Do you need help getting better organic rankings for your website? Backlinks pointing to your site could be hurting you. The best backlink checkers can shed those monkeys off your back and drive the traffic you want to your site.
Most marketing professionals agree that Ahrefs is the must-have backlink checker. With one of the most extensive web crawlers on the market, this powerhouse tool can do almost any type of backlink analysis you’d ever need.
And it’s incredibly easy to use. Plug in any website, and you get domain- and page-level metrics, including the total number of referring domains and backlinks. Ahrefs also gives you domain and URL ratings to indicate each page’s backlink popularity.
It’s also an invaluable toxic backlink checker to help you identify unnatural link activity from “spammy” sites and spot negative SEO attacks. Ahrefs is also one of the best all-in-one suites of SEO tools, giving you keyword tracking, site auditing, extensive competitor analysis and much more.
Pros
Cons
Free version
Enormous backlink database
Data is highly accurate
Live, recent and historic backlink data
In-depth analysis of competitor backlinks
Set email alerts for new and lost backlinks
Get a complete picture of follow vs nofollow links and anchor text for any target
Send toxic backlinks to Google Disavow tool
Thorough breakdown of all outbound links
Only the two highest plans give you everyday updates
Can get expensive for small businesses
Pricing
Ahrefs offers a 7-day trial for $7 for its Lite and Standard plans. You can save 20% off the following prices if you pay annually.
SEMrush offers one of the best suites of SEO software on the market. Among its standout tools are traffic, competitor and backlink analysis. Its backlink checker gives you a comprehensive insight into your backlinks and all links pointing to your domain (and their quality).
This tool helps you understand how authoritative a referring domain is and its location, compare inbound links’ weight on competitors’ domains, check backlink types and geolocation and much more.
SEMrush also gives you a Backlink Audit tool that allows you to analyze links referring to a specific URL or subpath and avoid Google Penguin penalties. You get a toxic score for each backlink and the website owner’s email, so you can send them a request to remove the link.
Pros
Cons
In-depth analysis of competitor backlinks
Monitor the ratio of follow and nofollow links
Email alerts of new, lost and broken backlinks
Seamless integration with Google Search Console
Backlink Audit tool crawls your site weekly to identify potential problems
Send toxic backlinks to Google Disavow tool
Learning curve to master all of its tools
Backlink database isn’t as extensive as Ahrefs or Majestic
Pricing
SEMrush offers a 7-day money back guarantee on all plans. The following prices are monthly. You get discounts if you pay annually.
Pro
Guru
Business
Enterprise
Price Per Month
$99.95
$199.95
$399.95
Must Contact
Reports Per Day
3,000
5,000
10,000
Must Contact
Projects
5
50
200
Must Contact
Keywords
500
1,500
5,000
Must Contact
Scheduled PDF Reports
5
20
50
Must Contact
SEMrush also provides custom plans if there isn’t a stock product that works perfectly for you. For example, if you just want to add another session (simultaneous login) or user, you can pay for this a la carte.
Coupon
Our readers have access to an exclusive 14 day free trial for SEMrush Pro! Just use this link to get started.
Many marketing professionals consider Majestic one of the best backlink checkers on the market — and it gives you a powerful punch for your investment. You get full details about your site’s inbound links, including domain authority, new and lost backlinks and a distribution breakdown of follow/nofollow and anchor text.
Majestic is well-known for its page authority metrics: Trust Flow (TF) and Citation Flow (CF). CF metrics show you the number of sites linked to your site, and TF metrics predict the quality of these backlinks. These metrics are now industry standards.
In 2019, Majestic launched Link Context, a new tool that gives you insights into what content surrounds every backlink you check, including text, other internal and external links, images, whether the main link is an editorial or directory link and much more.
While Majestic’s backlink database is larger than Ahrefs, some SEO experts argue that its data isn’t quite as reliable as Ahrefs. Still, many users are extremely satisfied with Majestic’s results.
Pros
Cons
Free version
Largest backlink database available
Get recent and historic backlink profiles
Citation and trust flow metrics
Excellent ability to uncover new backlink opportunities
LINKCheetah is an affordable option if you’re only looking for backlink analysis for your site. You get relatively basic but reliable data, including an overview of your site’s backlink profile, a Google index check, the ability to identify and remove bad links, follow/nofollow and anchor text distributions and several other features.
The lack of competitor analysis, however, is undoubtedly a deal breaker for some professionals. While its functionality is limited, LINKCheetah’s price tag gives it a definite edge.
Pros
Cons
Get instant notifications when you gain or lose backlinks to your website
Monitor changes over time
Ensures that Google has your backlinks referenced
Updates your link data every 24 hours
View your follow/nofollow and anchor text distributions
Lacks competitor backlink analysis
No other SEO tools, including keyword research, keyword tracking, competitor analysis, etc.
Pricing
LINKCheetah offers a 14-day free trial. You can save 25% off of the following prices if you pay annually. All plans include all of its features.
This suite of powerful SEO tools includes a Rank Tracker, a Site Auditor and two excellent backlink tools: SEO SpyGlass and LinkAssistant.
SpyGlass is a robust, data-driven tool that analyzes your own backlink profile and allows you to spy on your competitors to uncover the most effective link-building techniques. It also gives you fantastic anti-penalty link auditing.
With LinkAssistant you can efficiently manage your backlinks, monitor them over time, identify sites that link to your competition and find authoritative sites in your niche.
SEO PowerSuite offers a feature-rich free version. Although you can’t save your work with this version, it’s an excellent way to try out its tools.
Pros
Cons
Intuitive ability to crunch massive amounts of data
In-depth backlinks research for your site and competing sites
Monitor backlinks over time
Anti-penalty link audits
Deep link quality analysis to help your rankings
Branded reports
Only one user per software license
Some users report slow speeds with larger amounts of data
Doesn’t have a central dashboard for all tools
Pricing
SEO PowerSuite offers a free version — a fantastic way to try out most of its robust features. All editions include unlimited websites and keywords. It offers deep discounts on its monthly Search Algo subscription if you pay annually or every two or three years.
Full Professional Edition
$299 Professional License (one-time fee)
$8.33/month Search Algo subscription
Full Enterprise Edition
$699 Enterprise License (one-time fee)
$19.95/month Search Algo subscription
You also have the option to purchase each tool separately. Individual pricing is the same for Rank Tracker, SEO SpyGlass, LinkAssistant and WebSite Auditor.
$124.75 each: Individual Professional Tool (one-time fee)
See SEO guru Neil Patel’s “one simple hack” to build hundreds of backlinks to your site and boost your domain authority (using our number one pick Ahrefs).
Other SEO Tools To Consider
Often, one SEO tool doesn’t cut it for all of your needs. Many professionals use two or more to cover their bases. Be sure to check out our extensive reviews of the best SEO tools. And if you’re specifically looking for a keyword tracker or site auditor, we have those reviews, too.
While attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s graduate school for journalism and public relations in the late 1990s, Sally began a long career researching and writing about business, technical and scientific topics.
Her decades of experience as well as a passion to stay on top of the latest online tools and resources combine to help small businesses (and freelancers like herself) flourish. Her work has appeared in many notable media outlets, including The Washington Post, Entrepreneur, People, Forbes, Huffington Post, and more.
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