Building backlinks is a crucial part of any effective SEO strategy, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably already working on link-building campaigns. The next step in your SEO journey is monitoring those backlinks to ensure they work to your advantage.
This article reveals the best backlink monitoring tools, what they are, how to use them, and their pricing.
What Is Backlink Monitoring?
Backlink monitoring involves keeping track of the number and quality of backlinks pointing to your website. This process includes:
➡️ Identifying new backlinks
➡️ Assessing the quality of these links
➡️ Checking their status to ensure they remain active
➡️ Analyzing the anchor texts used.
By continuously monitoring your backlinks, you can maintain a healthy link profile, which is essential for improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results.
Why Is Backlink Monitoring Important?
📈 Track link-building progress
Backlinks monitoring allows you to track the progress of your link-building efforts. You can ensure that your link velocity—the rate at which new links are acquired—is on track. This helps maintain a consistent growth pattern that appears natural to search engines.
🔍 Check backlink quality
Not all backlinks are created equal. By monitoring the quality of your backlinks, you can identify and disavow dodgy or irrelevant links that might harm your SEO efforts. Medium-quality links can be targeted for tier-two link building to boost their value, while high-quality links can be leveraged for building internal links within your site.
🔗 Spot broken links
Broken links lead to redirects, which negatively impact the user experience and can cause Google to rank your website lower. Regularly monitoring backlinks helps you spot and fix broken links, ensuring you retain valuable link equity and that your website maintains a good user experience.
🔄 Spot changes to linking domains
Sometimes, the websites linking to your site may change ownership or undergo significant content changes that impact backlink quality. Monitoring these changes can help you react promptly, ensuring your link profile remains solid and relevant.
🕵️♂️ Track competitors
Monitoring your competitors’ backlinks can provide valuable insights into their link-building strategies. By understanding where and how quickly competitors build links, you can adjust your strategies to stay competitive.
✅ Track backlink indexing
Knowing when linking pages get indexed by search engines is crucial, as this affects when these links will start contributing to your SEO efforts. Backlink monitoring allows you to identify links that haven’t been indexed yet, so you can take the necessary action.
Best Backlink Monitoring Tools
Google Search Console
Image courtesy of PracticalEcommerce
Google Search Console (GSC) is a great free tool to monitor your website backlinks. The “Links” report in Google Search Console (GSC) provides a treasure trove of information about your internal and external links. Here’s a breakdown:
External links (backlinks)
This section reveals valuable insights about the backlinks pointing to your website:
- Top linked pages: Discover which of your pages are the most popular and attract the highest number of backlinks from other websites. This can help you identify your most valuable content.
- Top linking sites: See which websites link to your content most frequently. This can highlight potential partners or influencers and also indicate whether you need to diversify—for example, when you have too many links from one or two domains.
- Top linking text: Understand the most common anchor text (the clickable words) used in links to your site. This can give you clues about how others perceive your content.
You can click on any of these entries for more granular reports. For instance, clicking on a specific page will show all the sites linking to it, while clicking on a site will reveal all your pages that the site links to.
Internal links
This section focuses on the links within your website:
- Top linked pages: See which pages are most frequently linked to from other pages on your site. This can help you assess your internal linking structure.
- Top linking pages: Identify the pages on your site that link to other pages the most. This can be useful for optimizing internal navigation.
| 💡GSC Tips
1️⃣Disavow harmful links: If you find any spammy links, you can use the disavow tool in GSC to ask Google not to consider them when evaluating your site. If you need help on how to do this, check out this article. 2️⃣Combine with other tools: While GSC provides valuable data on your backlink sources and traffic, it doesn’t offer detailed insights into link quality or potential spam. Consider combining it with other backlink and SEO tools like Ahrefs or Moz for a more comprehensive view of your backlink profile, including link quality and domain authority. |
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a comprehensive platform packed with features to assist you in various aspects of SEO, from keyword research and competitor analysis to backlink analysis and site audits.
It has a huge range of features, including:
- Site Explorer: This is the core of Ahrefs, allowing you to analyze any website’s backlink profile, organic keywords, top-performing pages, and estimated traffic. It’s also great for understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
- Keywords Explorer: This tool helps you discover new keyword opportunities with search volume and ranking difficulty estimates. It also shows related keywords and questions people ask about the topic.
