How to Check Backlinks in Google Search Console with Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a powerful tool that allows you to monitor and maintain your website's presence in Google search results. To access it, go to the Google Search Console website and sign in with your Google account credentials.

The first step in checking backlinks in Google Search Console is to navigate to the "Links" section, where you can view a list of all the websites linking back to your site. This list is organized by the number of links, with the top links displayed first.

To get started, make sure you have a Google Search Console account and that your website is verified. If you haven't already, follow the steps outlined in our article on how to set up Google Search Console to get your site verified.

Once you're in the "Links" section, you can use the filters to narrow down the list of backlinks by criteria such as anchor text, URL, and date. This will help you identify patterns and trends in your backlinks.

For another approach, see: Google Webmaster Tools Check Backlinks

Backlinks are like votes of confidence from other reputable sites, which can help your content rank higher in search results. Search engines see them as a sign of credibility, so the more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your site will rank.

The Google Search Console Links report gives you information about your site's backlinks and internal links. This report shows you which pages on your site are garnering the most links from external sites, and which pages are linking to the most other pages on your site.

This report can help you understand how your link profile shifts around, and whether you need to update your disavow file. It's also a good idea to monitor this report regularly to see which pages on your site are getting the most links.

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The Links Report in Google Search Console is a valuable tool for understanding your website's backlinks and internal links. It provides information about links from external sites pointing to yours and links on your site that point to other pages.

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Search engines view backlinks as votes of confidence, which can help your content rank higher in search results if they come from reputable and relevant sites. This is why it's essential to monitor your backlinks regularly.

To check your backlinks on Google, you need to set up Google Search Console in advance. The earlier you add your site, the more data you'll see in it. This means that if you've just started optimizing your website for search engines, setting up Search Console should be one of your top priorities.

The Links Report is divided into two main sections: "Top linked pages" and "Top linking sites". The "Top linked pages" table makes backlinks more tangible by showing how valuable each of your pages is based on its backlinks.

Here's a breakdown of what you can expect to see in the "Top linked pages" table:

This information can help you track down how users get from a given site to a given page.

Links are crucial to SEO rankings, a concept that dates back to the early days of search engines with the PageRank algorithm.

Marketers first learned the value of search engine optimization, and since then, backlinks have remained a constant factor.

The PageRank algorithm was designed by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to measure the amount and value of links to a domain.

Backlinks are treated as "votes", and the more high-quality backlinks a page has, the better it will rank.

Any pages that a site links to will also rank higher.

Google's indexing bot uses href attributes to discover new pages on a site or on other sites.

The content of link source-pages, as well as the anchor-text in links, can help associate a page with certain keywords and improve rankings.

A backlink profile is the core concept behind this, and it can work both ways – leading to good or poor SEO performance.

If low-quality, spammy, or harmful sites are linking to your site too much, it might indicate a poor reputation to Google.

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To check backlinks in Google Search Console, start by signing in to your account and choosing your website from the list of properties. You'll then need to navigate to the "Links" section on the left sidebar.

Google Search Console offers an overview of your backlink profile, making it easier to manage and analyze your links. This includes a list of websites that are linking back to your site, showing you the pages on your website that have the most backlinks and the sites linking to them.

You can use the information in Google Search Console to assess the quality and relevance of your backlinks. This includes using comparison reports to observe changes over time, which helps identify trends in backlink growth or loss.

To see a list of your backlinks, click on the "More >" button in the "Top linked pages" report. This will return the full list of your pages and the number of backlinks for each.

The "Top linked pages" report shows which pages on your site have the most internal inbound-links, sorted from highest to lowest. This can help you analyze your site structure to make sure important pages are more central.

Google Search Console also offers a "Top linking sites" feature, which provides a nice-to-have overview of your backlinks. However, as a beginner, it's often more helpful to start with the "Top linked pages" table.

Here's a quick reference guide to help you navigate the "Links" section in Google Search Console:

Remember, Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor various aspects of your website's performance, including backlinks.

Google Search Console's backlink data is organized by type, including internal and external links.

To analyze your backlink profile, start by looking at the top linking sites. The top linking sites are the websites that are linking to your site the most.

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The top linking sites are often a good indicator of your site's popularity and relevance. For example, if you notice that a lot of high-quality news sites are linking to your site, it could be a sign that your site is a credible source of information.

Internal linking is also crucial for your site's navigation and user experience. You can find internal linking data in the Internal Links report.

Internal linking can help search engines understand your site's structure and content, which can improve your site's crawlability and indexing.

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You can export additional data from Search Console's links report, including new backlinks or a larger data set of links. This is available in the primary "Links" report and is under the button named "Export External Links."

The export option allows you to see up to 100,000 rows of data, along with extra information not included in Search Console. You can export this data to a Google Sheets doc, a CSV file, or a Microsoft Excel formatted doc.

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The exported data includes "Latest links", which are the most recent links discovered by Googlebot pointing to your site, sorted by the date they were found. This gives you a sense of how your link profile is changing over time.

You'll also get a more complete set of links, known as "More sample links", which may not be shown in cases where the data is truncated by the "Latest links" data. This provides a more complete picture of your total link profile.

Here are some key benefits of exporting this data: