Many things have changed in SEO, but one constant has been the backlink. It used to be the case that the more backlinks you had, the higher your site would rank, but in 2023, the quality of those connections is everything. 

You can find the best backlinks for your website by using backlink checker tools.

The number and quality of backlinks to your website or page are one of the most important search ranking criteria. Backlinks are the best way to gain an advantage over your competitors in search engine optimization. 

As a result, you must have access to the best backlink tools. The best backlink checker will assist you in discovering new link building possibilities, learning about your rivals’ link building strategies, and monitoring the health of your backlink profile. 

You can also use it to analyze backlinks, find broken links to remove, check domain authority, and see what new backlinks you have earned recently.

But how do you find the best backlink checker tools on the market in 2023? 

We have done all the research here so you do not have to, and below we will discuss what a backlink checker actually does, what criteria you should consider when you try to find the best backlink checker tools, and the various advantages and disadvantages of our shortlist of favorite backlink checkers. 

So, if you have any questions about finding the best backlink checker tools in 2023, read on below for the answers!

What Are Backlinks?

A backlink is a term used to refer to a link from one website to another. A backlink is typically defined as a link from another site, connecting back to your site. 

They can also be referred to as hyperlinks, incoming links, inbound links, or just links.

A backlink is a significant factor in determining how highly your pages rank in the context of search engine optimization. 

Indeed, a Google team member stated in 2016 that backlinks are one of Google’s top three ranking criteria. That is not necessarily still true, but they are certainly still important.

In general, the more relevant, high-quality backlinks connecting to your website, the higher you will rank in search results for your desired keywords.

Why do Backlinks Matter for SEO?

In general, the more backlinks a website has, the better it performs on search engine results pages. Furthermore, the better the quality of your backlinks, the better your chances of ranking higher.

Each backlink is seen as a recommendation by Google and other search engines. As a result, the more backlinks (and their quality) pointing to your page, the more trustworthy search engines will consider your site to be. Finally, the higher you rank.

So, when generating backlinks, do not just focus on the number of links. Instead, prioritize quality and relevance. Generally, you should target sites with domain authority equal to or greater than yours.

Your SERP ranks will suffer if your site has a high number of low-quality backlinks or spammy links. In other words, having 10 natural, high-quality backlinks is preferable to having 100 low-quality ones.

That is why you should use a backlink checker tool to monitor and assess the worth of your site’s backlinks.

What Is a Backlink Checker Tool?

Do you have more links than your competitors, or do they have more links than you?

Backlink checkers display the total number of links connecting to a specific domain or URL. From the overall number of links to.edu and.gov links to the exact number of unique referring domains, you can filter these and study various different categories.

Backlink checkers show you who is connecting to your competitors but not to you. You can use this to easily locate fresh chances to help you climb the ranks.

You may choose whether you want to view just nofollow or dofollow links, and you can even filter the results to show only one backlink per domain. You can also save the results to CSV once you have fine-tuned them.

Once you have identified your backlinks, there are many different useful things you can do with the data exported from your chosen backlink checker tool. For example:

Search Engine Optimization

Improving your SEO will probably be the most beneficial use of backlinks. The information provided by your online backlink tool will assist you in determining how to effectively boost your backlink profile for improved search rankings and greater search traffic.

Lost Link Recovery

Using the information provided by your chosen backlink checker program, you can identify and recover lost links. 

Examine the 404 error pages that include incoming links. A 301 redirect ensures that both site visitors and search engine crawlers are routed to the correct page.

Improve Your Backlink Profile

Most website link checker tools will allow you to assess the quality of sites that link back to yours. 

When you perform in-depth backlink analysis, you will be able to sort out which of the links to your site are adding anything to your SEO efforts and which are simply getting in the way – not all backlinks are good! 

You might choose to exclude low-quality sites while focusing on reliable ones.

After checking backlinks like this, you will also be able to determine which areas of link building (blog comments, social bookmarking, guest blogging, or others) are most beneficial for your website. 

All of this contributes to the development of a higher-quality link profile.

Competitor Backlink Audit

Examine your competitors’ link profiles for possibilities to boost your own link development and search success. 

When performing a competitor backlink check or audit, you should also verify the incoming links leading to high-ranked pages to avoid missing out on valuable link chances.

Building partnerships

Follow up with people who connect to your website in order to develop even more valuable partnerships. You can also use these tools to locate trustworthy influencers with proven page authority who are linked to your brand. 

Contact them and explore various ways to obtain a link or two from them based on the information provided by our tool.

How to Choose the Best Backlink Checker Tools

Choosing the best backlink checker tools is not as hard as you might think. Unlike many other types of software, there really are not that many different features you need from free backlink checker tools.

The two big criteria you need to consider are backlink volume and sorting features. Let’s consider each of those individually.

Backlink Volume

If you put your URL of choice into two different free backlink checkers, they may well give you two different numbers of backlinks. 

This is because each one checks them in different ways, so some free SEO tools will simply be able to identify more external links than others can find.

Sorting Features

Once you have extracted your backlinks, whether that is your competitors’ backlinks or links to your own website, you will need to use your chosen backlink research tool to actually sort those out and let you filter them into useful categories. 

Otherwise, you will be manually hunting through all of the links to find the ones you need, which can take a very long time.

The best backlink tool for your needs will not necessarily be the one with the most advanced sorting features, as in most cases, being able to access more backlinks when you check backlinks is more important, but if you are struggling to choose between two, the option with more advanced organizational functionality might be worth considering.

The Best Backlink Checker Tool Options in 2023

There are many backlink checker tools available in 2023, from free backlink checker tools with limited functionality to advanced premium tools that can help you find new link building opportunities to help boost your site’s backlink profile. 

Here are a few of our favorite backlink checkers in no particular order. And remember, these are just a few of our favorites: there are many other SEO tools that are also worth your consideration!

Ahrefs

For a long time, Ahrefs has controlled the SEO toolkit industry. It has long been regarded as the greatest backlink tool available, having a massive database and the most active crawler bots after those used by Google itself.

There is a reason Ahrefs has long been regarded as the gold standard in backlink analysis. The Ahrefs backlink checker features one of the best and most user-friendly interfaces out there and provides notably accurate and up-to-date info.

Its database is updated every 15 minutes, and links are sorted into three categories. 

These are Live (all current links), Recent (all active links and those lost in the previous 3-month period), and Historical (all links ever found for the URL, regardless of their current status, including both new and lost backlinks).

This is one of the ways it continues to outperform competitors such as Semrush (see the next entry on the list for more on Semrush’s backlink analysis tools). 

Because Semrush only has one database of links scanned in the previous 6 months, it might be difficult to determine how new a specific link is.

Ahrefs also offers a huge range of domain and page-level indicators that can assist you in determining the backlink strength and authority of any target site, such as Ahrefs’ proprietary metrics, Domain Rating (DR), URL Rating (UR), and Ahrefs Rank.

You can also use filters to go down and dig deeper into the reports and obtain a full analysis of all you need to know in order to create effective link building efforts. 

Aside from backlink analyzing, Ahrefs may be used to research keywords, audit your website, watch your rankings, evaluate content, and much more. 

It is great for anyone who might have been hit with possible negative SEO attacks, providing all the tools you need to find spammy links pointing to your site, broken links, and any other types of backlinks that you might not want to have as part of your backlink profile.

Despite this, it provides the lowest value for money of any SEO tool out there. This is very much not a free backlink checker, and unless you establish restrictions in your account, they will charge you automatically when you exceed your plan limits. 

That being said, if you want access to proprietary metrics like Domain Rating, there is no real alternative.

Semrush

Semrush has always been overshadowed by Ahrefs. Its backlink checker has always been a little lacking because it has historically been focused on becoming a full digital marketing toolset with a bigger feature set. But that is no longer the case. 

They fully revamped their backlink database and data collection procedure a few years ago.

And now what? It claims to have the most comprehensive backlink database among its rivals. Semrush’s database has over 43 trillion backlinks, compared to a little over 30.3 trillion on Ahrefs.

It is also quite quick. Semrush can find new backlinks faster than its rivals, so you will be the first to know about changes to your (or your competitors’) backlink profile.