- Site Audit: This feature crawls your website to identify technical SEO issues like broken links, slow pages, or duplicate content. It provides actionable recommendations to fix those issues.
- Rank Tracker: This tool tracks your keywords’ ranking over time. It helps you monitor your progress and understand the impact of your SEO efforts.
- Content Explorer: This feature lets you find top-performing content in your niche based on social shares, backlinks, and organic traffic. It’s great for finding inspiration and identifying potential link-building opportunities.
Ahrefs is also an effective backlink monitoring tool and includes the following backlink analytics :
✔️ Get an overview of your backlink profile
You can get a snapshot of your backlink profile in the Site Explorer tool. This includes domain rating and URL rating, as well as the number of referring domains.
We’ve used the online clothing retailer Commonry as an example:
Source: Ahrefs
✔️ Broken backlinks
Identify backlinks pointing to broken pages on your site, allowing you to reclaim lost link equity by fixing or redirecting these pages.
Source: Ahrefs
| 💡Pro tip: You can set up email notifications to get updates whenever you gain or lose backlinks. |
✔️Anchor text distribution
Analyze the anchor texts used in your backlinks to ensure a natural and diverse link profile.
✔️Disavow links
Export a disavow file for submission to Google if you find harmful or spammy backlinks.
✔️Link intersect
Discover sites that link to your competitors but not to you, identifying potential link-building opportunities.
Source: Ahrefs
✔️Historical data
View historical backlink data to understand how your backlink profile has evolved:
Source: Ahrefs
These features can help you maintain a healthy backlink profile, identify potential issues, and find new link-building opportunities.
Ahrefs Pricing
| Plan | Monthly Price |
| Starter | $29 |
| Lite | $129 |
| Standard | $249 |
| Advanced | $449 |
| Enterprise | $1,249 |
Backlink Pilot
Source: Backlink Pilot
Backlink Pilot is a free link-building CRM designed to help you manage your link-building partnerships more effectively. It’s particularly useful for anyone actively engaging in a link-building campaign.
The primary feature of Backlink Pilot is its ability to check the status of your backlinks automatically. It verifies whether links are still live, whether they’re dofollow or nofollow, and alerts you if any issues arise, such as broken links or changes in link attributes.
It also offers a partnership management feature that further streamlines your link-building efforts by enabling you to organize and track your link-building partnerships in a structured manner. You can keep track of contact information, link placement details, and communication history with your partners.
Backlink Pilot Pricing
| Feature | Free Account | Paid Account |
| Tracked Links | Up to 500 | Up to 5,000 |
| Link Checks | Monthly | Daily |
| Unlimited Partners | ✅ | ✅ |
| Unlimited Clients | ✅ | ✅ |
| Price | Free | $50/month |
Linkody
Source: Linkody
Linkody is a comprehensive backlink tracking and analysis tool designed to help you monitor and manage your website’s backlink profile effectively.
This backlink checker tool monitors your backlinks and notifies you of new and lost backlinks or link attribute changes (e.g., dofollow to nofollow). It also offers the following features:
- Analyze competitor backlinks: You can analyze your competitors’ backlinks to discover their link-building strategies and identify potential link opportunities for your site.
- Disavow tool: Linkody provides a simple way to create and submit disavow files to Google, allowing you to disavow harmful or low-quality backlinks.
- Backlink metrics: Get detailed metrics for each backlink, including domain authority, page authority, spam score, and more. You can also track your overall link profile growth and analyze historical data.
Here are Linkody’s standout features:
✅User-friendly interface: Linkody is designed with a user-friendly interface, making it accessible and easy to navigate for users of all skill levels. The intuitive dashboard provides clear and actionable insights into your backlink profile.
✅Link visualizer: Visualize your backlink profile with the Link Visualizer tool, which visually represents your backlinks. This makes it easier to understand the structure and distribution of your links.
✅Scheduled reports: Set up automated email reports. This feature ensures you receive regular updates on your backlink profile without having to generate reports manually.
