How to check backlinks of a website: short answer

To check backlinks of a website you own, use the Links report in Google Search Console: it lists your most linked pages, the sites linking to you and the words they use, all free. To check backlinks of a website you don't own, run its domain through a backlink checker such as seogeoaeo.ai's Backlink Finder, which lists the 100 strongest sites linking to it for 70 credits a run. Google keeps its own link data private to each site's owner, which is why the two cases need two different tools.

That is the whole answer. The rest of this page covers the questions that usually come next.

Is the Search Console report complete?

No. Google describes the Links report as a sample of your links rather than every one. The on-screen tables top out at 1,000 rows. Exports go further: "Latest links" and "More sample links" each allow up to 100,000 rows. Two more gaps: the report can still show links that have since been taken down, and it doesn't tell you which links are nofollow.

What does a backlink checker show for another site?

It depends on the tool. Backlink Finder, from seogeoaeo.ai, returns for any public domain:

the 100 strongest linking sites, each with a 0 to 1,000 link rank, its number of links, the day its first link appeared and its share of followed links
a spam score per site, with 40 or more out of 100 flagged as likely spam
50 link texts from those sites, grouped as brand name, web address, generic words, no text or other words
the total number of sites linking in

It looks at whole domains, not single pages, and its scores are the data provider's estimates. It also doesn't say which links Google counts, because no outside tool can know that.

Why do two tools give different totals?

Every checker has its own crawler and its own rules. They visit different parts of the web, keep dead links for different lengths of time, filter spam differently and count sitewide links differently. A footer link on a big blog can be one linking site or thousands of individual backlinks depending on how you count. Compare sites inside one tool, and don't line up a checker's number against your Search Console total.

What should I actually look at?

Four things, in this order:

Linking sites, not link count. One site linking a hundred times is still one site.
Link text. Mostly brand names and plain addresses is normal. Mostly one sales phrase suggests bought links.
Followed or marked. Links tagged nofollow, sponsored or ugc are hints to Google and may count for little in ranking, though they still send visitors.
Lost links. If a strong site dropped its link, check whether your page moved or now returns a 404. A redirect or a short note to the site owner usually brings it back.

Should I disavow bad links?

Almost certainly not. Google's own help page on the disavow tool says most sites will not need it. It's meant for sites with a considerable number of spammy or artificial links that have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action. A low score in a third-party tool is not a reason. Random scraper sites link to every site that ranks.

Is there a free way to check another site's backlinks?

There are limited free options, such as Moz's free account, which allows 10 Link Explorer queries a month, and a free version of Ahrefs' Backlink Checker. seogeoaeo.ai has no free backlink lookup; its free preview covers your home page's crawl, indexing, on-page and structured data health. Its plans start at $29 a month for 2,000 credits, enough for about 28 Backlink Finder runs, and every tool shows its price before it runs.

When is a bigger tool the better choice?

If you need every link to a very large domain, link history over years, or alerts when links appear and vanish, a full link suite fits better. Backlink Finder answers the narrower question most people are asking: who links to this site, and are those links any good. See who links to a domain.