When one website links to another, then it’s called a backlink for that other website. Let’s understand it better with an example — there are two websites: Website A and Website B.

When Website A links to Website B, it will be a backlink (or inbound link) for Website B. But, for Website A, it will be an outbound link.

Both the quantity and quality of a backlink in SEO can impact your SERP rankings. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Let’s explore that in detail.

Quantity Of Backlinks in SEO

Website A has a total number of 5,000 backlinks from high-quality domains
Website B has a total number of 3,000 backlinks from high-quality domains

In this scenario, Website A will rank higher than Website B in the search results — given their on-page and technical SEO is also on point.

Quality Of Backlinks in SEO

Website A has a total number of 5,000 backlinks from spammy and low-quality domains
Website B has a total number of 3,000 backlinks from high-quality domains

In this scenario, Website B will rank higher than Website A in the search results — given their on-page and technical SEO is also on point.

A sweet spot between quantity and quality of backlinks can help you rank higher in the SERPs and improve your domain authority in the eyes of the search engines

Importance of conducting an SEO backlink analysis

Backlinks help a website rank higher in the search results. It also helps search engines gauge the website’s authority and authenticity in a particular industry.

As the number of backlinks increases, search engines’ trust in the domain grows and considers it a vital source of quality information.

That’s why websites need to conduct a detailed SEO backlink analysis.

When conducting an SEO backlink analysis, you can identify low-quality and spammy backlinks and get those removed. So, search engines continue to determine your domain as an authentic information source.

You can also perform detailed SEO backlink analysis of your competitor’s domain and study their link building game with Rankwatch’s backlink tracker. You can also contact your competitor’s referring domains for guest post opportunities to build more backlinks.

Eventually, you can improve the health of your backlink profile — that’s why you need the best backlink checker tool.

What are the different types of backlinks?

There are two primary types of backlinks:

  • Do-follow (or follow) links: backlinks that permit search engine crawlers to follow, crawl, and index the linked URLs. Do-follow links transfer the link juice to the linked domain, increasing its authority (and rankings). It also helps in website discoverability.
  • No-follow links: backlinks that do NOT permit search engine crawlers to follow, crawl, and index the linked URL. In this case, there’s no link juice transferred to the linked domain. You can use the rel=“nofollow” tag to inform search engines about the presence of a no-follow link.

While do-follow backlinks are more beneficial for a website, SEO experts suggest that websites must have a balance of both do-follow and no-follow links.

An exceptionally high number of do-follow links can imply to search engines that you are following backlink building malpractices.

Beyond do-follow and no-follow links, here’s a list of other backlink types that improve SEO:

  • Editorial backlinks: backlinks present in the body of high-quality and relevant content.
  • Guest blogging backlinks: backlinks generated via writing for another website as a guest author.
  • Business profile backlinks: backlinks from profile bios of social media platforms, medium, and more.
  • Free tool backlinks: backlinks earned by creating tools that anyone can use for free.
  • Author bio backlinks: backlinks earned via author bios on other blogs.
  • Badge and awards backlinks: backlinks earned via awards and badges.
  • Comment backlinks: backlinks earned via commenting on other blogs.

Steer clear of the backlink types listed below because these can have a negative impact on your site’s SEO.

  • Paid backlinks: purchasing a backlink is forbidden because Google penalizes websites that deal in paid backlinks (purchasing or giving).
  • Low-quality or spammy backlinks: most of the backlinks from websites irrelevant to your industry and gambling or pornographic websites can affect your site’s online reputation and domain authority.

You can identify these “bad” backlinks from the free backlink checker tool and get it removed using Google’s Disavow Tool.

What is a free backlink checker tool?

A free backlinks checker tool (or backlink analyzer tool) is a tool that allows you to conduct a detailed analysis of your website’s backlink profile for free.

Using an SEO backlink checker tool, you can monitor anchor texts, active and lost backlinks, domain authority, and every parameter that assists you in strengthening your backlink profile.

Why monitor backlinks using a backlink analyzer tool?

Backlink analysis and tracking is an impossible manual task. That’s why you need the Best seo backlink checker tool, so there aren’t any manual errors.

Apart from that, listed below are the other reasons why you should monitor backlinks using an SEO backlink checker tool:

  • Quick and easy: using a backlink analyzer tool is not rocket science. You can enter a website’s URL and track its backlinks within minutes.
  • Accurate backlink analysis: if you monitor and analyze backlinks, that will lead to several manual errors. A backlink analyzer ensures tracking every backlink and analyzing it accurately.
  • Detailed reporting in seconds: you don’t have to copy-paste the backlinks analysis report to your excel document. In seconds, you can download a detailed report in CSV, Excel, and PDF formats.
  • Save money and time: analyzing backlinks via a free link analyzer tool saves you money and time.
  • Check all important backlink metrics: a link analyzer provides a detailed analysis of your backlink profile. It monitors every metric associated with your backlink, including (but not limited to):
    • Do-follow links
    • No-follow links
    • Active links
    • Deleted links
    • Referring domains
    • Anchor texts

Reasons to Check Website Backlinks online for free using backlink checker tool

RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool is one of the leading easy-to-use tools that analyzes your backlinks at zero cost.

Here’s a simple three-step process for checking website backlinks using RankWatch:

  • Step 1: visit https://www.rankwatch.com/backlinks/
  • Step 2: enter the Domain/Sub-URL/Subdomain that you need to analyze for backlinks
  • Step 3: click on “Explore Backlinks”

That’s all. Pretty easy and straightforward, right?

