Backlinks refer to links from external sites to your own. Often, these links are acquired when users visit your page and recognize it as a source of valuable information, choosing to introduce it on their page along with a link. In a way, it can be considered a form of word-of-mouth recommendation online.

Thus, collecting high-quality backlinks positively impacts SEO. However, there are both beneficial and harmful backlinks, so it’s crucial to use tools to regularly check them.

In this article, we will explain the definition of a good backlink for SEO strategies, how to acquire them from external sites, and how to conduct research, including what points to focus on during the investigation.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks mean links posted from sites external to your company. They are also known as external links.

For instance, suppose a user reads an article on your site and finds it helpful. If that user then introduces the article on their blog with a link, you have gained a backlink.

Therefore, to acquire numerous backlinks, it’s essential to provide valuable content that users would want to share with others and ensure it reaches as many people as possible.

Effective High-Quality Backlinks from an SEO Perspective

Backlinks play a vital role in SEO. However, it’s not just about having a large number of backlinks; the focus should be on acquiring as many high-quality backlinks as possible.

Here, high-quality backlinks refer to the following three types:

• Natural links
• Links from sites that publish highly relevant content
• Links from well-known sites

Natural Links 

The first type is backlinks that are naturally placed on other sites, also known as natural links. If the content you create is valuable and useful for users, they will naturally share it.

As backlinks increase naturally, it signifies to search engines like Google and Yahoo! JAPAN that your content is of high quality and meets user needs, leading to an improvement in search rankings.

Backlinks from Sites with Relevant Content

The second type is backlinks from sites that publish highly content relevant to your own site. Search engines give higher evaluations to backlinks from relevant sites compared to those with low relevance.

On the other hand, backlinks from irrelevant sites do not contribute to SEO evaluation and could potentially have a negative impact. Therefore, it’s necessary to regularly check for and avoid backlinks from irrelevant sites.

Backlinks from Famous Sites

The third type is backlinks from sites that are well-regarded and attract a lot of traffic. Receiving backlinks from sites with a high number of monthly page views and that provide high-quality content can serve as proof of the high quality of your site’s information. Getting linked by a famous site can lead to increased traffic, making it a win-win situation.

Effects of Backlinks

Acquiring backlinks is crucial for SEO, but what specific effects do they have? Backlinks can lead to the following three benefits

-Improvement in Domain Power 

-Enhancement of Crawlablity 

-Higher Page Rankings 

Let’s discuss the three benefits that can be gained from backlinks.

Improvement in Domain Power

Sites that acquire many high-quality backlinks are evaluated as resonating with users or being helpful. As the site gains recognition, the domain itself also gets evaluated, ultimately leading to an improvement in domain power.

Google prioritizes sites deemed beneficial to users in higher search results. Therefore, by acquiring numerous high-quality backlinks, you can achieve higher rankings, which leads to increased site traffic.

Improvement in Crawlablity

Search engine crawlers collect page information and understand page content by following links within a site. Thus, an increase in backlinks within a site leads to more frequent visits by crawlers, improving crawlablity.

Enhanced crawlablity speeds up the evaluation of page information when updates occur, making pages easier to index. In this way, acquiring backlinks is also effective in improving crawlablity.

Higher Page Rankings

Search engines evaluate sites that have acquired backlinks. This is reflected in “The 10 truths Google holds to be self-evident,” indicating that sites with many backlinks are deemed beneficial to users.

By acquiring backlinks, which are established as a Google evaluation criterion, page ranks improve, making it easier for pages to appear higher in search results.

However, without quality backlinks, it is difficult to be evaluated positively by Google, so acquiring quality backlinks is crucial.

Checking Backlinks and Key Points

While acquiring backlinks is essential for SEO, it is also important to check the backlink situation within your site. Here, we will explain how to check backlinks and key points to consider during the process.

How to Check Backlinks

A common method for checking backlinks is using a backlink check tool. It’s challenging to determine the nature of the backlinks you have acquired on your own. Thus, backlink check tools are used to check the number of backlinks and their sources.

Additionally, some tools can check the number of backlinks to competitors’ sites, which can be useful for competitive analysis. By understanding which content has attracted many backlinks, you can enhance your site’s content strategy.

Points while checking backlinks

When checking backlinks, there are three key points to consider

-Quality of backlinks

-Number of backlinks

-Anchor text

Quality of Backlinks

The quality of backlinks is a very important factor in SEO. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! Japan place more emphasis on the quality of backlinks rather than their quantity. However, not all backlinks have the same effect on SEO. Criteria for this include 

-whether the backlink is a natural link

-whether the link comes from a page with high relevance to your site

-whether the link is from a reputable site. 

The best backlinks are those from authoritative, trustworthy, and expert sites.

Authoritative, trustworthy, and expert domains often include attribute-type (organizational-type) domains such as educational domains (.ac.jp), government agency domains (.go.jp), or specific corporate domains (.or.jp). In addition, links from domains that are highly rated in a specific field also have a strong effect. Aim to create and enhance high-quality content to receive backlinks from such sites.