The backlink checker tool is not Semrush’s only feature. This is more than a backlink checker. It is an all-in-one suite of online marketing tools that includes everything you need for SEO, PPC, content, and competition research.

It may be used for its keyword research features, on-page SEO, rank tracking, social media administration, link building, content management, PPC analysis, and website monetization, among other things.

To get a comprehensive image of what it has to offer, you should get some hands-on experience with it for yourself. 

Semrush, thankfully, allows you to get a sense of what its tools have to offer with a free account or free trial membership. 

If you like it after your free trial, Semrush offers several plans starting from $129.95/month.

Serpstat

Serpstat is another backlink checker and a package of additional SEO tools that has advanced significantly in recent years. Its link index is not nearly as large as some of the other platforms that are more popular right now, but it makes up for it in other ways.

Serpstat’s data visualizations are particularly useful to many users. When you enter a URL into its Backlink Analysis tool, you will get a wide range of graphs that clearly show things like the amount of referring sites over time, new and lost backlinks, and so on. 

This is much more legible than the raw backlink data provided by other backlink analytics tools.

It also has an enormous number of additional capabilities as an all-in-one utility. A rank tracker, keyword research, site audit, and competition research tool are also included. 

These are all useful, particularly the keyword research tool, but its visualizations of internal and external links are the most useful feature.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking is most commonly known as a rank tracking tool, but it is actually an all-in-one SEO solution that provides a 360-degree perspective of your website. This contains a robust backlink checker and monitoring tool.

SE Ranking’s backlink database has 2.7 trillion links. This is not nearly as high as Semrush, but it is close, and it still finds more referring domains than Ahrefs for certain queries, as well as tracking a huge number of keywords.

It includes two main tools for analyzing backlinks: the Backlink Checker and the Backlink Monitor. The Backlink Checker allows you to retrieve backlink data for any website. 

It provides you with all of the information you need to assess the health of the site’s backlink profile and referring domains, such as total number of referring domains, number of backlinks, ratio of dofollow to nofollow links, first seen and last viewed dates, and more. 

Its unique Domain Trust and Page Trust measures aid in understanding a site’s authority based on its backlink profile and other criteria.

You can also use SE Ranking’s backlink index to examine the distribution of anchor text throughout your backlinks to have a better understanding of the terms and phrases on which links are placed. 

This may assist you in determining the overall health of your backlink profile and ensuring that you have the appropriate balance of branded, full match, and partial match anchor text for all of your links.

When you find a backlink in the Backlink Checker that you want to keep an eye on, you may add it to the Backlink Monitor tool. 

Once you have done so, SE Ranking will monitor its status on a daily basis and tell you of any changes. 

Backlinks can also be manually imported into the Backlinks Monitoring tool or imported from Google Search Console.

Another useful feature worth mentioning is SE Ranking’s real time backlink status checker. You can pay an extra fee to see more metrics in real time by clicking Check all parameters on any link. 

For example, you could verify in real time whether a certain backlink is still active and whether any particular links are sponsored.

SE Ranking, like Semrush, has an abundance of different SEO tools to assist you with various elements of your marketing initiatives.

There is not a free version, but because of its flexible pricing system, flexibility to set up user accounts with unique access restrictions, and comprehensive report builder, SE Ranking is also a fantastic value for money for agencies and freelancers.

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is more than just a backlink-checking tool: it is a full-fledged content marketing platform. It does, however, provide backlink data in its content research tools. It is the most suitable option for content marketers.

BuzzSumo’s back link explorer tool displays the pages and domains that link to a website. You can use this tool to figure out who is likely to share your content in order to target your link building efforts more specifically towards link building opportunities that are likely to be successful. 

You can also use it to learn more about the kind of content that generates the most links, enabling you to tailor your content to the most profitable link building opportunities. 

It can also help you to identify influencers with whom you can collaborate to market your material to a larger audience.

But it is when it comes to content discovery and planning that BuzzSumo really shines. It can help you identify the most popular material in your niche and provide ideas for your next blog article. That is a great way to get a leg up when it comes to content creation for your site.

SEO SpyGlass

SEO SpyGlass is one of four major toolkits that comprise SEO PowerSuite, which is a comprehensive SEO software solution that even offers a free version (With restrictions).

