How to Check Your Website Backlinks the Right Way

How to Check Your Website Backlinks the Right Way

Okay, let's talk about the internet's favorite obsession: backlinks. If you've spent more than five minutes in the SEO world, you've heard it a million times."You need more backlinks!" "Content is king, but backlinks are queen!" It's this constant race to get more. But here’s a question that doesn't get asked nearly enough: When was the last time you actually checked the ones you already have? I mean, really checked them. Not just glanced at a total number in some dashboard, but rolled up your sleeves and looked at what's going on. It’s not the "sexy" part of link building, I get it. It feels a bit like homework. But I'm going to be honest with you... just building links without checking them is like investing in stocks without ever looking at your portfolio. You're flying blind.

Why You Absolutely Need to Be Looking

It's so easy to just focus on that total number. "I have 500 links!" Great. But what are they? Are they from 500 different, high-quality websites? Or are they 490 spammy, auto-generated comments from one weird-looking domain? Are they "votes" from The New York Times, or are they "votes" from a random, abandoned blog from 2009? See the difference? Checking your backlinks "the right way" is about understanding the health of your website. It's about spotting problems before they become disasters. And, maybe most importantly, it's about figuring out what's working so you can do more of it. It's not a vanity check; it's a strategy session.

The Wrong Way to Think About Your Links

The old way, the "wrong" way, was just to count. More is better. This led to all sorts of terrible practices, like buying link packages that promised "5,000 links for $50." People just wanted that number to go up, and they didn't care where the links came from. Google, being Google, got really smart about this. They realized that one single, editorially given link from a trusted, authoritative source was worth thousands of those junky, paid-for links. In fact, those spammy links can now actively hurt you. So, when we check our links today, we are not looking for quantity. We are looking for quality. That is the single biggest mindset shift you need to make.

Your First Stop: The Free and "Official" Source

Before you go spending any money on fancy, complicated tools, your very first stop should be Google Search Console. It's free. It's from Google. You must be using it. If you're not, stop reading this article and go set it up right now. Inside Search Console, there's a "Links" report. This is Google literally telling you what it sees. It'll show you your top linking sites, the pages on your site that get the most links, and the "anchor text" people are using. Is it the most complete list in the world? Honestly, no. Google doesn't show you everything. But it is the most important list, because it's the data Google is actively using to rank you. It's your ground truth.

Going Deeper: Why You Need a Real Backlink Checker

Okay, Search Console is your starting point. It's the health checkup from your local doctor. But sometimes, you need a full-body MRI. You need to see everything. This is where a dedicated, premium Backlink Checker comes in. I'm talking about the heavy-hitters like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, or Majestic. These companies have a different business model than Google. Their entire job is to crawl the web, just like Google, but to create the biggest, most comprehensive map of who links to whom. Their "link indexes" are mind-bogglingly huge. They show you all the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is how you move from "checking" to "analyzing."

What to Look For: A Quick Field Guide

So you've run a report in your shiny new Backlink Checker... and you're staring at a spreadsheet with 1,000 rows. What now? Don't panic. You're looking for patterns. First, scan for quality. These tools all have their own "authority" scores (like Domain Authority or Domain Rating). Are your links coming from high-authority sites? Great! Are they all from "DA 1" sites? Not so great. Second, look for relevance. If you run an SEO blog (like this one!), links from other marketing and tech sites are fantastic. If you're getting links from... I don't know, dog grooming blogs? That's weird, and it looks unnatural.

The Anchor Text "Health Check"

This is such an important, and often overlooked, part of the process. The "anchor text" is the clickable text part of the link. If you get a link and the clickable text is "seoroy.com" or "this great article," that's perfectly natural. That's how humans link to things. But if you run your report and 50% of your links have the exact same anchor text, like "best cheap seo services,"... that's a huge red flag. It looks manipulative. It looks like you paid for those links. A healthy anchor text profile is "diverse" it's a mix of your brand name, random phrases, and, yes, a few of your target keywords.

The "New and Lost" Report: Your To-Do List

This is honestly one of my favorite reports in any good backlink tool. It's a "new" and "lost" links report. It's not just a static snapshot of your profile; it's a movie of what's happening over time. The "New" report is your ego boost. "Oh, cool! That big blog linked to me yesterday!" This is an opportunity. You can go to that site, thank the author, and start building a relationship. But the "Lost" report? That's your action list. "Wait, why did that DA 70 site remove my link?" You can click in, investigate, and maybe find they updated the article. Or maybe your page is broken (a 404). You can then reach out, thank them for the original link, and politely ask if they'd consider adding it back.

Finding the "Toxic" Junk (And What to Do)

Okay, now for the part that scares everyone. As you're scrolling, you will find junk. It's just a fact of life on the internet. You'll see links from spammy-looking domains, weird foreign-language sites, and directories that look like they were built in 1998. This is what we call "toxic" or "spammy" backlinks. Now, don't panic. Google has said, repeatedly, that it's gotten very good at simply ignoring these. For 99% of sites, you don't need to do anything. But... if your site has a long, sketchy history, or you've been hit by a "negative SEO attack" (where someone intentionally points thousands of bad links at you), you have one last-resort tool.

The "Last Resort": The Disavow Tool

This tool is a big deal, and it's a bit controversial. Google provides a "Disavow Tool" where you can upload a file of domains and URLs and basically tell Google, "Hey, I don't know these sites. I don't endorse them. Please, do not count these links against me." This sounds great, but it's a bit like performing surgery. You should only do it if you are 100% certain you have a real problem and you know exactly what you're doing. For most healthy, growing sites, you will never, ever need to touch this. Your time is much better spent on the next step.

The Real Secret: Spying on Your Competitors

This, right here, is the part that changes the game. Checking your own backlinks is defense. It's maintenance. Checking your competitors' backlinks? That's offense. That's your growth strategy. Think about the site that's outranking you for your dream keyword. What's their secret? Well, you can plug their URL into your Backlink Checker and see every single link they have. It's like being handed their entire marketing playbook. You can see who is linking to them, why they're linking to them, and what pages on their site are attracting the most links. This is... everything.

From "Checking" to "Building a Strategy"

You're not just looking at their links to get jealous. You're looking for opportunities. You can sort their links and ask questions. "Oh, they got links from 10 different 'Best SEO Blogs' roundup posts? I should reach out to those same bloggers and pitch my site." "Hmm, they wrote a guest post for that big marketing site... maybe I should see if they're accepting guest posts, too." This is called "replicating" a link profile. You find the high-quality, relevant links that your competitors have... and you go out and try to earn them for yourself. That is checking links "the right way."

It's Your Digital Report Card

So, you see? Checking your backlinks isn't a passive, boring task. It's not just about a "score." It's your digital report card. It's your competitive analysis. It's your health check and your to-do list, all rolled into one. It tells you what you're doing right, what's broken, and exactly what you need to do next to win. So, yeah, it might feel a little like homework at first. But it's the homework that separates the amateur bloggers from the pros. So go on, grab a tool, and really take a look at what's going on back there. You might be surprised at what you find.