On the other hand, common examples of low-quality and potentially harmful links include 

-links from unknown overseas sites 

-links from adult or pornographic sites

-links that are unrelated to your site’s content

Regular checks for low-quality backlinks to your site are necessary, and if found, actions such as link removal requests to the site administrators or using Google’s disavow links tool may be required.

Quantity of Backlinks

While the quality of backlinks is crucial, the quantity is also important. Backlinks are essentially the online word-of-mouth recommendations indicating that your page is providing valuable information, as acknowledged by users who visited your page. A high number of backlinks suggests that many users appreciate your content, deeming it valuable. 

For instance, when choosing a restaurant, many people consider user reviews on sites like Tabelog, often opting for restaurants with many positive reviews.

In this way, the number of backlinks can be considered the equivalent of word-of-mouth on the web, so be sure to keep track of the number when checking backlinks.

In the context of SEO, it’s more beneficial to acquire backlinks from multiple domains related to your site’s content than to gather many links from a single domain. Therefore, when checking backlinks, it’s essential to count not just the number of referring pages but also the number of domains.

Anchor Text

When checking backlinks, it’s also crucial to review the anchor text. Anchor text refers to the clickable text in a hyperlink, encapsulated within the anchor tag (A tag) in HTML. Search engines use anchor text to determine the relevance and quality of the link between the source site and the linked page.

Therefore, links with specific and relevant keywords in their anchor text are more effective than links that merely paste a URL or use vague prompts like “click here.”

Purpose of Checking Backlinks

So far, we’ve discussed the importance of backlinks and key points to check, but why is it necessary to check backlinks in the first place? The reasons for checking backlinks are mainly threefold;

1. Understanding the current state of your website

2. Checking for spam backlinks

3. Competitive analysis

Understanding the Current State of Your Website 

Checking backlinks is indispensable for grasping the current state of your site. 

It’s important to understand how your site compares to top-ranking sites in terms of the number and quality of backlinks. Regular comparison with competitors and conducting PDCA cycles are necessary. 

Backlink checks also help in understanding your domain’s power. Acquiring quality backlinks enhances your domain’s reputation, strengthening its power and making your site more likely to rank higher. Thus, knowing your domain’s power is a critical part of SEO.

Identifying Spam Backlinks

While there are quality backlinks, there are also malicious spam links, potentially part of an attack by others. Spam links can lower your site’s rating and risk Google penalties. Without regular backlink checks, spam links might go unnoticed. To avoid penalties from spam links, it’s necessary to routinely check backlinks. Use backlink check tools to ensure there aren’t any mechanically generated links or links from malicious sites.

Competitor Analysis 

Checking backlinks isn’t limited to your own site. By analyzing competitors’ backlink profiles, you can conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis. This analysis helps understand what types of sites or pages tend to attract quality backlinks. It’s not just about the number of backlinks; assessing the quality of these links reveals trends in what Google deems as credible sites or pages. Understanding these trends can inform how to strengthen your own site’s content, making competitor analysis a strategic approach to increasing quality backlink acquisition.

Methods for Acquiring Backlinks

To acquire quality backlinks, focus on the following three key practices

• Create high-quality content that meets user needs
• Make content easily sharable
• Regularly update content

Create High-Quality Content Tailored to User Needs

The cornerstone for gaining backlinks is ensuring your content is recognized as valuable by users. This involves understanding and analyzing user search needs, offering solutions through your content, and delivering unique insights that only your company can provide. Incorporating the principles of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) into your content creation also plays a crucial role in enhancing its quality in the eyes of search engines.

Make Your Content Easy to Share 

While creating top-notch content is essential, facilitating easy sharing of your content is equally important. Implementing social share buttons directly on your content pages allows users to share your articles effortlessly. 

Additionally, actively sharing your content on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook can increase its visibility. 

The more people read and share your content, the higher the chance of it catching the eye of someone who runs a relevant site and decides to link back to your site. Establishing official social media accounts to promote new content can further amplify your efforts.

Regularly Update Your Content 

Regular content updates are vital for maintaining its quality and relevance, which in turn, significantly impacts your SEO efforts. Create articles that align with current trends, using resources like Google Trends as a guide. 

As user search needs evolve over time, regularly revisiting and updating your content ensures it continues to meet those needs. Updating references to the latest data within your articles and ensuring all information remains current are also important practices.

Recommended 9 Backlink Check Tools:

Backlink check tools are handy for monitoring your site’s backlinks, including those of competitor sites. Utilizing these tools effectively is key to a robust backlink strategy. Below, we highlight some highly recommended backlink check tools, categorized into free and paid options, to assist you in your backlink analysis efforts.

Free Backlink Check Tools

Let’s introduce some free backlink check tools available for use. These tools are user-friendly, making them a great starting point for those new to using backlink check tools.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is indispensable for not only backlink checks but also for internal error checks and other SEO strategies. It allows you to view a list of URLs that have linked back to you and the sources of these links, with the option to download the list in CSV format. While it doesn’t offer advanced analysis features like tracking the progression of backlink counts, it can still perform basic analyses.

• Tool Name: Google Search Console
• URL: Google Search Console
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Not available
• Competitor Analysis: Not available

SEO Cheki!

