Imagine trying to create a budgeting strategy without knowing how much money you currently have in the bank. Or renovating a house without knowing what the rooms even look like.
This is what it’s like trying to execute a link-building strategy without using a backlink checker.
A backlink checker is a software tool that can analyze your website and tell you exactly how many backlinks are pointing to your site, the quality of those backlinks, the anchor text used for each one, and more.
A good backlink checker is essential for your link-building efforts. It will allow you to measure your progress and see how far you’ve come, and not just so you can feel good about yourself—though that’s fine, too.
Using the information from a backlink checker, you can steer your link-building strategy in the right direction and focus your efforts on the areas that result in the most bang for your link-building buck.
In this article, we take a detailed look at the five best backlink checkers in 2024, and discuss some things to keep in mind before choosing one for your website.
(If you’re not looking to run things yourself and were picturing more of an end-to-end link-building service, check out Profit Engine first.)
For those of you who may be catching this article at the tail end of a lunch break, here’s a quick table of contents for you.
Semrush: Best overall backlink checker due to its huge range of features.
Ahrefs: Most reliable backlink checker with over 10 years in operation and statistics to prove it.
Majestic: Most specialized backlink checker with minimal additional SEO tools and unique metrics like Trust Flow and Citation Flow.
Moz Pro: Best backlink checker for super competitive brands that prioritize Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics.
Mangools: Best budget-friendly backlink checker at only $29 per month.
Semrush takes the #1 spot for us because it’s not just a backlink checker—it's a comprehensive SEO toolkit that offers deep insights into the quality and quantity of backlinks leading to your site.
Of course, Semrush has the main features you’d expect from a backlink checker, like backlink quantity and quality checks, competitor analysis, and keyword research databases.
Beyond that, here are some special things about Semrush.
First off, Semrush claims to have the fastest backlink crawler currently in existence in 2024. This is a pretty bold claim, but they back it up pretty well with an in-depth study.
This means that with Semrush, you’ll discover new backlinks faster than you would with a different backlink checker.
Semrush’s Backlink Analytics is a streamlined interface that combines all of the main elements of backlink analysis into one, easy-to-use dashboard. You can analyze in bulk by sorting and categorizing different types of links, or in detail by drilling down into individual links and their domains, subdomains, and anchor text.
You’ll save time by having many different link analysis tools all in the same place.
The Backlink Audit Tool provides detailed insights into the status of each one of your existing backlinks. It includes 28 different link health metrics, as well as recommendations for what to do with any… shady links.
The quality of your links will be constantly monitored, preventing penalties from search engines.
Semrush’s keyword database contains more than 25 billion keywords. Using the Keyword Magic Tool, you can categorize and analyze these keywords as needed to perform the deepest keyword research possible.
This means you’ll be able to outperform many of your competitors with deeper insights as to optimal keyboards.
Semrush’s main downside is its price. Its cheapest plan starts at $130 per month, which may be a bit much for startups and other small businesses looking to get started with their first backlink checker. Semrush does offer a free trial if you’re just looking to get a sampling of what the company offers.
Semrush is ideal for large or medium-sized businesses with the most complex backlink analysis needs.
Ahrefs’ website states, “We’ve been crawling the web for over 10 years, collecting and processing petabytes of data every day.” If you don’t know what a petabyte is, just take that as a sign that the folks at Ahrefs know what they’re doing.
It’s 1,000,000 gigabytes—a petabyte is 1,000,000 gigabytes.
Like Semrush, Ahrefs contains all of the standard backlink checker features, including backlink quantity and quality analyses, competitor analysis, and keyword databases.
Here’s what else you can expect.
When compared to Semrush, Ahrefs falls short simply in the amount of cutting-edge SEO features available. But for most businesses, this isn’t really a con, as Semrush goes above and beyond what most businesses likely deem necessary.
Semrush has plans from $99 per month for small businesses, all the way up to $999 per month for enterprises.
Ahrefs is ideal for businesses of all sizes, though it might still be a bit on the expensive side for startups and other really small businesses.
