- The Backlink Checker Experiment
- The Results
- Backlink Checker FAQs
- What is a backlink checker?
- How do I use a backlink checker?
- What is the best backlink checker?
- How will a backlink checker help me improve my SEO and content marketing?
- How does a backlink checker find all the links?
- Why are authority scores (e.g DA, DR) important?
- What's the difference between 'follow' and 'no-follow' links?
- Does the anchor text of the backlink matter?
- Are 2 links from the same website as good as 2 links from 2 websites?
The assortment of link building tools and backlink checkers available these days is, frankly, overwhelming. The link building toolkit is extensive, varied, and always growing.
As a link builder, one of the most important tool selections you will make is the selection of a backlink checker. It’s something you use and depend on in many of your daily activities.
Because of its critical role, it’s important to use a backlink checker that is both powerful and accurate.
All the backlink checkers we reviewed charge a monthly fee. (If you want a free option, check out our free backlink checker)
And that’s what I’m here to discuss today. Recently, my curiosity arose from a conversation about the accuracy of backlink checkers.
Sure, some backlink checkers may be able to return a large number of results. But what good are long lists of links if they aren’t accurate?
It seems like the emphasis of all the articles out there evaluating the ‘best backlink checkers’ is misplaced, focusing mainly on the size of the index.
I understand the lure that bigger is better. But what good is a vast amount of data if that data is skewed and inaccurate?
It’s not good, and even worse, it’s a giant time-suck having to filter out the garbage. 
In my opinion, accuracy is the most important factor in establishing the quality of a backlink checker tool, since the sole purpose of a backlink checker is to provide information that can be relied upon to make informed decisions.
That’s why I decided to conduct this experiment, to determine the accuracy of these reports.
The Backlink Checker Experiment
To conduct this experiment, I wanted to use four different backlink checkers.
I used 4 household names:
- AHREFS
- Majestic
- Moz
- SEMRush
There are other backlink checkers on the market but these are the four most popular (as far as I can tell) and are all solid tools.
The experiment itself was actually fairly simple:
I ran lots and lots of reports.
I selected 10 random sites across various niches and fed each of them into the four aforementioned backlink checkers.
For each site, I took 1000 do-follow links from unique domains.
Once a report was completed, I used URL Profiler’s Link Analysis tool to crawl every link and see how many of the links retrieved in each report were actually live.
In total, we crawled 10,000 links across 10 sites reported by each backlink checker, to verify if the links were live or dead.
And that’s it!
It was a simple, straightforward experiment.
Now, I know what you are waiting for.
The Results
So what happened?
Here is a screenshot that shows the accuracy of each backlink checker:
After crawling 10,000 links reported by each tool –
- Ahrefs had 829/10,000 dead links
- MOZ had 1761/10,000 dead links
- Majestic had 1729/10,000 dead links
- SEMrush had 1927/10,000 dead links.
Ahrefs’ is the clear winner and provided the most actual, live links by a margin of nearly ten whole percentage points.
That’s a much higher differential than what I expected.
Not only that, but they provided the most accurate report for each individual website.
Here is the breakdown of dead links per domain:
The difference between spots two through four was marginal.
I could easily imagine that if I repeated this experiment with another ten sites, spots two through four could swap positions.
I am not here to endorse any product, so much as I am here to provide conclusions from my objective analysis.
As I said above, these are all powerful tools and if this case study somehow propels these backlink checkers to be even better, I’d be glad to take credit 😉
If you feel like this was an imperfect experiment or you’ve had a different experience, please let me know in the comments.
Just as I want backlink checkers to provide the most accurate information possible, I want to provide the most accurate information possible to link builders everywhere!
Backlink Checker FAQs
What is a backlink checker?
A backlink checker is a piece of software that crawls a given website (usually your own or your competitor’s) to find which other websites are linking to it. Backlink checkers are useful when you are building a backlink portfolio, can help make you aware of links you don’t already know about, and help you keep track of all of your backlinks.
How do I use a backlink checker?
Every backlink checker is different. With most backlink checkers, you need to make an account, pay any associated subscription fees, and either install software or visit the backlink checker’s website. From there, it’s just a matter of plugging the desired website into the backlink checker, waiting for results, and downloading the reports.
What is the best backlink checker?
Every backlink checker featured in this article is solid and does a good job discovering backlinks and generating reports. This study investigated Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz, and SEMRush. We found them to all be reliable, but Ahrefs had the lowest error rate when it came to accuracy and dead links.
How will a backlink checker help me improve my SEO and content marketing?