SEO Cheki! offers various functionalities besides backlink checking. By simply entering your site’s domain, you can access a multitude of information including backlinks, site loading time, server info, and index count. It also allows you to check for nofollow links alongside your backlinks and internal links, which is helpful for ensuring you haven’t mistakenly set important links to nofollow.

• Tool Name: SEO Cheki!
• URL: SEO Cheki!
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Not available
• Competitor Analysis: Available

Hanasakigani

hanasakigani not only checks your site’s backlinks but also allows you to view the status of competitor sites by simply entering their URLs. It comes with three functions: “My Site Backlink Check,” “Competitor Site Backlink Check,” and “Competitor Site Backlink Risk Check,” making it an ideal tool for backlink analysis. Additionally, it offers tools beyond backlink checking, like keyword ranking analysis when you enter relevant keywords and your site’s URL.

• Tool Name: hanasakigani
• URL: hanasakigani
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Not available
• Competitor Analysis: Available

Open Site Explorer

Like other tools, Open Site Explorer lets you check the number of backlinks by entering a site’s URL. A unique feature of this tool is that it provides an Authority score indicating the site’s SEO value. The “compare metrics” function allows you to compare scores of up to five sites at once, making it easy to see differences at a glance.

• Tool Name: Open Site Explorer
• URL: Open Site Explorer
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Not available
• Competitor Analysis: Available

Analysis of Backlink Number Trends: Not Available Competitive Analysis: Available

Now, let’s move on to paid backlink check tools, which offer more features compared to the free versions. Here are four recommended paid tools.

Moz Pro – Link Explorer. 

Moz Pro is well-known in the SEO tool sphere, offering the Link Explorer feature for detailed analysis of backlink trends. Unique features include analyzing competitor backlink situations and inbound keywords, plus a proprietary Spam Score for identifying spam links. Moz indexes over 7 billion domains on its own, allowing for precise link information analysis.

• Tool Name: Moz
• URL: Moz
• Price: Starting at $99/month
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Yes
• Competitor Analysis: Yes

Ahrefs 

Ahrefs not only performs backlink checks and competitor research but also provides key SEO information such as keyword search volume, difficulty ranking, and traffic numbers all in one tool. Graphs showing when backlinks were acquired help identify periods of rapid external link increase, and backlink alert features allow for real-time monitoring of backlink gains and losses.

• Tool Name: Ahrefs
• URL: Ahrefs
• Price: Starting at $99/month
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Yes
• Competitor Analysis: Yes

Majestic SEO 

Majestic SEO is a powerful tool for link analysis, offering insights into backlink counts, sources, and anchor texts by simply entering a site’s URL. It allows for both analysis of your site and competitors’ backlinks, including mutual links. Holding data for the past five years enables long-term backlink trend analysis.

• Tool Name: Majestic SEO
• URL: Majestic SEO
• Price: Starting at $49.99/month
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Yes
• Competitor Analysis: Yes

NEIL PATEL 

NEIL PATEL allows for checking backlinks that have been gained or lost on a given site. Its unique SEO Analyzer feature provides site issues and recommendations for improvement, aiding SEO efforts. It’s known for its user-friendly dashboard and rich SEO functionalities.

• Tool Name: NEIL PATEL
• URL: NEIL PATEL
• Price: Starting at 2,999 JPY/month
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Yes
• Competitor Analysis: Yes

Backlinks are a critical element in SEO. Acquiring high-quality backlinks can help aim for higher rankings, but it’s not just about acquiring them; it’s also important to regularly understand the current state of your site.

SEMrush 

SEMrush is a paid SEO tool that offers an all-in-one analysis solution, not only for backlink analysis but also for SEO research, advertising analysis, and social media competitive strategies.

• Tool Name: SEMrush
• URL: SEMrush
• Price: Starting at $119.95/month
• Backlink Progress Analysis: Yes
• Competitor Analysis: Yes

In backlink research, there are features not only for investigating specific site backlinks but also diagnostic functions to detect low-quality or potentially harmful backlinks to your own site, and features to identify candidates for new backlink construction.

Utilizing backlink check tools to understand the current situation and conducting competitor research to strengthen your own content is crucial. Moreover, since backlink check tools come with various functions, it’s important to choose the one that suits your company and use it for SEO strategies.

Summary

In SEO, acquiring high-quality backlinks is crucial. To achieve this, it’s essential first and foremost to create content that meets users’ search needs, ensuring users recognize the value of the information you provide. Additionally, it’s vital to make your content as accessible to as many people as possible. Utilizing backlink check tools for regular reviews and removing potentially harmful links is key in backlink strategies. Moreover, analyzing competitors’ backlinks can offer insights for new content creation. Make sure to incorporate backlink checks into your strategy by leveraging tools like backlink checkers.

Author Profile

International Web Consultant Paveena Suphawet

A trilingual professional in English, Thai, and Japanese, she has numerous achievements in international SEO. She studied the latest IT technologies at Assumption International University, Thailand, and majored in International Business at the University of Greenwich, UK. Following her tenure at ExxonMobil’s Thai branch, she became a key member of Admano from its establishment.

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