Top 7 ways how to check your backlinks

[forcer]

1. Google Webmaster Console (http://www.google.com/webmasters)- absolute leader for checking backlinks. Webmaster console is probably the most accurate source for backlink checking. The big downside is that you can only check backlinks for your own websites. Also, some people say that its yet another way for Google how to get more information about your site - if you are doing something dodgy, be careful.

2. Yahoo SiteExplorer (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com)- if you don't have access to the webmaster console then Yahoo is your tool. Its not as accurate as GWC but still good enough. You can see up to 1000 backlinks for every domain but results include nofollow links as well. You can also export backlinks to TSV file (like CSV but separated with tabs), but only a current page.

3. Google Allinanchor command - This is not very known trick. Using allinanchor command with your website name you can get quite a lot of backlinks for your site. The advantage is that using that method you can get links which were not reported by google link command or yahoo siteexplorer e.g.

allinanchor:www.yourwebsite.com or allinanchor: yourwebsite

The disadvantage is that if your website name is a generic phrase then you will get lots of results which are not links to your site.


4. SEO Elite, Backlink Analyzer etc. (http://tools.seobook.com/backlink-analyzer) , (http://www.seoelite.com) - These tools can help you with digging up backlinks from search engines in an easier way. You don't have to manually check every page in Google/Yahoo as this tool compiles a report with backlinks along with other useful information like Google Pagerank, Alexa rating etc..

5. Alternative search engines - There are other search engines that can give you information about backlinks:
MSN - uses link operator like G or Y - link:http://www.yourwebsite.com
Exalead - uses link operator like G or Y - link:http://www.yourwebsite.com
These search engines can give you sometime a backlink which is not reported by Yahoo SiteExplorer, but mostly its waste of time.

6. Google alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) - This is a less known one. You can set Google Alerts on your domain like - http://www.yourwebsite.com and Google will send you a n email when the link is found somewhere on the web. This is a cool way how to check for new links but Google will report also pages where only your website is mentioned but no real link is present. The disadvantage of this method is that Google Alerts are not as accurate as they could be, sometimes emails are not being sent, even Google have indexed a page with the link.

7. BacklinkTracking.com (http://www.backlinktracking.com) - This tool is build on top of Google Alerts. You can stick there any website and it will report every day how many new backlinks have been indexed by Google. The advantage of using this tool is that you can see if the page has the link really there, if its no-follow and also shows pagerank of that page. (Disclosure: this is my project)

Have I missed something? Any suggestions/corrections are welcome.

[t2000q]

I have used 2 of these techniques, looking forward to exploring the others - thanks

[deccanbazaar.biz]

thanks will check them

[spidro]

i didnt know about allinanchor , thanks

[Pauline]

oh neat, I'll check them. I knew about google alerts but thanks for the rest!

[3walim]

I think allinanchor not reilble
links it more clear
and there are Iweb toll also tool on seochat
and sure backlinkswatch tool
all are useful

thanks

[forcer]

Originally Posted by 3walim

I think allinanchor not reilble
links it more clear
and there are Iweb toll also tool on seochat
and sure backlinkswatch tool
all are useful

thanks

you mean links command on Google? its useless, it does not report many backlinks.

I know they are other tools for checking backlinks but they all use the same source. What is good/special about iwebtool or seochat backlink checkers?

Yeah, forgot about www.backlinkwatch.com. It compiles nice report as well. I wonder which search engines it uses as the source.

[Torsten]

Originally Posted by spidro

i didnt know about allinanchor , thanks

That command gave me only the domain site:
http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en...on.co.za&meta=

Does this only work with older sites?

The rest seems to function pretty well, but I still need to check this out in full extent!
Personally I prefer http://www.smartpagerank.com/ which gives comprehensive reports.

[swedal]

Some nice tools listed - I use most of them

[greekhand]

Great post , ty very much

[freediver]

Great list, thanks

[HydroMan]

7. BacklinkTracking.com (ht tp://www.backlinktracking.com

This site nolonger works at all.

SEO elite is probably the best peice of software to get acurate backlink reports.

[GreatDomainRace]

backlinkwatch.com - nice tool, gives alot of good information on the backlinks.

[tezehe]

Great sharing, but allinanchor command doesn't work

[chip01]

i use this in google

link:sitename.com or link: sitename.com or link: www.sitename.com or link:www.sitename.com

varies on sites.

[Breakaway11]

Originally Posted by chip01

i use this in google

link:sitename.com or link: sitename.com or link: www.sitename.com or link:www.sitename.com

varies on sites.

If you are using that method, then you aren't seeing even close to your amount of links.... probably less than a quarter of all of your links.

You should find 2-3 backlink checkers from the list above, or from my website's list of backlink checkers.

http://linkbuildingbible.com/2008/03...your-site-has/

The first one on that list will pretty much show you all of your backlinks.... plus the PR of the page, the anchor text, and whether or not it's dofollow.

[Nelson_G]

i suggest:

site:www.yourwebsite.com

thanks

[jessecooper]

I used to use IBP to do it but that software is extremely overpriced and buggy!
The best solution is often to use software tracking + another method above.
For example: I would use the Google Allinanchor Search to find out a domain is linking to me, then I would add that link into RavenSeoTools so it is automatically tracked for me. Then my links are managed and sorted automatically and it's easy to check to see if there is a change in status without having to do anything.

[Yankee85]

thanks for the links!

[DJMC]

Originally Posted by Breakaway11

If you are using that method, then you aren't seeing even close to your amount of links.... probably less than a quarter of all of your links.

You should find 2-3 backlink checkers from the list above, or from my website's list of backlink checkers.

http://linkbuildingbible.com/2008/03...your-site-has/

The first one on that list will pretty much show you all of your backlinks.... plus the PR of the page, the anchor text, and whether or not it's dofollow.

thanks Breakaway....
rep points given