You can also use the link analyzer to spy on your competitor’s backlinks without them knowing.

Free backlink Checker tool features for detailed link analysis

Find out and conduct a detailed backlink analysis of any website using RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool. Enter a domain and uncover actionable SEO metrics, including:

Find Backlink Checker Summary

ACCUMULATE Every Backlink

  • RankWatch’s SEO backlink checker tool analyzes every backlink pointing to your website and categorizes them into active and deleted links.
  • For quick analysis, you can also refer to the graph representing the link acquisition trend of your website.
Explore Referring Domains Statistics

EXAMINE Referring Domains

  • Referring domains are websites giving you a backlink. RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool lists every referring domain in one dashboard.
  • You can monitor the total number of backlinks pointing to your website from each referring domain.
Check Anchor Text of Backlinks

ANALYZE Anchor Texts

  • Anchor texts are the visible and clickable text of a backlink. RankWatch’s SEO backlink checker also analyzes every anchor text.
  • The backlink analyzer tool allows you to monitor anchor text metrics, including trust, citation, and topical score, with industry categorization.
Detailed Backlink Analysis

DETAILED Backlink Distribution

  • The backlink analyzer takes backlink watch one step further by identifying backlink types, statuses, and more.
  • RankWatch categorises collected backlinks by do-follow v/s no-follow (type), active v/s deleted (status), and link v/s image v/s frame (content).
What is a Trust Score?

We calculate the Trust Score based on the number of clicks from a set of trusted sites with 40+ domain authority to a URL or domain.

What is a Citation Score?

The Citation Score measures a domain or backlink's impact (or strength). We calculate the score based on the number of sites that link to it.

Popular link building strategies to get quality backlinks

You can track unlimited backlinks using RankWatch’s link analyzer tool. But do you have enough backlinks to track? It’s advisable to have 50+ backlinks to your homepage and 0-100 to almost all subdomains and other website URLs.

So, here are some of the popular link building strategies that you can use to get quality backlinks:

  • Replicate competitor’s backlinks
    Enter your competitor’s website in RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool and click “Explore Backlinks”. That way, you can uncover your competitor’s backlinks and referring domains.
    You can reach out to those referring domains via email for a backlink. The chances of them linking to your website are higher since they also give backlinks to your competitors.
  • Guest posting
    Another popular way of building quality backlinks is through guest posting. Identify websites in your industry that allow guest posting using search operators, like industry:SEO "write for us".
    Refer to the guidelines mentioned on the website, create a post, and submit it to that website.
  • Get back “lost” backlinks
    RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool gives you a complete list of lost backlinks with referring domains. You can reach out to those domains to regain those lost (or deleted) links.
  • Use images for backlinks
    Infographics can be a great way to get backlinks. Use the free backlink analyzer tool to uncover the images attracting backlinks. That way, you’ll understand the type of images most people link to in your industry. You can follow the same for other images and infographics as well.
  • Unlinked mentions
    Unlinked mentions are the easiest and smartest way to get backlinks. In this strategy, you will reach out to websites that mention your brand but do not link to it and request them for a backlink. But how do you find such mentions? Social listening tools like WebSignals can find unlinked mentions within seconds.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: What is an example of a backlink?

When one website links to another with an anchor text, it’s called a backlink. Here’s an example of backlink, anchor text, and referring domain:

WebSignals is one of the best social listening and online reputation management tools that monitor (and analyze) thousands of mentions in minutes.

In the above paragraph, RankWatch links to WebSignals — a different domain. Hence, it is an outbound link for RankWatch but a backlink (or inbound link) for WebSignals. Also, in this scenario, the anchor text is “WebSignals” and the referring domain is https://www.rankwatch.com.

Question 2: What is a backlink checker?

An online backlink checker is a tool that analyzes which domain is linking (or pointing) to the entered URL. A good backlink checker, like RankWatch’s backlink analysis tool, also gives you information about the anchor text, referring domain, backlink type, quality, and so much more.

Question 3: How does a backlink checker work?

Using a backlink analysis tool is not rocket science. In fact, it is pretty straightforward: you enter a URL and click on “Explore Backlinks”.

Question 4: What does a backlink checker analyze?

An online backlink checker tool conducts an in-depth analysis of any URL's backlink profile; this includes metrics such as:

  • Referring domains
  • Anchor texts
  • Do-follow and no-follow links
  • Active and deleted links
  • Trust Score and Citation Scores
  • Backlink distribution (redirect, image, frame, etc.)
Question 5: How do I check backlinks?

You can use RankWatch’s free backlink analysis tool to check the backlinks of any URL (even your competitor’s).

Question 6: How to analyze your competitor’s backlinks?

A detailed competitor backlink analysis allows you to spy on their link building strategies. You’ll also be able to replicate strategies that worked for them and capitalize on their missed opportunities. RankWatch’s free backlink checker tool is also a free competitor backlink analysis tool. Just enter your competitor's URL and click on “Explore Backlinks”.

Question 7: How can I improve my backlink quality?

RankWatch’s backlink tracker gives each referring domain (and backlink) a trust and citation score. These scores help you analyze the quality of each backlink. You should always check website backlinks and referring domains to eliminate low-quality links with a score of 35 or below.

Question 8: What types of backlinks are more valuable?

Do-follow (or even no-follow) backlinks from high-authority domains like Wikipedia are more valuable than others. Inbound links from top-level domains, like .org, .gov, and .edu, are also considered high-quality.

IMPORTANT. Don’t obsess over do-follow backlinks; SEO experts recommend that we should have do-follow links and few no-follow links.