One of the widely used terms in the field of search engine optimization is back links. Now what exactly are these back links? These are nothing but incoming links to a particular webpage from another website. These were mainly used in SEO as parameters for webpage ranking. In simpler terms the more back links a particular webpage has, the higher it ranks in a search engine. These generally hold much importance in the field of SEO because some of the major search engines like Google give more credit to them in rating web pages. But one must not forget that the quality of the back links is also equally important.
Another important aspect is that one needs to keep monitoring backlinks to a particular site regularly. In what scenarios does one needs to check for back links? If the rankings of your sites start to drop all of sudden then it is about time to scan all the inbound links to your site. This will give us a fair idea of the number of live and dead links. Once we have an understanding on this then we can fix all the links that have become dead or in other words have dropped with time.
One cannot go about doing the check manually but availability of certain SEO software has made the task easier. All you have to do is enter the URL in the software and you have a complete back links report at your disposal within few minutes. There are many back link checker tools available on the internet which is both free and paid. The paid ones generally offer membership for a stipulated period during which one can run a back links check on the website. Some of the free and paid tools that are used for the purpose are given below.
- SEMRUSH one of the most widely used tools today. The tool comes with an extensive database which is updated regularly thereby giving you accurate results. One can also compare the back links with that of the competitor as well.
- AHrefs another very important tool which not only gives a back links report but also gives an analysis of the anchor text used. After the penguin update this has become one popular tool with many users.
- Open Site Explorer is another old but widely used tool that gives you the option of comparing two or more domains in terms of back links.
- Back Links Watch: Another good tool but does only a basic back links check without much analysis on any other parameters.
Apart from these there is a plethora of other seo backlinks checker available online that can come handy in times of need. If going for a paid tool then research well before going for one to see its effectiveness. It is a very good practise to check for back links form SEO point of view as they help in improving the rankings of existing sites. For newer once they help in faster indexing as they help the search engines to discover and crawl your site effectively. Apart from these another major benefit is that they help us get referral traffic form other sites. Back links form an integral part of any SEO campaign but remember the rule of the thumb creating not just any but quality back links is the key.