To find the backlinks pointing to your website, open Google Search Console, go to Links, and read the Top linking sites list. It's free and comes straight from Google's own crawl. Then add Bing Webmaster Tools and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, both free for your own site, and a paid checker when you need quality scores or competitor data.
You probably got here because someone told you "check your backlinks" and you don't know where that list lives. Or you know a blog mentioned you last month and you want to confirm the link counts. Either way, there is no single complete list of every link on the web, so the practical answer is to combine two or three free sources and know what each one leaves out.
How do I see my backlinks in Google Search Console?
Search Console is the first place to look because it shows links Google itself has found. You need to own the site and verify it.
- Add and verify your site at Google Search Console. A Domain property is best, because it covers
www, non-www,httpandhttpsversions together. - Click Links in the left-hand menu, near the bottom.
- Read the External links panel. It has three reports:
- Top linked pages: your pages, ranked by how many links they have.
- Top linking sites: the domains that link to you.
- Top linking text: the anchor text other sites use.
- Click "More" under Top linking sites to see the full list. Click any domain to see which of your pages it links to.
How to check the backlinks to one specific page
Open Top linked pages, click the page, and Search Console lists the sites linking to it. Click a site to see the exact linking URLs.
How to export and sort your Search Console links
The on-screen tables stop at 1,000 rows, so for anything beyond a quick look, export. Click Export external links at the top right of the Links report and choose one of the two options Google's Links report documentation describes:
- Latest links: the most recently discovered links to your site, up to 100,000 rows, with the date Google found each one.
- More sample links: a sample of up to 100,000 links drawn from all the links Google knows about.
Open the export in Google Sheets or Excel, then:
- Sort "Latest links" by date, newest first. Anything from the last few weeks is a new link worth checking by hand.
- Add a column with the linking domain. In Sheets,
=REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"^https?://([^/]+)")pulls the domain out of the linking URL. - Count rows per domain with a pivot table. One domain with 900 rows is usually a sitewide footer or sidebar link; fifty domains with one row each is a healthier profile.
- Save the file with today's date. Next month, compare the two exports to see what is new and what disappeared.
What Search Console won't tell you
- It's a sample. The documentation says the report "isn't a comprehensive list of every link on your site."
- It updates slowly. A link placed today can take weeks to appear. Checking whether a backlink is indexed covers faster ways to confirm one.
- There are no quality scores. It tells you who links to you, not how much each link helps.
- It doesn't say whether a link is nofollow, and it can still list links that have since been removed.
Other free ways to find your backlinks
Two more free tools cover links Search Console leaves out, and both take a few minutes to set up.
Bing Webmaster Tools: Backlinks report
Bing runs its own crawler, so its list often includes links Google's sample skips.
- Sign in at Bing Webmaster Tools with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account.
- Import your site from Google Search Console when asked. This verifies it without adding a new tag.
- Open Backlinks in the left-hand menu. You see the domains linking to you, the anchor text they use and the pages they point to.
- Click a referring domain to see each linking page, then use the download button to save the list as a file.
- Open the "Similar sites" tab to compare your backlinks with a competitor's. Bing added this in June 2020, and as Search Engine Land reported, it shows link data for sites you have not verified, which makes it one of the few free ways to see a competitor's links from a search engine.
The same Backlinks section also holds Bing's disavow tool, so don't upload anything there unless you mean to.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: free backlink data for your own site
Ahrefs' free tier, which it now calls Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, gives verified site owners access to Site Explorer and Site Audit.
- Create a free account and add your site as a project.
- Verify ownership, the quickest route being to connect your Google Search Console account.
- Open Site Explorer, then Backlinks. Each link shows the linking page, its Domain Rating, the anchor text, and whether it is dofollow, nofollow, UGC or sponsored.
- Use the "Referring domains" report to count unique sites rather than individual links.
- Check "Broken backlinks" for links pointing to pages on your site that return an error. These are the easiest to fix, with a redirect.
The free version shows up to 1,000 backlinks at a time, enough for most small and mid-sized sites, and it lets you verify an unlimited number of sites.
Free checker pages
Ahrefs' Free Backlink Checker and the free tiers of Semrush and Moz show a capped sample for any domain. Fine for a quick look at a competitor, not for an audit of your own site.