Majestic is another established backlink checker, with many years of operational experience. Compared to Semrush and Ahrefs, Majestic is less of a full-on SEO toolkit and, and more narrowly focused on backlink analysis. This can be good or bad, depending on what your goals are.
Beyond standard features like analyzing backlink quantity and quality, analyzing competitor backlink profiles, and providing keyword databases, here’s what makes Majestic different from the rest.
Majestic actually doesn’t include a Domain Rating metric as part of its link analysis, describing these types of metrics as the “‘Domain Score’ Trap.” Instead, it uses page-specific metrics only. These include Trust Flow and Citation Flow, which Majestic invented itself back in 2012.
Using Trust Flow and Citation Flow instead of Domain Rating may give you a more accurate view into the health of your backlink profile.
Majestic’s Link Context tool offers an extraordinary amount of insight into the context behind each individual link pointing to your website. You’ll be able to see where each link is located on a page, as well as how many other links—besides yours—are on that page.
With minimal clicks, you’ll have access to the most detailed information for each one of your backlinks.
As we mentioned earlier, if you’re looking for a full suite of SEO tools, Majestic isn’t for you. It does include some broader SEO features as well, but the main focus is strictly on link analysis.
The good news is that this narrower focus results in a lower price, with plans starting at only $50 per month.
Majestic is ideal for businesses of all sizes that want a modern backlink checker without a huge amount of additional, potentially unnecessary SEO features.
Moz Pro is another large-scale solution that contains a backlink checker as one among many SEO tools. Founded way back in 2004, Moz was one of the first comers onto the SEO scene.
Of course, it has all the expected backlink checker features, including backlink quantity and quality analyses, competitor analysis, and large keyword databases.
Here are other features that make Moz stand out from its competitors.
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Moz invented the famous Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics, which predict how well a domain or page will perform in search results pages. These metrics have since become foundational in the link-building space, especially for super competitive brands.
With Moz, your Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics will be as accurate as possible, since you’ll be getting them straight from the source.
Moz has a very comprehensive competitor analysis feature. It will automatically identify the top four competitors within your niche and provide detailed information on their link profiles. This includes historical data, allowing you to see how their link-building metrics have changed over time.
By getting a detailed look into your competitors’ link-building processes, you’ll be better able to close the gaps and build a winning link profile.
Moz’s Link Tracking Lists feature makes it super easy to monitor your link-building progress. It’s basically an all-in-one planning dashboard where you can take notes, categorize potential linking websites by different criteria, and even track when these websites post new links.
With your link-building progress information shown in one unified interface, you’ll be able to execute next steps without extensive reorganization and planning.
One of Moz’s biggest weaknesses is that users don’t seem to know exactly when the company updates its Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics—and since Moz doesn’t officially specify this anywhere, the concern seems justified. Since these metrics are pretty foundational for most businesses that use Moz, out-of-date calculations can result in poor decision-making.
Pricing starts at $99 per month, and goes all the way up to custom pricing for enterprises with the most complex needs.
Moz is ideal for businesses of all sizes in competitive online spaces where Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics are crucial.
Mangools is a budget-friendly SEO toolkit offering the mainline features, but not much else. It focuses on ease-of-use and simplicity.
Its streamlined approach allows users to quickly understand and implement SEO strategies without the complexity and depth of more advanced tools like Semrush.
Here’s what Mangools can do for you.
Mangools’ LinkMiner tool integrates with Majestic’s databases, giving you access to both the Fresh and Historic Indexes, as well as Citation Flow and Trust Flow metrics.
You can get the reputability of Majestic’s analyses at Mangools’ lower price point.
Mangools allows you to view each one of your backlinks directly in the software interface, via a clean website preview. You’ll see your backlinks exactly as they appear on different websites, without actually needing to open new tabs and load the webpage.
By viewing your backlinks directly from Mangools’ software, you’ll save both time and internet bandwidth.
Like Moz Pro, Mangools allows you to save lists of your ideal linking prospects. You can refer back to this list as you do your research, and check off websites as you actually gain those links.