A backlink checker can show you all of your incoming links. This is helpful in seeking out new links (you can see which sites, and which types of sites, are likely to link to you), help you find repeatable patterns, and even help you find bad or spammy links you may want to disavow.
A backlink checker can also help you find your competitors’ links. This can help you in a multitude of ways– you can try to get some of those links yourself, and you can also make more informed decisions about how many links and which kinds of links you may need to overtake them in organic search engine results.
How does a backlink checker find all the links?
Generally, each backlink checker is powered by a huge database. This database catalogs millions (or even billions) of webpages that have been crawled by the backlink checker or other software. The backlink checker uses that database index to check against the archived backlinks to see which websites link to other websites, using the target site (your site) as its search term.
Why are authority scores (e.g DA, DR) important?
Authority scores like DA and DR represent a few important facts about a given website– namely their age, their traffic, their prevalence in organic search engine results, and their backlinks. Sites with a higher DA or DR score are usually older, appear in searches more often, and have more backlinks.
What’s the difference between ‘follow’ and ‘no-follow’ links?
A ‘follow’ link is an average, normal hyperlink. These are the types of backlinks that link builders and search engine marketers typically try to build. A ‘no-follow’ link contains extra code within the hyperlink itself that tells a search engine spider/crawler not to “follow” it. ‘No-follow’ links are typically seen as non-endorsements, and do not pass authority from one site to another. ‘No-follow’ links are generally used in paid advertising, for example, when an advertiser is paying for the ad space and ad copy placement, but not the link. Paying for a link is against Google’s guidelines, so advertising links are ‘no-follow’ links.
Does the anchor text of the backlink matter?
Anchor text is useful to Google and other search engines because it tells both the search engine and the user what to expect when they land on a linked website. For instance, a link with the anchor text ‘cat food’ that leads to a cat food website is useful to both users and search engines. If you use the same anchor text many times on many different websites, however, Google can sometimes pick up on a pattern and mark your links (and potentially your website) as spam. Anchor text is useful, but only if it benefits the user clicking the link and is relevant to both linked websites and the surrounding content.
Are 2 links from the same website as good as 2 links from 2 websites?
Most link builders and search engine marketers try to build a diverse portfolio of links. Two links from two different (relevant) websites lets Google know that two different sites find your content relevant and are willing to link to it. If you have two links from the same website, that’s essentially just one website giving you that vote of confidence instead of two. Two links from the same website certainly will not hurt you or your search rankings, but it’s generally more beneficial to have more good links from a greater variety of different sites than it is to have the same amount of links from fewer sites.
Comments
I agree with your verdict of Arefs, but I had the same result in my mind from the beginning of reading the article.
Which sites did you test? Can you explain your research better or share the data?
All the sites and methodology are above. Any specific questions?
Good idea
As expected ahrefs gives accurate data compare to other seo tool in market
I agree 💯 that ahref is the best tool out there in term of backlink check and sometimes it’s affordable with limited trial package. Semrush is also good because it goes beyond backlink check. Thanks for the much clearer picture
We actively use Ahrefs to monitor our backlinks, but occasionally also check Moz, because while it’s proven Ahrefs has more accurate links, Moz has been around for so long and is so well known you have to think they know a secret or two.
Ahefs didn’t even pick up one of my edu sites. And seems to be the last picking up my omniglot lin.
You’re touching on a point that came to mind when reading the post: besides looking for dead links, the other criteria for testing these services is to see which service misses more links.
Ahrefs repeatedly misses open links to my site from Forbes, no less.
It was a good idea to check the dead links in the way you did to obtain an accurate report, smart movement! Thank you for this.
We just need to know for how long dead links are still giving value. I mean, we can think that a lost link can make your site to decrease in ranking, but if that backlink was placed for, let’s say, almost a year, will the link juice be removed too?
Yes and no the link juice will dry up unless it’s something interactive or link on site that have regular visitors…
I also like ahrefs and semrush they gives accurate data about backlinks.
Yup, Vijay they are both terrific backlink checkers!
In my opinion ahref is the best tool in order to analyse things up!
Hard to argue with that, Amit and I find it very cool that you love them so much that you even added ‘DR’ to your name – WOWOWOW that’s a true commitment!
Awesome blog,Great content and thanks for sharing
Thank you for this in-depth, profound comment, I’m blushing!
Truly helpful blog and a great way to test a backlink checker. I recently tested a backlink checker tool from RankGenie which also has a free trial. Its a very accurate tool that does a quick analysis of the website showing the DA and Spam scores of a link and the links lost and gained during a specific period of time.
Never heard of them, will try and have a look, appreciate the recommendation, Andrew!
