How to check backlinks to your website
A backlink is only worth something while it exists. Pages get edited, sites get rebuilt, and publishers tidy up old posts, and links quietly disappear in the process. Nobody emails you when it happens. The only way to know is to check. Here is the process our team uses, and you can follow it with this free tool in a few minutes.
1. List the links you expect to have
You can't verify a link you don't know about, so start with a list. Open the Links report in Google Search Console and export the top linking sites. Add the links you earned or paid for yourself: guest posts, local directories, supplier and partner pages, sponsorships and press mentions. For each one, note the exact URL of the page that should link to you. That page URL is what this checker needs.
2. Check each linking page live
Paste the page URL into the first field and your domain into the second. We load the page as it is right now and scan its HTML for any link pointing to your domain. It doesn't matter whether the link goes to your homepage or a deep page, or whether it uses www. If the domain matches, we find it.
3. Read the result
Found means the link is live, and you'll see the anchor text and follow status. Not found means the page loaded but has no link to you in its HTML. Could not access means the site blocked our request. That last one is not a lost link, so confirm it in your browser before you take action.
Dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and UGC
The rel attribute on a link tells search engines how to treat it. A plain link with no rel value is dofollow and can pass ranking credit. nofollow asks search engines not to treat the link as an endorsement. sponsored marks paid placements and ugc marks user content such as comments and forum posts. Google treats all three as hints rather than strict rules, but a dofollow editorial link is still the one that moves rankings. If a link you negotiated as dofollow comes back nofollow, raise it with the publisher.
What to do when a backlink is missing
First, rule out a temporary problem. Check again the next day and open the page yourself. If the page now returns a 404, the content was removed. Ask the site owner whether it moved, and offer them the new URL if you can find it. If the page is live but your link is gone, send a short, friendly note. Most removals are accidents during an edit, and a polite request with the exact URL and suggested anchor text gets many links restored. For paid placements, check the terms you agreed. Many include a minimum live period.
How often should you check?
Check a new link within a couple of days of it going live, then again after a month, since early removals are common. Check your most valuable links every month. Run a full review of your backlink profile every quarter. Our guide on how to check if your backlinks are still active covers a simple monitoring routine you can keep up with.
Checking a link live vs. using a backlink database
Large SEO platforms crawl the web on their own schedule and store what they find. They are good at discovering links you didn't know about, but their data can be days or weeks old. This checker does the opposite job. It looks at one page you name, right now, and tells you what is there today. Use a database to find links and this tool to confirm them. If you want a team to build and protect these links for you, see our link building service.