Backlinks Monitoring 101: Tools, Tips, Dos & Don’ts

If you are here, then you probably understand the importance of backlinks. If you struggle with monitoring backlinks to your website, you’ve come to the right place.

It’s no secret that almost every successful SEO campaign uses quality backlinks to boost the domain authority and the website’s reputation.

With good links pointing to your page, you can increase the visibility in SERPs and win more traffic.

There are numerous ways to find backlinks, but in this article, I will focus on what to do AFTER you establish a quality link-building strategy.

Why is backlink monitoring necessary?

So you did your job, and after a successful outreach campaign, you gained some high-quality backlinks. Congratulations! That’s great, but you mustn’t stop there.

Your campaign doesn’t end there because now you should set up monitoring for the links.

Why? Well, there are a few arguments.

1. Broken links are a thing

Exactly! Broken links can happen because of changes you make or updates on the referring site. If you update your site and reroute traffic with a 301 or 302 redirect, it’s smart to also ask the referring site to update the original link.

The main reason: with 301 redirects, you can lose some link equity.

And it’s not always on your end. Referring domains can change too—maybe they switch CMSs, edit the article that includes your link, or make other tweaks. When that happens, your backlink can break and start returning a 404.

That’s why it pays to jump on lost backlinks fast. Figure out what happened and fix it before a competitor swoops in and takes the keyword.

2. Website with a backlink can change the owner

This happens more often than you think. And you may even assume that it won’t affect your backlinks.

But if the new owner changes the topic of the page completely and somehow leaves that one article of yours with your precious link, it will send totally different signals to Google.

In the worst-case scenario, Google will treat them as spammy links and give you a penalty. Backlinks backfired.

3. You can monitor the backlinks of your competitors

Everyone loses backlinks now and then, and your competitors do, too! That’s why a backlink tool can be a powerful SEO advantage.

Set aside a little time each week to review your competitors’ backlink profiles and spot any broken links. When you encounter a 404, reach out to the site owner and ask whether they’d be open to updating the link to a relevant page on your site.

Once you earn new links, add them to your monitoring tool so you can keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t disappear later.

You can also look at where your competitors are getting backlinks and aim to earn links from those same sites—no broken-link swap required.

Backlink monitoring tools

You probably already have a few SEO tools in your marketing stack, and some of the following examples may be familiar to you.

Start with the tools you have and know, and if they don’t fulfill your needs for backlinks monitoring, then you can try new ones. Fun!

Here’s a nifty list of tools for backlinks monitoring.

1. Google Search Console

My first advice is always to try the basics first. As a web owner, you most certainly have verified your site in the Google Search Console, so why not start with this tool?

Google’s webmaster tool still shares legacy link reports where you can check domains linking to your site. This includes top linking sites and keywords, as well as your top backlinked URLs (both internal and external).

This tool, however, doesn’t bring any in-depth analysis of your backlink profile. The good news is it’s completely free and easy to install.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is probably one of the most popular SEO tools, not only for backlink monitoring but also for keyword research and analytics.

Ahrefs makes it easy to check your page authority, clean up low-quality links, and track referral traffic. You can also set up Rank Tracker to monitor your most important keywords and review each keyword’s backlink profile.

From there, you can dig into link status and quickly spot any new or lost links.

The basic account costs $99 (monthly) and should be more than enough to track your backlinks.

3. Semrush

Semrush is another top-rated SEO tool that may come in handy while checking your backlink profile.

The cheapest Semrush plan costs $119.95 per month and will let you easily analyze your backlink status. What’s more, the tool has a separate tab with link building solutions. You can perform a backlink audit that will show any bad links that may cause negative SEO.

There’s a nice feature in Semrush where you can export a list of spammy links for the disavow tool in Google webmaster tools. It makes your work easier.

4. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is a much simpler tool than Ahrefs or Semrush, but it can be equally helpful for backlink monitoring. It’s dedicated to this purpose, with some additional options, but it does its work right.

For $39 per month, you can analyze the referring domains, linking pages, and anchor texts, measure the backlink value, and monitor competitors’ backlinks.

Additionally, this SEO tool includes keyword rank tracking, website audit, and some other practical features. Overall, a good choice for a simple tool to monitor your website backlinks.

5. Monitor Backlinks

A straightforward monitoring tool with a friendly UI, with plans starting at just $20/month.

It focuses exclusively on tracking inbound links and keyword rankings, so you can see your backlink count, get a detailed breakdown of existing links, and check your domain score. Want to monitor competitors or other sites too? That’s available as a paid add-on.

All your backlinks are neatly organized in a clean, spreadsheet-style view, making it easy to review key metrics at a glance.

6. Open Link Profiler

A great tool to start your backlinks audit because it features a free version. Simply enter your domain on the page, and get a completely free report with hundreds of backlinks.

It will show you which anchor text is the most popular, analyze your bad backlinks, show which countries the backlinks come from, and more. Then you can export the complete backlink profile to a .csv file (limited to 100 links in the free version).

7. Linkio

This solution will allow you to automate your backlink campaign with cold outreach and anchor text suggestions.

Backlink monitoring is a separate segment of Linkio that features its own crawler. You will automatically check indexed backlinks, and the tool will show you all necessary data, such as the domain authority, spam score, link changes (new/lost), and more. You can integrate it with Ahrefs, Google webmaster tools (GSC), and Moz.

The cheapest plan costs $19.99, billed monthly.

8. LinkBox

Next up is LinkBox, a handy backlink checker that helps you monitor backlinks and see whether pages are indexed. You can get started with 100 free credits and use them however you want—for example, 0.3 credits to check a page’s index status, or 0.5 credits to check domain trust. After that, 100 credits cost $1.

It’s a solid pick for SEOs who want a more flexible plan and don’t want to pay the same monthly fee every month.

Bonus: Brand24

Although Brand24 isn’t really a tool to monitor backlinks, it can be used to boost your link building efforts. Here’s how you can use our solution for a link building campaign.

Brand24 is good for finding the anchor text for all your links. Create a project for a keyword and start gathering mentions across the web. You can then filter out the social media (you want to get as many links as possible from blogs, forums, news, etc.) and check the pages if they fit your link profile.

Then all you have to do is write to the site admin and ask for some juicy links.

Here’s a little bit more on how to find unlinked mentions.

📚 Further read: Learn more about Backlinks Checker!

Start monitoring backlinks pointing to your site today!

With these tools and my tips, you’ve probably got a good sense of why keeping an eye on your backlinks matters. Make it a habit to check them manually or use a tool that sends you regular reports.

Solid SEO isn’t just about keyword research! Links are just as important.

Are you ready to monitor backlinks now? Check out our other articles about SEO and marketing to learn more!

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