer volume of low-quality links does little or actively hurts rankings; a small number of links from high-authority, topically-relevant sites still moves the needle. Use this tool to audit what's pointing at your site, disavow toxic links via Google Search Console if necessary, and focus on earning fewer-but-better links going forward.
Is buying backlinks illegal?
Not illegal in any legal sense, but it does violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines as link spam. If detected, Google may discount the link's ranking value (the most common outcome), apply a manual action against your site (rarer but it does happen), or in extreme cases de-index it. Risk is highest when bought links look unnatural: irrelevant anchor text, low-quality source sites, sudden velocity spikes, or footprint patterns. This tool surfaces what your backlink profile currently looks like, which is the first step in deciding whether anything looks risky.