Best Backlink Checker Tools In 2020 (Free & Paid)

Here is a list of 11 best backlink checker tools for 2020.

If you’re here, you already know what backlinks are.

Or, why they’re important.

So, let’s not beat the dead horse merely for the “keywords”?

11 Best Backlink Checker Tools Comparison

Before we start, here’s a list of all the backlink checker tools that I’ve mentioned in the list below:

1. SEMrush – Start 14 Days Free Trial
2. Ahrefs – Start 7 Days Trial for $7
3. Serpstat – 5 Days Trial Promo Code
4. Moz – Start 30 Days Free Trial
5. Majestic SEO – No Free trial account but gives forever free plan
6. Link Miner – Start 10 Days Free Trial
7. UberSuggest – Free Tool
8. Open Link Profiler – Free Tool
9. Buzzsumo – Start 7 Days Free Trial
10. Linkody – Start 30 Days Free Trial
11. Alexa – 14 day free trial for Advanced plan & 30 day free trial for Agency

And then, here’s a table.

It shows you how many backlinks each of these tools showed me, for the exact same domain- https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/

Backlink Checker Tool	No. of Backlinks Shown
SEMRush	6 M
Ahrefs	3.1M
Moz	3.8M
Serpstat	505K
Majestic SEO	4.2M
Link Miner	4.2M
Ubersuggest	1.65M
Open Link Profiler	806K
Buzzsumo	<2K
Linkody	<500
Alexa	N/A

Note that this table shouldn’t be your ultimate decisive factor.

Each of these tools have their own interior reporting structures.

However, it totally serves as a direct comparison between these best backlink checker tools, doesn’t it?

Let’s get you a better understanding of these tools then?

1. SEMrush

You’ll soon see why it’s on the very top of this Best backlink checker tools list.

SEMrush’s backlink analytics tool shows me the following data for each analyzed URL:

• Data from SEMrush’s 28.4 trillion indexed links.
• Referring Domains (RD)
• Number of backlinks.
• Categories of RDs.
• Backlink gaps.
• Anchor texts.
• RDs by authority score.
• Backlink types (Text/Images/Form/Frame).
• Link attribution (Follow/ Nofollow /Sponsored/ UGC).
• Backlink graph over time (new /lost).
• TLD distribution.
• Countries of RDs.
• Similar URLs (based on link profile).

Words are futile. Let’s get some action?

Let’s say I need the backlinks linking to Goodhousekeeping.com.

SEMrush shows me those in 1 click (literally).

Backlinks overview

How to check backlinks for a particular domain?

Well, I simply go to my SEMrush dashboard, and click on “Backlink Analysis” (on the left-sidebar).

Then, I enter the target URL on SEMrush’s backlink analytics tool.

And voila! Here’s everything that I need:

SEMrush brings me a lot more than what the screenshot above shows.

It shows the “Categories of referring domains”, and the % of backlinks from each industry.

And, also the “Top anchors” for the domain are displayed.

It’s helpful especially when analyzing non-brand domains. (E.g. “bestwaterpumps.com”).

Then I’ll know which anchors are being targeted the most by the URL.

Then, there’s the RDs by “Authority score”. Well, simply “ number of backlinks” don’t matter anymore.

It’s the strength of the website linking back to you that matters.

This chart helps me understand actual strength of the URL’s backlink profile.

The backlink types follow next (refer to the above screenshot).

They can either be text, image, form, or frame.

And well, are those links do-follow? No follow maybe? Or the newer UGC/sponsorship?

This data too is presented.

If I scroll down on the page, a chart displaying the backlink profile over time is available.

This shows the new/lost backlinks, as well as the addition/removal of links for the URL over time.

Further down the page is a chart showing me the TLD distribution. Just next to it, the top countries linking back to the URL can be found.

And this so far was just the “overview”!

In-depth backlink data

I can click on the “backlinks” tab to get more in-depth data for each individual link.

And then, this page is displayed.

Notice the top-bar? There I can get the exact Anchors, RDs, IPs, Indexed pages and competitors for the URL.

Or, the list below shows me every single backlink that the URL has.

The source URL, its strength (authority score), anchor text, link type and attribute, first and last seen dates.

I can even filter links based on link attributes, new/lost, type or even domains and IP addresses.

