Backlink Analysis
See who links to any domain, and how good those links are.
Analyze any backlink profile: referring domains, anchor text, authority and spam signals, plus a toxic-link audit with one-click Google disavow export.
What you get
Everything Backlink Analysis delivers, out of the box.
Referring domains & anchors
Authority & spam scoring
New & lost links
Toxic-link audit + disavow file
Where you start
Backlink Analysis before you run it: the inputs it asks for, and nothing else to wade through.
How it works
From input to insight in three steps.
Enter your URL or keyword
Point Backlink Analysis at any page, domain or search term, yours or a competitor's.
SEO Roger analyzes it
We run the analysis with DataForSEO's live SEO index in seconds.
Get a prioritized report
Read a clear, ranked breakdown of exactly what to do next.
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What is Backlink Analysis?
Backlink Analysis shows who links to a domain and how much those links are worth. It returns referring domains, individual backlinks, anchor text distribution, follow versus nofollow split, authority indicators and spam signals, along with newly gained and recently lost links. It costs 4 credits per run and works on any domain, including competitors.
How to use Backlink Analysis
From signup to shipped fix, this is the whole loop.
- 1Create a free accountSign up in under a minute. No credit card is required, and your first site scan works without an account at all.
- 2Point Backlink Analysis at your siteEnter the URL or domain you want to analyze. You can run it on your own site or on a competitor's.
- 3Let it pull the live dataBacklink Analysis fetches the current state of the page or domain and runs its checks. Most runs finish in seconds.
- 4Read the ranked findingsResults come back ordered by impact rather than by count, so the issue costing you the most traffic is at the top, not buried under cosmetic warnings.
- 5Ship the fix, then re-runApply the recommended change, or let Roger AI draft it for you, then run the tool again to confirm the issue is resolved and track the improvement.
Why Backlink Analysis matters
Links are still one of the strongest ranking signals, and they are the hardest to fake convincingly. Knowing your own profile tells you whether your authority is real or concentrated in a handful of vulnerable links. Knowing a competitor's tells you which sites in your category are willing to link at all, which is the only prospecting list that reliably converts.
Search is no longer only Google. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude answer a growing share of queries by reading the same pages crawlers do, then citing a handful of sources. SEO Roger keeps both audiences in view: the classic SERP and the AI answer, from one workspace.
Who it's for
- In-house SEOs who need competitive and backlink intelligence without stitching three tools together
- Agencies and consultants producing client-ready findings, fast
- Founders and marketers who want the fix, not just the metric
Backlink Analysis in depth
Referring domains matter more than raw backlink count
A thousand links from one site is closer in value to one link than to a thousand. That is why the report leads with referring domains rather than total backlinks: unique linking domains is the number that tracks with authority, and a large gap between the two figures usually means sitewide footer or template links rather than editorial coverage.
Reading anchor text without panicking
A natural profile is mostly branded and URL anchors, with exact-match commercial anchors as a minority. A profile heavy with exact-match money anchors is the classic fingerprint of paid or manipulated links, and it is a pattern search engines specifically look for. The anchor breakdown shows the distribution so you can see which side of that line a domain sits on.
Lost links are the report most people skip
Links disappear quietly: a page is deleted, a site redesigns, an editor prunes an old post. A sudden drop in rankings with no on-site change is often explained by lost links, and it is invisible unless you are watching. The report separates newly gained from recently lost so you can chase reclamations while the relationship is still warm.
Toxic links and when to disavow
Spam signals are flagged, but the honest guidance is that most sites should not disavow anything. Google ignores the overwhelming majority of low-quality links automatically, and an over-broad disavow file can remove links that were helping you. Use disavow when you have a manual action or a genuine history of paid link building, not as routine hygiene.
Backlink Analysis questions, answered
What is a backlink analysis?
It is a breakdown of every site linking to a domain: which domains link, from which pages, with what anchor text, whether the links pass authority, and which have been gained or lost recently. It is how you judge whether a domain's authority is real, and where its rivals earn links.
How much does Backlink Analysis cost?
4 credits per run. You can analyze any domain, so the same cost applies whether you are auditing your own profile or researching a competitor's.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
There is no threshold, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What matters is relevance and uniqueness: a handful of links from respected sites in your category outperforms hundreds from unrelated directories. Compare referring domain counts against the sites currently ranking for your target terms to get a realistic benchmark for your market.
Should I disavow toxic backlinks?
Usually no. Google ignores most low-quality links on its own, and a careless disavow file can strip out links that were helping. Reserve it for cases with a manual action or a known history of paid or spam link building. SEO Roger flags spam signals and can generate a Google-format disavow file when you genuinely need one.
How do I find my competitors' backlinks?
Run Backlink Analysis on their domain to see the full profile, then use Backlink Gap to filter it down to referring domains that link to them and not to you. That gap list is the most realistic prospecting target you have, because those sites already link to companies like yours.
How often is the backlink data updated?
The underlying index refreshes continuously, so a fresh run reflects recent discoveries. Links can take time to be crawled and indexed by any provider, so a brand new link may not appear immediately in this or any other backlink tool.
Ready to try Backlink Analysis?
Create a free account and run it in minutes, plus 55+ other SEO and AI-visibility tools in the same workspace.