How to Find Previous Backlinks (Backlink History Tools)

To find a site's previous backlinks, use a source that stores links after they disappear: Google Search Console's Links report keeps links Google found over time even if they have since been removed, every major backlink tool has a lost-links report, and Majestic's Historic Index holds every link it has seen since 2006. For a single lost link, the Wayback Machine shows what the linking page used to say.

The two situations that send people looking: your referring-domain count dropped and you want to know which links were there last quarter, or you are about to buy or revive a domain and want to see what linked to it in its past life. The sources below cover both, from free to paid.

Search Console: your own site's link history, free

Search Console is the only free source built from Google's own crawl, and it does not delete links the moment they vanish. Google's Links report help page says the report "includes links that Google has found over time. These links may have since been removed, or a page may no longer exist." That makes it a partial history as well as a current list.

The limits matter. On-screen tables are capped at 1,000 rows, and the export button gives up to 100,000 rows of the "Latest links" or "More sample links" views. Google also says it is a sample, not every link. To turn it into a usable history:

Open Links → External links → Top linking sites and export the full list.
Save the export with the date in the filename, and repeat monthly.
When you need to know what you had before, compare two exports in a spreadsheet: domains in the old file and missing from the new one are your previous backlinks.

If you did not export in the past, today's export is still worth taking, because the "Latest links" view shows the most recently discovered links and the main report keeps links that no longer resolve. How to find backlinks to your website covers the export in detail.

Lost-links reports in backlink tools

Every major backlink tool keeps a record of links it saw and later could not find, and the lost-links report is the fastest way to see previous backlinks for any domain, not only your own.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs' Backlinks report has a Lost filter and a status for each lost link (page not found, link removed, link dropped). Ahrefs announced in a September 2015 post that it began collecting historical link data on 13 August 2015, which is how far back its lost-link history can reach. Set the date range wide, because a link lost two years ago sits behind the default window.

Moz Link Explorer

Moz's Discovered and Lost report lists linking domains gained and lost over a chosen period. A free Moz Community account gets 10 queries a month and includes this report, according to the Link Explorer page, which makes it the free option for a domain you do not own.

Semrush

Semrush's Backlink Analytics has a Lost tab with the date each link was last seen. As with the others, widen the date range and expect false positives from pages the crawler was blocked from reaching.

For all three, verify before you act: a meaningful share of "lost" links in any crawler's report are pages that timed out or sat behind a bot wall. The ten-second check is in how to recover lost backlinks.

Majestic's Historic Index: the deepest record

For a domain's long-term history, Majestic keeps the oldest archive. Its glossary describes the Historic Index as spanning "back to 2006" and says it is "good for analysing the history of any given site or for reaffirming past relationships that are no longer live". The Fresh Index, by contrast, holds links seen in the past 120 days.

Switch the index selector to Historic, enter the domain, and the backlinks and referring-domains tables show everything Majestic has ever recorded, with first-seen and last-seen dates. This is the report to run before buying an expired domain: it shows what the domain was used for, who linked to it and when those links stopped. Are expired domains good for SEO explains what to make of what you find. A full Historic Index pull needs a paid plan; the free checker shows headline counts.

The Wayback Machine: see the link itself

Backlink tools tell you a link existed; the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows you the page it sat on. Archive.org's help page describes it as the way to locate and access archived versions of a site. Paste the linking page's URL, pick a snapshot from the period when the link was live, and search the page for your domain.

Three things this answers that no backlink tool does:

What the anchor text and surrounding paragraph said, which you need if you plan to ask for the link back.
Whether the link was removed or the whole page was rewritten, which changes the pitch. What happens if a linking page is rewritten covers the second case.
Which URL on your own site the link pointed at, so you can redirect a dead page that still has links. Do backlinks to a 404 page count explains why that matters.

The Wayback Machine does not have every page, and it archives popular pages more often than obscure ones, so a small blog's post from 2019 may have one snapshot or none.

Your own records and logs

The cheapest history is the one you kept yourself. Two sources most sites already have:

Old exports and tracking sheets

If you ever exported links from Search Console or a tool, or kept a sheet of placements you earned, that file is a dated snapshot. How to track backlinks explains what to record going forward so the next time you ask this question the answer is in a spreadsheet.

Referrer logs

Server or analytics logs show which external pages sent visitors, including to URLs that now return 404. A referrer that sent traffic last year and sends none now is a previous backlink, found without any tool.

A worked example: finding what dropped last quarter

Say a tool shows your referring domains fell from 140 in July to 118 in October. The quickest route to the 22 missing domains:

Export Search Console's Top linking sites today and compare it with any older export you have; if none exists, skip to step 2.
In Ahrefs, Moz or Semrush, open the lost-links report for the domain with the date range set to 1 July to 31 October and export it.
Delete rows where the tool's status is a timeout or block rather than a confirmed removal.
For each remaining domain, open the linking URL in the Wayback Machine, find a snapshot from June, and note the anchor text and the page it pointed to.
Sort by whether the loss was your fault (your URL died or moved) or theirs (page deleted or rewritten). Yours are fixed with a redirect; theirs need an email.

Most of the 22 will turn out to be a handful of real losses plus crawler noise, which is the normal shape. Replacing the real losses is the same job as earning new links; a one-for-one exchange with a site in your niche is the predictable route, and on Backlinkster each swap is verified by API, so a link that later disappears is flagged rather than silently lost.

Frequently asked questions

How can I see a website's old backlinks?

Use a tool that stores links after they disappear. Majestic's Historic Index goes back to 2006 and is the deepest archive; Ahrefs, Moz and Semrush each have a lost-links report; and for your own site, Search Console's Links report keeps links Google found over time even after they were removed.

Does Google Search Console show backlink history?

Partly. Google says the Links report "includes links that Google has found over time" and that those links "may have since been removed". It does not show dates, so the practical history is the exports you save each month and compare.

Is there a free backlink history checker?

Search Console is free for sites you own. For other domains, a free Moz Community account includes the Discovered and Lost report with 10 queries a month, and Majestic's free checker shows headline counts. Full historic exports need a paid plan.

How far back does backlink history go?

Majestic's Historic Index spans back to 2006. Ahrefs began collecting historical link data on 13 August 2015, according to its announcement. The Wayback Machine can show the linking page itself from whenever it was first archived.

How do I find out when a backlink was removed?

Lost-links reports in Ahrefs, Moz and Semrush show the date the crawler last saw the link. To confirm, open the linking URL in the Wayback Machine and compare snapshots before and after that date.

Can I recover previous backlinks?

Often, if the loss was on your side. A link pointing at a page you deleted or moved comes back with a 301 redirect. If the other site removed the link or the page, you need to ask, and the success rate is modest. How to recover lost backlinks covers the outreach.

The bottom line

Previous backlinks are only findable in sources that keep what they saw: Search Console for your own site, the lost-links reports in Ahrefs, Moz and Semrush for any domain, Majestic's Historic Index for the long view back to 2006, and the Wayback Machine for the page itself. Start exporting Search Console monthly now, and the next time the count drops you will already have the answer.