The link:yoursite.com search operator doesn't work for this. Google stopped supporting it years ago, and it returns a meaningless handful of results.
How do I see my backlinks without a tool?
You can find some links without any backlink tool, though never a complete list. Three checks help:
Search for your brand and domain
Search Google for "yourdomain.com" -site:yourdomain.com and for your brand name in quotes. This turns up pages that mention you; open them to see which ones link.
Look at referral traffic
In Google Analytics 4, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition and change the dimension to Session source. Every site that sent you a visit by a link appears here. It only shows links people clicked, but those are often your most valuable ones.
Check the page you expect a link on
If you know a site promised a link, open the page, right-click the link and choose Inspect to see the href and any rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" value.
Paid backlink checkers (the fullest picture)
Paid tools crawl the web independently, usually surface far more links than Search Console, and score each one.
Which paid tools to consider
- Ahrefs: a very large link index, good for depth and history.
- Semrush: a strong all-round suite with a backlink audit tool.
- Moz Link Explorer: known for its domain authority score.
What paid tools add
- Authority metrics for every linking domain, so you can separate strong links from weak ones.
- Dofollow vs nofollow status for each link. See dofollow vs nofollow links.
- New and lost links over time, so you notice when a link disappears.
- Any domain, not just yours, which is how you research competitors.
No tool sees everything. Each one has its own index, so the counts won't match each other or Search Console. That's normal.
How to check a competitor's backlinks
Enter a competitor's domain into Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz or Bing's Similar sites tab and you'll see who links to them. Those sites already link to businesses in your niche, which makes them good prospects for your own links. Finding where competitors get their backlinks covers the full method, including a link gap analysis.
What to do with the backlinks you find
Finding your links is only the first step; the list is useful because of what you do with it.
Audit quality
Lots of links from irrelevant or spammy sites are worth watching. See what makes a backlink bad. A handful of relevant, authoritative links is worth more than hundreds of junk ones, and auditing your backlink profile walks through it properly.
Count referring domains, not links
Fifty links from one site count for far less than fifty sites linking once each. Referring domains vs backlinks explains why.
Find what earns links
Your most-linked pages show what other sites value. Make more like them.
Reclaim lost links
Compare this month's export with last month's. When an important link disappears, recovering lost backlinks is usually a polite email away.
Found out you don't have many links?
Most newer sites run this check and find the real problem: not finding backlinks, but having too few. Our guide on how to create backlinks ranks seven ways to build them. Backlinkster matches you with site owners in related niches to swap in-content links one-for-one, and each swap is verified by API; the free plan includes five swaps a month.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see who links to my website for free?
Use Google Search Console: open Links, then Top linking sites. Add Bing Webmaster Tools and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, both free for your own site, to catch links Search Console leaves out.
How do I see my backlinks without a tool?
Search Google for your domain in quotes while excluding your own site, check referral sources in Google Analytics, and inspect pages you expect a link on. None of these gives a full list, so add Search Console as soon as you can.
Why does Search Console show fewer backlinks than Ahrefs or Semrush?
Search Console shows a sample of the links Google has recorded, while paid tools report everything their own crawlers found. Each tool has a different index, so the numbers never match. Look for the same important domains appearing across tools, not identical totals.
How long does it take for a new backlink to show up?
In Search Console, often several weeks. Paid tools can be faster or slower depending on how often they crawl the linking page. If you need to confirm a specific link now, open the linking page and check the link is there and not marked nofollow.
How do I find backlinks to a specific page?
In Search Console, open Links → Top linked pages and click the page. In Ahrefs or Semrush, enter the exact page URL instead of the domain.
Can I see a competitor's backlinks for free?
Yes, partly. Bing Webmaster Tools' Similar sites tab and the free checker pages from Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz all show a sample of another domain's links.
Does the link: search operator still work?
No. Google stopped supporting link: for finding backlinks, and the few results it returns aren't a real list. Use Search Console or a backlink tool instead.
The bottom line
Start with Google Search Console's Links report and export the "Latest links" file once a month. Add Bing Webmaster Tools and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to catch more, and use a paid tool when you need quality metrics or competitor data. The check takes minutes; the value comes from acting on it.
Related: How to check if a backlink is indexed · How to audit your backlink profile · What is the best backlink tool? · How to track backlinks · How to create backlinks · What is domain authority?