Link building is a key pillar for your website’s organic discoverability. Of all SEO activities, link building is perhaps the most time-consuming. This is because there is much more to it than you might initially expect when it comes to boosting your domain authority.
Backlinks for link building
Link building is primarily about acquiring backlinks to your website. A backlink is a link to your website placed on an external website. Both the quantity and quality of backlinks play a role in your online discoverability and, consequently, your Google ranking. Important note: Whereas Google used to focus primarily on quantity, the emphasis has increasingly shifted to the quality of the links. So it’s better to have a few good backlinks than hundreds of poor-quality or irrelevant ones.
Checking backlinks
Anyone who has collected dozens or perhaps even hundreds of backlinks can easily lose track of them. That’s why it makes sense to thoroughly check your backlinks at regular intervals. And not just for that reason, by the way; below, you’ll read about even more reasons. After that, we’ll tell you what tools you can use to perform these checks and conclude with an additional tip regarding backlink checks.
Tip: Use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs so you’re automatically notified of new backlinks and lost backlinks.
Why should you check backlinks?
If you are actively engaged in link building, it is advisable to check your backlinks regularly for the following reasons:
- Link-building checks help you maintain an overview.
- By checking your backlinks, you can verify whether purchased backlinks have actually been delivered.
- You can check whether there are any backlinks that were placed without your authorization.
- You can check what types of backlinks are being used.
- A backlink check can reveal that a backlink points to a page that no longer exists. If you are notified of this, you can change the link (or have it changed).
- You can monitor the extent to which external websites linking to yours rank well in Google themselves.
- If you feel you’re not getting enough return on your link-building activities, a backlink check can reveal why that is.
There are numerous tools available for performing backlink checks. The following tools are particularly recommended:
Good backlink check tools
- SEMrush: One of the best and most comprehensive SEO tools currently available is SEMrush. SEMrush offers many SEO features, including the link-building checker. It is also one of the most expensive SEO tools, but it is definitely worth the investment.
- Majestic SEO, also simply called Majestic. This is a well-known and versatile link-building tool. For a fee, you can perform thorough checks with Majestic. Additionally, this tool allows you to uncover a wealth of other information about your link-building efforts.
- Another excellent link-building tool is Ahrefs. Ahrefs is known for its comprehensive information, reliability, and, unfortunately, the high prices you have to pay for it. However, you can also perform free backlink checks with Ahrefs, though these are less comprehensive than the paid version.
- If you want to use a free tool due to budget constraints, SEO Review Tools is definitely worth considering. It offers dozens of free link-building tools, including a very solid backlink checker.
Monitoring the competition
Once you have a good backlink checker in use, remember that you can use it for more than just your own link-building activities. After all, you can also use it to check your competitors’ backlinks. This allows you to see to what extent the competition is ahead of or behind you in terms of link building. In addition, this might provide you with inspiration, in the sense that your check may reveal new link-building opportunities.
