Backlink Monitor

Manual backlink tracking dashboard. Log backlinks with source URL, anchor text, and type. View dofollow/nofollow stats and anchor text distribution.

Key features

Add backlinks with source URL, anchor text, and type
Dofollow vs nofollow statistics breakdown
Anchor text distribution visualization
localStorage persistence with CSV export

Guide

Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to your site. They remain one of the strongest ranking signals in Google's algorithm. A page with more high-quality backlinks generally outranks a similar page with fewer backlinks. Monitoring your backlink profile is essential for understanding your site authority, detecting lost links, identifying toxic links, and measuring the success of link building campaigns. This guide covers what backlink monitoring involves, which metrics matter, and how to use the data strategically. Every backlink has characteristics that determine its value. The source domain's authority matters most. A link from a high-authority news site carries significantly more weight than a link from a newly created blog with no traffic. Domain authority (DA), domain rating (DR), and similar metrics from tools like Moz and Ahrefs estimate this authority on a 0-100 scale. While Google does not use these specific scores, they correlate reasonably well with the link equity a domain passes. Dofollow versus nofollow is a fundamental distinction. A standard link (dofollow) passes ranking power from the source page to the target page. A nofollow link (rel="nofollow") tells search engines not to pass ranking power. Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a directive, meaning it may still consider nofollow links in some cases, but dofollow links are significantly more valuable for SEO. Other rel values include sponsored (for paid links) and ugc (for user-generated content like comments). Tracking the ratio of dofollow to nofollow links in your profile gives you a picture of how much link equity you are actually receiving. Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It provides context to search engines about what the linked page is about. Natural backlink profiles have diverse anchor text distributions. The main categories are exact match (the anchor text is exactly your target keyword), partial match (contains your keyword plus other words), branded (your brand name), generic (click here, learn more, this website), URL (the raw URL as anchor text), and image (alt text of a linked image). An over-optimized anchor text profile with too many exact-match anchors looks unnatural to Google and can trigger algorithmic penalties. A healthy distribution leans heavily toward branded and generic anchors with some partial match and few exact match. The WebRecast backlink monitor lets you log each backlink with its source URL, anchor text, link type (dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc), and date discovered. The tool calculates your dofollow/nofollow ratio and visualizes your anchor text distribution. This organized view helps you spot patterns that might indicate problems, such as an anchor text profile dominated by exact-match keywords or an unusually high percentage of links from low-quality sources. Link velocity is the rate at which you acquire new backlinks. A steady, gradual increase in backlinks looks natural. A sudden spike of hundreds of links in a single day looks suspicious and may trigger a Google review. Tracking when you discover each backlink helps you monitor your link velocity and ensure it appears organic. If you run a link building campaign that generates a burst of links, the dates in your tracking data document this for your records. Lost backlinks deserve immediate attention. When a site removes a link to your page or the linking page goes offline, you lose the ranking power that link provided. Detecting lost links quickly gives you the opportunity to recover them. Contact the webmaster to ask if the removal was intentional. If the linking page was redesigned, suggest re-adding the link. If the linking page was deleted, check if a similar page exists where a link would be appropriate. Professional tools like Ahrefs notify you of lost links automatically. With manual tracking, you periodically re-check your logged backlinks to verify they are still live. Toxic backlinks come from spammy, low-quality, or irrelevant sites. They can include links from link farms, private blog networks (PBNs), hacked sites, adult content sites (when your site is unrelated), and sites in a completely different language or niche with no logical reason to link to you. While Google claims its algorithm can ignore most spammy links automatically, a heavily toxic backlink profile can still cause problems. The Google Disavow Tool lets you tell Google to ignore specific links, but use it carefully because disavowing legitimate links removes their positive value. Referring domains versus total backlinks is an important distinction. One site might link to you from 50 different pages, giving you 50 backlinks but only 1 referring domain. Google values diversity in referring domains. Getting one link each from 50 different sites is generally more valuable than 50 links from one site. Track both metrics. If your total backlink count is high but referring domain count is low, your link profile is concentrated and vulnerable to changes at a few source sites. Link building strategies inform what you track. If you run a guest posting campaign, log each guest post link with the target site, publication date, anchor text used, and the page it links to. If you do broken link building (finding broken links on other sites and suggesting your content as a replacement), track your outreach targets and success rate. If you earn links through content marketing (publishing data studies, infographics, or tools that naturally attract links), track which content assets generate the most backlinks over time. Competitor backlink analysis reveals link building opportunities. When you find that a competitor has a link from a specific site, that site has already demonstrated willingness to link to content in your niche. You may be able to earn a link from the same site by offering better content, a different angle, or a complementary resource. Log competitor backlinks alongside your own to build a prospecting list of sites to target. Internal link building complements external backlink monitoring. Every new backlink sends authority to the page it lands on. Internal links from that page distribute some of that authority deeper into your site. When a high-authority page on your site receives new backlinks, review its internal links to ensure they point to your most important pages. This strategic internal linking maximizes the value of every external backlink you earn. Backlink profile benchmarking compares your link metrics against competitors. If the average page ranking in the top 3 for your target keywords has 150 referring domains and your page has 20, you know the gap you need to close. If your dofollow ratio is 60% and competitors average 75%, you need more dofollow links. These benchmarks set realistic targets for your link building efforts. Tracking backlinks to specific pages, not just the domain, is important for understanding which pages attract links naturally and which need active promotion. Your homepage likely earns many links passively. Inner pages need active link building unless they contain uniquely valuable content. If a blog post on your site is earning backlinks organically, that signals the content resonates. Create more content in that style. If a key landing page has very few backlinks despite being important for your business, it needs targeted link building attention. Link reclamation recovers links you have lost or should have but do not. Check for brand mentions without links (sites mention your brand but do not link to you). Check for broken links pointing to old URLs on your site (redirect them or ask the linker to update the URL). Check for unlinked product mentions, citations of your data, or references to your content. Tools like Google Alerts and Mention.com help find unlinked mentions. Each reclaimed link is an easy win because the relationship already exists. Exporting your backlink data to CSV enables analysis beyond what the dashboard provides. Calculate metrics in a spreadsheet: dofollow percentage, anchor text distribution by category, links gained per month, links by referring domain authority tier. Create charts showing your link profile growth over time. Share reports with clients or team members. The CSV format is universal and works with every spreadsheet application and database tool. The goal of backlink monitoring is not just to count links. It is to understand your link profile's health, identify opportunities, detect problems early, and measure the return on your link building investment. A well-maintained backlink tracking system turns link building from a vague effort into a measurable, strategic activity with clear inputs and outputs.

Frequently asked questions

How does backlink monitoring work here?

You manually add your known backlinks. The tool organizes them, tracks dofollow/nofollow ratio, and visualizes anchor text distribution.

Can it discover backlinks automatically?

No - this is a manual tracking dashboard. Use Google Search Console or Ahrefs to discover backlinks, then log them here for organized tracking.

What is a good number of backlinks?

There is no universal target. What matters is referring domains and their quality. A single link from a DR80 news site outweighs dozens from low-quality blogs. Benchmark against the pages already ranking on page one for your target keyword and aim for a similar number of strong referring domains, not a high raw count.

How to find who links to my site?

Start with Google Search Console (the Links report lists top referring sites for free). For a fuller picture, use Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to pull every linking domain, anchor text, and the page each link points to. Export the list and log the links worth monitoring here.