Linkody Pricing
| Plan | Starting Price | Features |
| Webmaster | $14.90/mo. | Monitor 1 domain, 2,500 links |
| Advanced | $29.90/mo. | Monitor 2 domains, 7,500 links |
| Pro | $49.90/mo. | Monitor 5 domains, 25,000 links |
| Agency | $99.90/mo. | Monitor 10 domains, 75,000 links |
| Enterprise | Custom Pricing | For larger needs, customizable plans with higher link limits and additional features |
Monitor Backlinks by SEOptimer
SEOptimer’s Monitor Backlinks feature is part of its comprehensive suite of SEO tools designed to help website owners and digital marketers track and analyze their backlinks. This feature provides detailed insights into the backlinks pointing to your website, enabling you to manage and optimize your link-building strategies effectively.
Here are the standout features:
✅ Real-time monitoring and alerts: The tool offers real-time monitoring of your backlinks and sends instant alerts if any backlinks are removed or broken. This feature allows you to promptly fix issues and maintain your backlink profile.
✅White-label reporting: SEOptimer provides agencies and professionals with white-label reporting options. You can generate branded reports for clients, which showcase the results of your backlink monitoring and SEO efforts.
✅Integration with Google: SEOptimer integrates with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, providing a holistic view of your website’s performance. This integration allows you to correlate backlink data with traffic and search performance metrics.
SEOptimer Pricing
| Plan | Monthly Price | Link-building Features |
| DIY SEO | $19 | One user with no access to backlink research or backlink monitoring features. |
| White Label | $29 | Three users with access to backlink research and backlink monitoring for three websites. |
| White Label & Embedding | $59 | Six users with access to backlink research and backlink monitoring for ten websites. |
Majestic
Source: Majestic
Majestic is a well-known SEO tool that can be used to monitor backlinks. Similar to Linkody, Majestic can also be used to:
- Track new and lost backlinks.
- Identify and disavow backlinks.
- Analyze your competitors.
- Look at historical data and trends.
Aside from these more standard features, Majestic offers these standout features:
✅ Extensive backlink database
Majestic boasts one of the largest and most comprehensive backlink databases available, ensuring you can access the most accurate and up-to-date information on your backlink profile.
✅ Proprietary metrics
Majestic employs three key metrics to evaluate your backlinks:
- Trust Flow: This metric gauges the quality of your backlinks, indicating how trustworthy and authoritative the linking sites are. A higher Trust Flow score signifies backlinks from reputable sources—a positive signal for your website’s credibility and search engine rankings.
- Citation Flow: This metric measures the number of backlinks pointing to your website. A higher Citation Flow score simply means you have a larger number of backlinks. While quantity is important, it’s crucial to balance it with quality (Trust Flow) by ensuring your backlinks are from credible sources.
- Topical Trust Flow: This metric assesses the topical relevance of the websites linking to yours. It goes beyond simply measuring link quality (Trust Flow) by also considering the subject matter of those links. Each backlink gets a TTF score (0-100) within its assigned topic, reflecting its authority and trust in a specific niche.
Majestic Pricing
| Feature | Lite Plan | Pro Plan | API Plan |
| Price | $49.99/month or $499.99/year | $99.99/month or $999.99/year | Custom pricing |
| Site Explorer | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Link Context Analysis | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trust Flow/Citation Flow | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Topical Trust Flow | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Historic Index | 90 days | All data | All data |
| Fresh Index | 90 days | All data | All data |
| Downloadable Reports | Up to 1 million | Up to 5 million | Higher limits |
Linkio
Source: Linkio
Linkio is cold outreach software that helps you prospect and automate outreach. It also has robust features for backlink monitoring.
Linko offers the following features for backlink monitoring:
- Automated backlink tracking: Continuously monitors your backlinks for changes, including new, lost, and broken links, with updates every three days.
- Backlink metrics analysis: Provides detailed metrics like domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), domain rating (DR), URL rating (UR), and a spam score to evaluate backlink quality.
- Anchor text analysis: Analyze anchor text distribution to maintain a natural and effective anchor text profile.
- Competitor backlink comparison: This allows you to compare your backlink profile with those of your competitors to identify opportunities and refine your link-building strategies.
In addition to these, here are the standout features of Linkio:
✅Automated reporting: Generate automated reports on your backlink profile that include changes, quality metrics, and campaign progress. These reports can be customized and scheduled for regular updates.
✅Backlink crawling and indexing: Ensures backlinks are crawled and indexed by search engines, confirming their validity and impact on SEO.