Ahref is still my favorite because they update their backlink data so fast more than any other one I’ve tried
SAME!
Thanks for the great post. I use Ahref by the way, and am satisfied with the results getting.
Yes, ahrefs is definitely one of the best – if not the best – backlink checker!
For me Ahrefs is the best tool at present to check the link profile of a web page. I combine it with Semrush for keyword analysis.
Great combo, Miguel – we use both as well here, excellent one-two punch 👊👊
Good content. keep it up. i wll put into practice
Good luck, Ernest, and I mean that earnestly!
Yeah very right ahref is best. I am using it from last 2 months.
Wow, good for you and best of luck getting such lovely keywords ranking!
perfectly correct ahref is the most accurate as compared to others. I’ve been using ahref for years now.
ditto
Nice blog post. It is very informative and helpful.
Very useful information about backlink- checker. I started a new website that is no authority yet. So this guide will help me.
I love AHrefs wanted to make sure I wasn’t being biased but blows the rest away.
I’m surprised Majestic doesn’t do a bit better but Ahrefs impressive as usual.
Great information. And all of these 4 tools are the best I personally use them. Thanks for sharing.
I usually use ahrefs to check backlink or keyword that rank to my blog. Thanks for sharing
thanks for sharing ideas about the best seo backlink checker sites. really great article.
Time to give ahref a chance. Thanks for the info and more data would be welcome 😉
I think ahrefs is best for back link checker.
Thanks for sharing your findings of the best backlink checker sites, an excellent study, and haven’t found any other study or article that get’s into this.
Appreciate that Anisul – and I haven’t either found anyone discussing accuracy when talking about the ‘best backlink checker’ they all seem mostly concerned with who can find more links, which doesn’t really mean much if the information is not accurate!
I think I will agree with your conclusion, but what about smallseotool backlink checker?
Not familiar with that tool, will have to check it out when I have a chance!
Very logical way to determine the best backlink tool.
Thanks buddy!
I use ahrefs but I’ve also used Googles back link checker in the Google Search Console which gives different results!
Google Search Console is terrific indeed but is only useful for your own sites, not your competitors!
I am looking to purchase my first online business. I was advised to go through manually and weed out and spammy or bad backlinks. I was looking at a site today that had 10,000 backlinks. That would take ages to sift through all those links.
Do the checkers highlight bad backlinks for you? Or just give general information?
Also, what is an acceptable ratio of bad backlinks when looking to purchase a site. Would a site still be valuable if it had say 100 bad links for every 1000 total, or 10%?
Thanks very much, i found this article to be very helpful!
Try filtering out one link per domain and maybe the result won’t be that high.
To be honest – I don’t know anything I could really name “backlink builder”. There is nothing that builds proper links for me on itself. There is a bunch of indexers tha create some spam and that’s all.
I’ve never heard of a backlink builder, you may be on to a new invention 😉
Intresting post. I am using ahref’s backlink checker and am very pleased with the results.
Continued success with that, Bilal!
I believe that ahrefs’ is by far the best backliinks checker and one of the most accurate.
Thanks for this great article and I 100% agree with your outcome that ahref is the best backlinks checker tool.
Some backlink checkers return with “no backlinks found,” yet other returns with 15 total backlinks, and another will return with three backlinks found. Finding your article today took a great deal of stress off me. I assumed the hold industry is full of crap. Now I see it’s a matter of some being accurate where others are less reliable. It is hard to find the truth about SEO, and too many people selling bull out there are getting away who pose as experts. Thank you for your blog.
Thanks, Gene and appreciate your feedback and stoked I made it to your ‘not bull’ list!
expected ahrefs gives accurate data compare to other seo tool in market
It is a good post about guest posting tools. I got many new features about it may I receive a pdf of it to remember it it by reading again and again because of age.
Thanks a lot once again.
We usually use Ahrefs.com for checking backlinks and it’s very professional and analytics are pretty accurate. But that doesn’t mean we don’t use SEMrush or Moz backlinks’ analyzing tools. We like to try couple of them to make sure we’re not missing a lot.
Thanks for sharing this helpful article.
We’re in the same boat as you, Karim.
Awesome breakdown, David – this was the best article I’ve seen so far on comparing different backlink checkers.
WOW, Mejampo – glad you liked it!
The best backlink checker in my opinion would be using the link tab in Google Search Console. These would show you the referring domains that are indexed by Google. (the real list) The list in ahrefs shows many links that Google has not indexed.
Great point, Bruce and thanks for stopping in!
wow great breakdown on these backlink checkers