Six Backlink Audit Tools to Refine Your Link Building Campaign

Backlinks are links that lead to or from a specific web page. The quality of a backlink depends on two factors:

• the reputation of the website, and 
• its credibility in the eyes of search engines like Google. 

Backlinks continue to take the top spot when it comes to achieving an optional SEO ranking. In other words, a decent link-building strategy can help you reach that coveted first place on Google’s search engine results page (SERP.) 

To help your firm secure a competitive edge when it comes to link-building, Galactic Fed has pulled together our six favorite backlink audit tools to assist you in performing a successful backlink audit. We also walk you through exactly how to use each tool to help elevate your company’s link-building campaign to new heights. 

Let’s get started!

Google Search Console 

Source: Google 

What is it?

Google Search Console, the renamed Google Webmaster Tools, is an entirely free and basic backlink auditor. Every company running a link-building campaign that cares about measuring their success should be using Google Search Console at the very least. 

It’s not a standalone backlink profile audit tool like some of the others in this list, though it’s a decent option if you’ve got a tight budget or if you’re trying to avoid downloading a separate backlink audit tool. 

As they say, nothing in life is free. What Google Search Console saves you in subscription dollars will cost you in resources, as performing a backlink audit through the platform can be relatively labor-intensive compared to other link audit tools.

How do you use it? 

Begin by logging in to Google Search Console. Next, click ‘search traffic’ and ‘links to your site.’ Google then provides your firm with a list of which websites link the most, allowing you to open the complete list of domains and download a table with the data.

Straightforward so far, yes? 

The next step is where things get a bit challenging. You’ll need to review each backlink in the table you downloaded. You can ignore links that no longer exist as well as social media no-follow links if your company has any. 

The full URL can be found in column A and any error codes will appear in column B. If you sort your table by error code it is easier to separate them from the healthy backlinks. Column C lists the links by the date they were first discovered.

Google Search Console does away with the bells and whistles of other backlink audit tools and by performing a backlink audit on a regular basis, it will be easier to undertake your own link research. 

Pricing

Free

Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker

Source: Ahrefs

What is it?

Ahrefs can help your business grow its search traffic, research competitors, in addition to monitoring your backlinks. This popular backlink analysis tool provides your business with several features at your fingert,ips from understanding why your competitors are ranking high to suggestions and ideas about how to outrank the competition. 

Ahrefs also can help your business when it comes to searching for keywords to target while uncovering backlink opportunities.

How do you use it? 

Ahrefs has relatively intuitive and straightforward functionality making it accessible to many, even those that aren’t analyzing backlink data regularly. 

Pricing

A monthly subscription starts at $99 ($83 if you pay annually). However, if you only need basic information without deep SEO analytics, you can sign up for Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free.

Link Research Tools’ Backlink Checker 

Source: LRT

What is it?

Link Research Tools (LTR) Backlink Checker and complete SEO tool suite is considered by many to be an industry leader. They have some large and well-known clients, including LinkedIn, MTV, and eBay. 

LRT boasts a range of advanced technology features, helping your business build high-quality links, clean up bad backlinks, recover quickly from a Google penalty, monitor your backlink profile, perform advanced competitor analysis, suggest link building opportunities, all while promising to keep your online firm safe from the dangers of negative SEO.

How do you use it? 

From a deep-dive Backlink Profiler, to a Link Detox and a Link Opportunities Review Tool, the sky seems to be the limit when it comes to taking advantage of all of the tools available through LTR.

You’ll have to pay for a membership and download the software, though, as is the case with other advanced backlink audit tools on our list. 

Pricing

LRT offers a week’s trial priced at $17 to give you a taste of their suite of SEO tools, then $599 per month on the lowest-tier plan.

SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics 

Source: SEMrush

What is it?

Another leader in the industry is Semrush with its Backlinks Analytics suite of tools. Semrush offers its basic backlink checker for free. In addition to the free backlink checker, Semrush provides a backlink audit tool that allows you to connect with your existing Google Search Console account or run a scan directly from the SEMrush website. This functionality is particularly useful as it provides your company with a ‘toxic score’ aimed at helping you avoid penalties by Google.

How do you use it? 

To try out Semrush’s free backlink checker, all you have to do is type your domain into their website, and they produce a quick report for you, including a calendar that showcases new backlinks as they appear online, along with details about no-follow links, do-follow links, and your company’s overall domain authority score. 

Pricing

Semrush offers a limited free version that shows a quick overview of your backlinks profile and allows you to check a few links before prompting you to start a free trial for 7 days. After that, $119.95 per month for the Pro plan.

Moz Link Explorer 

Source: Moz

What is it?

Moz’s Link Explorer is a powerful tool that allows your company to check the health of several sites through various methods.

How do you use it? 

Simply input your company’s URL and run a quick report to get the most out of Moz’s Link Explorer. You’re able to analyze up to five domains at a time and view your spam score, domain authority, and internal and external links - including that of your competitors.

Moz gives you a look at your company’s overall domain score, ranking keywords, and total inbound links. You can explore other tabs to get more details about anchor text or linking domains, too.

The platform allows your company to sort by authority score and weed out the no-follows while viewing a spam score, domain authority, and comparing your site to the competition. 

Pricing

Moz offers a generous 30-day free trial as well as several SEO tools for free. If you’re ready to take your SEO game further, paid plans start at $99/mo.

Majestic 

Source: Majestic 

What is it?

Majestic’s Link Intelligence tool gives your company access to a dashboard chock-full of backlink stats, and they offer a free account to any business that signs up with an email address. However, this only gives you access to a limited amount of their backlink tools.

What sets Majestic apart from the rest is its dual approach to backlink checking. Your firm can run a mini-audit with Majestic’s bulk link checker or dive deeper by using Majestic’s Site Explorer. In addition, Majestic’s platform provides a Backlink History tool, which looks at your company’s link profile over the last five years. Not necessarily essential for every business, but an opportunity to learn from your previous link-building strategies.

How do you use it? 

To use Majestic’s tools, simply enter your company’s URL through their online platform. Majestic’s bulk backlink checker analyzes the backlink numbers for up to 400 URLs, giving your firm the ability to check your and your competition’s sites for quality with just a few clicks of the mouse.

You’ll also be presented with a trust and citation flow, plus an outline of topics covered on the webpage where your link is used. This gives your firm a speedy way to learn whether your backlinks fit or if you’re caught in spam.

Pricing

Limited free account or $49.99 per month for the LITE plan.

SEO Review Tools

Source: SEO Review Tools

What is it?

SEO Review Tools has a whopping 58 real-time and free tools available to you to take your link-building campaign and SEO strategy to the next level. 

SEO Review Tools’ Free Backlink Checker gives your firm access to the backlink profile of any website on the internet. You’re able to see which sites are linking to your company’s website and research your best-performing content. Use SEO Review Tool to find your competitor’s most valuable backlinks and examine their backlink profile to identify patterns and possible high-quality link opportunities.

How do you use it? 

As is the case with other tools in our list, SEO Review Tool allows you to quickly and easily input your URL on their homepage. They then give you near-instant information about any broken backlinks, new backlinks, and SEO competitors. 

They provide a relatively comprehensive list of metrics, including:

• your 100 most valuable backlinks,
• anchor text (text or image used for the link,)
• follow/no-follow labels, 
• total external links, 
• referring domains, and 
• referring IPs.

Pricing

Free

Crafting the optimal link-building strategy 

Looking to boost your link-building strategy? Reach out to Galactic Fed. We recently helped a client increase their traffic value 183x and their domain rating by 30 points - and we’d love to do similar for your firm.