SEO SpyGlass promises to crawl 7.1 billion web pages each day and detect new links and referring domains quicker than any other backlink-checking tool.

Simply search for a particular website to obtain an in-depth look at its whole link profile. You can view all of the crucial information right away, such as the number and quality of referring sites, total backlinks, top linking nations, and anchor text distribution.

Another advantage is the Penalty Risk metric. It instantly identifies toxic backlinks that may result in a Google penalty, which you can subsequently disavow using the integrated Disavow File Generator tool.

SEO PowerSuite, unlike the other products we have looked at thus far, is not a cloud-based platform. 

It is essentially a desktop program that you download and install as an app on your device, although it should be noted that some of its services continue to function in the cloud.

This desktop functionality is its unique selling point and the reason it is such good value for money. 

SEO PowerSuite has a generous free trial plan, and its premium licenses (with expanded limits beyond what is offered by the free tool) are a fraction of the price of a yearly subscription to a service like Ahrefs.

Despite its low price, its built-in backlink tool in the SEO Spyglass dashboard is one of the best around. It uses data from Webmeup’s backlink index, which is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date accessible.

Majestic

Majestic is a toolkit containing a range of dedicated link building programs. Its big strength is its focus: Majestic does not strive to be an all-purpose tool, instead focusing on a specific task. 

It is exclusively focused on one use case: backlink checking and link creation, and it excels at it.

In fact, in 2023, Majestic will be one of the few specialized backlink-checking tools accessible. Because it focuses just on this part of SEO, it has far more comprehensive and sophisticated capabilities than others and provides a greater degree of understanding.

Majestic provides a huge range of unique indicators that might help you better understand all of the implications of its link intelligence data. 

Citation Flow, Flow Metric Scores, Trust Flow, Topical Trust Flow, and Visibility Flow are among these measures.

Majestic’s Link Context function is one of its very best features. This link explorer feature is unique to the platform and allows you to check backlinks depending on their context. 

For example, you can filter links and determine whether each of the links is editorial or in a directory, where they appear on the page, what the surrounding material looks like, and various other useful filters.

Majestic offers a free trial, and paid plans start at $41.67 per month when paying annually. There is no long-term free version, but the trial should be enough to get a sense of whether these backlink tools are right for you.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is one of the market’s oldest backlink analyzing tools. It has been available for a very long time, but it has come a long way since its humble beginnings.

Its database was quite small when it first started out, but in recent years, Moz has refocused its efforts and greatly increased the size of its backlink database. 

Its index is still a bit smaller than that of most other tools, but it is continually growing and adding more up-to-date data to its backlink-checking tools.

However, in terms of features, Moz Pro is up there with the absolute best backlinks tool options. One of the best additional features is the link Intersect tool, which is an enormous help when it comes to link building.

It can be used to compare your backlink profile to your competitors’ backlinks. Simply input your domain and up to five of your top competitors’ domains, and Moz will examine all of your backlinks. 

Then, it will inform you of the referring domains that link to your rivals but not to your site in a full referring domains report. 

This data may then be used to reverse engineer your competitors’ backlinks techniques and identify high-quality prospects for your next outreach effort, giving you a leg up on building links.

Raven Tools

Raven is yet another excellent backlink-checking tool. It does not keep its own index, as it is driven by other services, but it nevertheless provides access to a large amount of data.

It is an excellent choice if you need a reporting solution that consolidates information from other platforms, such as Moz and Majestic.

Raven is also a full-service SEO tool, so it can assist with things like rank tracking and site audits, in addition to backlink research. 

It supports white-label reporting and interacts with a range of Google tools, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console, for additional analytics. 

It is easy to import backlinks from Raven to other tools in order to check over all the link opportunities available to you.

Conclusion

Whether it is domain authority, backlink numbers, or link quality that you want to check, these tools are all great options. 

There are many other tools out there and some Google tool options that do some of the things these tools offer, and this is very much not an exhaustive list. 

While there are many other tools that are good, all the options on our list are great starting points to help you find link opportunities and monitor the health of your website’s backlink profile.