With organized prospect lists, you can monitor your progress in a way that increases efficiency, and also feels great.
Mangools is not a backlink checker for complex SEO agencies or large businesses. It’s a somewhat barebones solution that contains only the basics.
But this is reflected in the price, which starts out at only $29 per month. That’s less than a dollar per day!
Mangools is ideal for small businesses with straightforward SEO needs and low budgets.
If all the information above seems overwhelming, don’t worry. Here’s the list of criteria we used ourselves to determine the five backlink checkers that made it into this article.
Before pulling the trigger on one backlink checker over the others, go through these criteria one by one and consider the implications they may carry for your website.
This is listed first because you need to be aware of it if you don’t want to waste your time.
If you only have a certain amount you can spend every month for a backlink checker, you won’t want to dive into intense research and emerge with your ideal backlink checker, only to find out it costs way more than you’re able to spend.
Generally speaking, you want a backlink checker with a large and frequently updated database. Otherwise, you’ll be developing your link-building strategy around data that’s weeks or even months old.
Best case, this will cause your strategy to slightly miss the mark in terms of effectiveness. Worst case, you could end up prioritizing actions that are actually counterproductive.
Does the backlink checker provide you with only basic data, like quantity of backlinks? Or does it include quality assessments, anchor text information, and more?
More detail isn’t always better—it just depends on your goals and your website’s current status.
For example, if you're a small local business owner mostly interested in local directory and press mentions, then these extra details may be unnecessary. On the other hand, if you're an SEO professional managing competitive niches for clients, then a backlink checker with detailed analytics on link quality, competitor strategies, and more is essential.
One of the main goals of link building is to actually increase your website’s position in the search engines results pages.
To do this, you may need to look at your competitors’ backlink profiles, see where yours is lacking, and build more links in the right areas to close those gaps.
A backlink checker with competitor link analysis makes this easy, as it will automatically compile your competitors’ link-building data for you.
You might open your backlink checker after a week of vacation and be shocked to find things looking a lot different than you left them. A backlink checker that includes historical data will allow you to dig in and find out exactly what happened.
You’ll be able to track the evolution of your website's backlink profile over time, identifying gained or lost links, as well as any changes in the authority of your backlinks.
This one is pretty obvious. A backlink checker should be easy to navigate, with an intuitive interface that doesn’t take two weeks to learn how to use.
And if you think this criterion is unnecessary, you’d be shocked just how bad the interfaces are for many backlink checkers out there—even still, in 2024.
Definitely don’t skimp out on this one.
This one is sort of a bonus. It’s not entirely necessary, but it can be super helpful. Here’s how it works.
When you find spammy, low-quality backlinks that point to your website, you can add them to the backlink checker’s “disavow” file. This sounds like a line out of a Mission Impossible or James Bond movie—unfortunately, it’s not quite that cool.
You can then use the backlink checker to send the disavow file to search engines like Google, through their respective webmaster tools. By doing this, you're essentially asking the search engine to ignore these links when evaluating your site.
This can be enormously beneficial for increasing your website’s search engine rankings. But you need to be careful, because it’s easier than you think to accidentally add good links to the disavow file, and end up hurting your website more than you help it.
Whether you’re running a tech startup or a massive SEO agency, there’s an ideal backlink checker out there for you. Just make sure to do your own research and get specific about your goals and objectives before choosing one.
Backlink checkers are helpful, but even the best ones still require you to “steer the ship” and use the information to make your own decisions.
On the other hand, Profit Engine is actually a backlink checker and a full-on link-building service, all in one.
You’ll get all the key insights of the best backlink checkers on the market, but also comprehensive strategy recommendations. And if even that’s too much, you can take a hands-off approach, allowing Profit Engine to run your entire link-building operation on your behalf.
Strategy meetings are 100% free—why not give it a shot and see what happens?
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After years of experience growing brands just like yours, we know what gets results and what doesn’t. We’ll stop you from spending too much time, resources and money on backlinks that don’t help. We’ll stop you from building links on harmful or useless websites. We’ll use our AI Link Strategy to analyze your competition and give you a personalized action plan.
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