✅Integration with major SEO tools: Integrates with Ahrefs, Moz, and Google Search Console for comprehensive backlink data.
Linkio Pricing
| Plan | Price (Monthly) | Websites | Backlinks Analyzed | Keywords Tracked |
| Personal | $19.99 | 3 | 10,000 | 150 |
| Starter | $49.00 | 10 | 40,000 | 500 |
| Standard | $99.00 | 25 | 100,000 | 1,200 |
| Plus | $149.00 | 20 | 200,000 | 2,200 |
LinkResearchTools
Source: LinkResearchTools
LinkResearchTools is an SEO software suite that offers users a variety of tools to monitor their backlinks.
Here’s how you can use LinkResearchTools to get a 360° view of your backlink profile:
- Backlink audit: Use LinkResearchTools to conduct detailed backlink audits. It identifies all inbound links and evaluates them based on metrics like Trust, Power, and Risk.
- Link monitoring: LinkResearchTools continuously monitors your backlinks, providing real-time updates on changes like new or lost links and referral traffic. This helps you stay updated on the status of your backlink profile and allows you to react promptly to any issues.
- Link Detox: Identify and disavow harmful backlinks from a linking page that could negatively impact your SEO. LinkResearchTools’ Link Detox tool also helps you create a disavow file to submit to Google Search Console.
Here are the standout features:
✅Automated and customizable reporting: Generates detailed backlink analysis and activity reports, which can be customized and scheduled.
✅Integration with multiple data sources: Combines data from various sources for accurate and comprehensive backlink information.
LinkResearchTools Pricing
| Plan | Price/mo. (billed annually) | Backlinks Analyzed | Keywords Tracked | Link Alerts | Additional Features |
| Superhero Small | €399 | 10,000 | 3,000 | 30 | Access to all link data and tools |
| Superhero Standard | €599 | 50,000 | 10,000 | 60 | Enhanced reporting features |
| Superhero Plus | €899 | 100,000 | 20,000 | 120 | Advanced link risk management tools |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Unlimited | Extensive | Custom | Tailored for large enterprises, dedicated support, etc. |
SE Ranking
Source: SE Ranking
SE Ranking is another SEO software platform similar to Ahrefs, Majestic, and LinkResearchTools. It offers tools to track keyword rankings, perform website auditing and competitor analysis, and monitor backlinks, helping users improve their online presence and SEO performance.
Here are the key features for monitoring your link-building campaigns:
- Add backlinks: Users can manually input or import backlinks from Google Search Console or SE Ranking’s Backlink Checker for comprehensive tracking.
- Regular check ups: The tool automatically checks the status of backlinks regularly to ensure they remain active and influential.
- Notifications: Users receive alerts if there are any changes in the status of their backlinks, such as removal of referring domains or modifications.
- Backlink metrics: The tool analyzes referring domains, linking pages, and various backlink parameters to assess their value and impact.
This backlink monitoring tool also offers the following standout features:
✅ Page-specific metrics: Evaluate the quality and relevance of linking pages to ensure they meet the desired criteria for beneficial backlinks.
✅ Domain and page trust: This backlink tool scores referring domains and individual pages based on their trustworthiness and authority, helping users identify valuable backlinks.
SE Ranking Pricing
| Feature | Essential | Pro | Business |
| Price (monthly) | $52 | $95.20 | $207.20 |
| Manager Seats | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Projects | 5 | 30 | Unlimited |
Final Thoughts
Building backlinks is a cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. However, the work doesn’t stop once you’ve acquired those links. Monitoring your backlinks is crucial to ensure they remain effective and high quality, and continue to benefit your website’s ranking.
This guide explored the importance of backlink monitoring, highlighting its role in tracking progress, maintaining link quality, and gaining a competitive edge. We also delved into the top tools available in 2024.
By selecting the right tool(s) for your needs and actively monitoring your backlinks, you can ensure that your link-building efforts are paying off and your website continues to climb the search engine rankings.
Need help with your link-building strategy?
Need help managing your backlinks? Partner with Authority Builders. Our Platinum link-building service includes comprehensive backlink monitoring and analysis, allowing you to focus on your core business while we handle the technical aspects of link building. Sign up today!