How Many Backlinks Does My Website Have? 5 Free Ways to Check

To find out how many backlinks your website has, start with Google Search Console's Links report, then compare it with Bing Webmaster Tools and one third-party index such as Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. No single tool shows every link, so the honest answer is a range, not one number. Here are five free ways to check, what each one actually counts, and how to read the differences.

Published: 2026-10-16 · 7 min read · Satelo

The quick answer: which free tool to use

If you only have five minutes: check Search Console for your own site, then Bing Webmaster Tools for a second opinion. The rest of this guide covers each method and why the numbers will not match.

1. Google Search Console: the Links report

For your own site, this is the first stop, because it reflects links Google has actually found. In Search Console, open Links in the left menu. Google's Links report documentation describes what you will see:

• Top linked pages: which of your pages have the most backlinks from other sites.
• Top linking sites: which sites link to you most, grouped by root domain.
• Top linking text: the anchor text other sites use.
• Internal links: how your own pages link to each other.

Know the limits before you quote a number. Google says plainly that "this report isn't a comprehensive list of every link on your site." Tables are capped at 1,000 rows, exports of the "Latest links" and "More sample links" slices go up to 100,000 rows, and some links listed may already be gone. The report also "doesn't specify if a link is marked as nofollow," so you cannot use it to separate sponsored links from editorial ones.

How to get a count: click More under Top linking sites to see the number of linking domains, and use Export external links for the latest links. For most small sites, the number of linking sites is more meaningful than the total link count, because one sitewide footer link can create thousands of "links" from a single domain.

2. Bing Webmaster Tools: Backlinks

Bing runs its own crawler and its own index, which makes it a useful second opinion. In Bing's own words, the Backlinks tool "lists backlinks for any site, including similar sites" (Bing Webmaster Blog).

That second part matters: unlike Search Console, Bing lets you look at sites you do not own. To get started you add your own site; if it is already verified in Search Console, Bing lets you import it from there instead of verifying again.

• Open Backlinks and review referring domains, linking pages and anchor text for your site.
• Use the option for other sites to compare your profile with a competitor or a site you are thinking of publishing on.
• Export to CSV and keep the file, so you can compare next quarter.

Bing will not see exactly the same links as Google. That is a feature, not a bug: two independent crawls together give you a better picture than either alone.

3. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (and the free backlink checker)

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for sites you verify. It includes Site Explorer, where free users can see up to 1,000 backlinks at a time with sorting and filtering, plus Site Audit. Analyzing sites you do not own requires a paid plan.

For a quick look at any domain without verifying, Ahrefs also has a public free backlink checker. It shows headline metrics such as referring domains, backlinks and Domain Rating, plus a short list of top links. Treat it as a glimpse: the full lists are behind the paid product.

If you want to go further without paying for a suite, our roundup of free Ahrefs alternatives compares other options, and cheap Ahrefs alternatives covers low-cost paid tools.

4. Moz Link Explorer

Moz Link Explorer presents itself as a free backlink checker that shows Domain Authority, Page Authority and linking domains for any site. You need a free Moz account, and the free tier has usage limits that Moz changes from time to time, so check the current allowance on its site before you plan a big audit.

Moz is most useful for its linking-domain count and its Domain Authority score. Remember that DA is Moz's own model, not something Google uses; our explainer on domain authority covers how to read it. Moz also publishes a Spam Score, explained in our Moz Spam Score guide.

5. Common Crawl's web graph (raw data)

Common Crawl is a nonprofit that publishes open web crawl data. It "regularly releases host- and domain-level graphs" built from its crawls, with releases covering rolling three-month windows. The domain graph aggregates hosts up to the registrable domain.

This is not a point-and-click backlink checker. The files are large and meant for researchers. But it has one big advantage: it is open data that anyone can verify, not a vendor's estimate. It tells you whether a domain is part of the open link graph at all and roughly how central it is, which is a useful sanity check against commercial scores.

Why the numbers never match

Run the same domain through all five methods and you will get five different counts. That is normal. The main reasons:

• Different crawls. Google, Bing, Ahrefs, Moz and Common Crawl each discover a different slice of the web, at different speeds.
• Different definitions. Some tools count every link, including sitewide footer links; others group by domain. Some include links to redirects or images.
• Different freshness. Some tools keep links they saw months ago; others drop links once they are not found again. Google notes that links in its report "may have since been removed."
• Filtering. Vendors filter spammy or low-value pages from their indexes in different ways, and those rules are not public in full.
• Free-tier truncation. A free view might show the first page of results or a capped number of rows, not the whole profile.

Worked example, for illustration only: imagine a small blog. Search Console lists 38 linking sites, Bing shows 31 referring domains, and a third-party checker reports 54. The useful reading is "roughly 30 to 55 sites link to us, and the overlap is the solid core," not "we have exactly 54 backlinks."

How to audit your backlinks in 20 minutes

1. Export external links from Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
2. Paste both domain lists into one spreadsheet and remove duplicates. The combined, deduplicated list of linking domains is your working count.
3. Mark each domain: relevant to your topic, unrelated, or obviously spammy.
4. Note which of your pages attract links. That shows what kind of content earns mentions.
5. Check a few links by hand. Is the page live? Is the link still there?
6. Leave random spammy links alone in most cases. Google's disavow documentation says it "can assess which links to trust without additional guidance" and that "most sites will not need to use this tool." Disavowing is for a considerable number of artificial links that have caused, or likely will cause, a manual action.
7. Repeat every quarter with the same tools, so you compare like with like.

"Have" vs. "need": the next question

Knowing how many backlinks you have is a starting point. The usual follow-up, "how many do I need to rank?", has no fixed answer; it depends on the query and on who already ranks for it. We cover how to estimate that from the pages you compete with in how many backlinks do I need.

One rule applies whatever the number: links you pay for or exchange must be qualified with rel="sponsored" or nofollow. Google's spam policies list "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam.

What to do next

Satelo is not a backlink checker and will not list your links. What it does is different: the free Quality Score check shows in one place whether your domain appears in Common Crawl's web graph (and its rank there), whether it is in Tranco and the Majestic Million, plus domain age and page speed. It is built mostly on open data, and every number comes with the evidence behind it, which makes it a quick sanity check next to the counts from the tools above.

FAQ

How can I see how many backlinks my website has for free?

Use Google Search Console's Links report for your own site, then compare it with Bing Webmaster Tools' Backlinks report. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is also free for verified sites. Combine and deduplicate the linking domains for a realistic count.

How do I check how many backlinks another website has?

Bing Webmaster Tools can show backlinks for other sites, and free checkers from Ahrefs and Moz show headline counts for any domain. For full lists of a competitor's links, most commercial tools require a paid plan.

Why does Search Console show fewer backlinks than Ahrefs?

Each tool crawls a different part of the web and counts links differently. Google also says its Links report is not a complete list, shows a sample, and caps tables at 1,000 rows. Neither number is the true total.

Does Google Search Console show all backlinks?

No. Google states that the Links report isn't a comprehensive list of every link to your site, and some links in it may have been removed. It also does not mark which links are nofollow.

Is the number of backlinks or referring domains more important?

For most sites, referring domains tell you more. One site can create thousands of links with a sitewide footer link, while ten different relevant sites linking once each is a stronger sign of real interest.

Should I disavow spammy backlinks I find?

Usually not. Google says it can assess which links to trust on its own and that most sites will not need the disavow tool. It is meant for cases with a considerable number of artificial or low-quality links that have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.

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