Free Backlink Checker: Check the Backlinks of Any Website
A backlink checker lists the links pointing to a website from other sites. Enter any domain, yours or a competitor's, and this free backlink checker reports its live backlinks, referring domains, dofollow vs nofollow links, anchor texts, link types and countries, then explains what the numbers mean for rankings. No signup, and it runs online in seconds.
Backlink Checker
Links and Backlinks
About this tool
How to check the backlinks of a website: enter the domain, with or without www, and submit. Every link from another website to that domain is a backlink, and the report groups them in the ways that matter for SEO: total live backlinks, referring domains (the number of different websites linking), referring IPs and subnets (how many separate servers those sites use), the dofollow and nofollow split, and a link rank from 0 to 1000. Below that come broken backlinks and the date the index first saw a link, then tables of link types, top-level domains, countries, kinds of linking sites, the top anchor texts when the index carries them, and a plain-language reading of your numbers.
Competitor backlink checker: run the same check on the three sites ranking above you for your main keyword. The gap in referring domains tells you how much link building stands between you and them, and the kinds of sites linking to them (directories, industry blogs, resource pages, news) are your prospect list. The Backlink Opportunity Finder turns that list into a plan for your niche and country, and our hand-checked list of dofollow backlink sites, linked below, gives you a thousand more places to start.
Backlink analyzer: how to read dofollow vs nofollow. A dofollow link is an ordinary link with no rel attribute, and search engines may treat it as a vote for the page it points to. A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", which asks search engines not to pass that credit; since 2019 Google treats these as hints rather than commands, but they still carry far less weight. Nofollow links are normal on social profiles, forums, directories and comments and do not hurt a site. A profile that is mostly nofollow usually means the links came from profiles and directories rather than editorial mentions, and because Google's spam policies require paid links to carry rel="sponsored", a healthy profile always contains some nofollow links.
Referring domains vs total backlinks: the referring domain count matters far more than the backlink total. A thousand backlinks from one website, usually a sitewide footer, sidebar or blogroll, carry roughly the weight of a single endorsement, while fifty links from fifty relevant websites are fifty endorsements. Divide backlinks by referring domains: a ratio near 1 means links spread across many sites, a ratio in the dozens means sitewide links. Anchor text is the other thing to read. In a natural profile the biggest anchors are the brand name, the bare domain and plain words, with exact-match keywords a small minority; when your money keyword is the top anchor, that pattern is what Google's link spam systems look for.
Backlink tracker: check your own domain monthly, and two to four weeks after any outreach campaign, to see which new links the index has found and whether old ones were lost. New links take days or weeks to be discovered, so daily checks only show noise, and results here are cached for 24 hours. A sudden jump in backlinks from one country or TLD you do not sell in is the usual first sign of spam links pointed at you, which Google normally ignores on its own; a disavow file is only worth filing for links you built or bought, or after a manual action.
Limits of any free backlink checker, and how ours compares with Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz: every link index runs its own crawler and finds a different share of the web, so no free tool, ours included, shows every link, and the counts never match another tool or Google Search Console exactly. Our data comes from a commercial link index that crawls continuously; the report covers live links to the whole domain, subdomains included. Ahrefs' free checker shows its Domain Rating and a sample of the strongest linking pages without signup; Semrush needs a free account and caps the reports per day; Moz Link Explorer needs an account with a monthly quota. This checker needs no account and reports the full-domain totals and breakdowns, but it does not list every individual linking page. For a page-by-page export use a paid index, or the Links report in Search Console for your own sites. When you would rather hand the work over, SEO SMO HUB's SEO service runs the competitor gap analysis and monthly white-hat outreach and reports every link earned.
Related reading
- 1000+ high quality dofollow backlink sites, checked by hand and updated October 2026
- Profile creation sites for link building: the ones worth your time
- Backlink Opportunity Finder: where to earn the links this checker counts, by niche and country
- Backlink Maker: the honest rebuild of the old backlink generator, and what its links are worth
- Domain Authority Checker: turn the referring domain count into a score you can compare
Frequently asked questions
What is a backlink checker and what does it show?
A backlink checker is a tool that lists the links pointing to a website from other sites and summarises them: how many links, how many different referring domains, how many are dofollow or nofollow, which link types and countries dominate, and which anchor texts are used. SEO teams use it to judge a site's link strength and to find where competitors earn their links.
How do I check the backlinks of a website for free?
Enter the domain above, such as example.com, and submit. You get the live backlink count, referring domains and IPs, followed and nofollow links, link types, countries, anchors and a plain-language reading, with no signup. When the live data connection is off, leave your email and we send the full summary within 24 hours; we use the address only for that report.
How do I check my competitor's backlinks?
Run the checker on the competitor's domain exactly as you would on your own. Compare their referring domains with yours to measure the gap, then look at the kinds of sites linking to them: directories, industry blogs, resource pages, news. Those sites already link to a business like yours, which makes them the best outreach prospects you can find.
What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow backlinks?
A dofollow link is a normal link that search engines may count as a vote for the page it points to. A nofollow, sponsored or ugc link asks them not to pass that credit. Both are part of a natural profile. Google's spam policies require paid links to carry rel="sponsored", so a share of nofollow links is normal and safe.
What are referring domains, and why do they matter more than total backlinks?
A referring domain is one website that links to you, however many times. Search engines weigh the number of independent sites far more than the raw link count, because a sitewide footer on one blog creates hundreds of backlinks but only one endorsement. Fifty links from fifty relevant sites beat a thousand from one, so track referring domains as your main number.
Can I use this as a backlink tracker or backlink analyzer?
Yes, within its limits. Run your domain monthly and two to four weeks after a campaign, note the referring domains and the dofollow share, and compare. The anchors, link types and country tables are the analysis part: they show whether links were earned or built and where they come from. For alerts and page-by-page history you need a paid index or the Links report in Search Console.
Why are my numbers different from Ahrefs, Semrush or Google Search Console, and does it list every link?
Every link index runs its own crawler, so each finds a different share of the web and drops lost links on its own schedule; Search Console shows only a sample of what Google knows. This checker reports whole-domain totals and breakdowns, not every linking URL, so treat any number as a large sample and compare competitors with the same tool.