Backlink Gap

This is my personal favourite.

So, I can add my URL, as well as the URLs of up to 4 other competitors.

And here’s the magic:

Well, the list is basically of all the links that any, or all of the competitors have.

The “matches” metric shows how many domains from my URL list have a backlink from the domain.

I can also view the individual backlinks and their quality for each of the domains.

So now, I have a list of URLs I should get backlinks from.

(Hint: Find testimonials, infographic, or data links. These are the easiest to request a backlink from, if you have your own research, infographic or a really well-researched article that is.)

SEMrush Free trial and Pricing Plans

I’ve partnered up with SEMrush. You can get a 100% free SEMrush 14-day free trial right now by following this link.

Even after the trial ends, you’ll have forever access to its free plan!

Or, you can go for one of its paid plans:

• Pro: $99.95/mo.
• Guru: $199.00/mo.
• Business: $399.95/mo.

Read honest & In-depth SEMrush review.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs, as the name suggests is literally a tool entirely dedicated to Backlinks.

It sure has other SEO data as well. But, backlinks are what it really excels at.

Ahrefs gets us the following data (and more):

• Link strength (UR/DR)
• Total no. of links.
• TLD distribution.
• Internal links.
• Ability to set custom alerts.
• Best pages by links.
• RDs
• Links Interact (competitor links).
• New/lost/historical links.
• Outgoing links’ data.
• Anchor texts.
• Link types and attribution.

And well, this is just some of the data that’s available.

Backlinks overview

So, I enter the domain URL on Ahrefs’ site explorer.

Ahrefs lets me select how I wish to analyze the domain. Exact URL, subdomains, without subdomains and prefix can be analyzed.

Once I hit “search”, a lot of data is displayed.  but let’s limit ourselves to the ones related to backlinks.

• Ahrefs rank: This is the strength of the URLs backlink-profile.
• UR and DR: These too indicate the strength of a domain’s backlink profile. A bit more zoomed-in strength-o-meter than the Ahrefs rank.
• Total number of backlinks. (Both currently live, and historical numbers).
• And referring domains

Then, there’s a graph showing the RDs over time, Referring pages, new & lost RDs as well as new & lost pages.

The right-sidebar is a bit more interesting.

It shows the link-attributes and types based on RDs.

The same data (link-attributes and type) is shown again, but this time for the total backlinks and not just RDs.

The numbers can be clicked to get all the individual links these numbers are shown for.

Obviously, anchors and TLD distribution is available as well.

And then it also shows “URL rating distribution”.

This is based on the domain’s UR.

The higher the rating distribution, the stronger the backlinks are.

But again, this is just the overview.

In-depth backlink data

Again, clicking on the “backlinks” tab, I get more in-depth details of the backlink profile.

Here’s the results page:

For starters, we can filter for the live/recent or historical links.

The backlinks can even be grouped together. Helps with bigger projects. (Those with the same anchor text are grouped together).

Then it shows the DR and UR, referring domains, linked domains (outgoing links), exterior links, traffic on the source domain, keywords, and then obviously the target link and anchor.

It also recently launched a new feature called “Internal backlinks”.

It shows us all the internal links that the domain is using to link to its own content.

Ahrefs Links Intersect

Ahrefs’ Links Intersect tool is similar to SEMrush’s backlink gap tool.

It helps me to find links my competitors have but I don’t.

I can add up to 10 URLs. (10 is impressive, most other best backlink checker tools on this list allow less than 10 competitors).

There also is an additional URL-box at the bottom, this is where I enter my domain URL.

Here’s a result page:

It shows the DR of the linking URL, its Ahrefs rank, and “intersect” (no. of sites among the entered competitor URLs the link-source is linking to).

The number of links each URL has from the link-source is shown as well.

Best Pages by links

Another tool which makes Ahrefs one of the best backlink checker tools is this feature.

It shows me the pages which have the maximum number of links, and also the maximum UR.

It can come in handy when you need to build new backlinks for your site(s).

Simply find the “best pages by links” for your competitors’ URLs.

Any specific content, or type of content that has attracted a huge number of links for them, may do the same for you as well, can’t it?

Alerts

“Alerts” is one of my most favourite features with Ahrefs.

It helps me grab new high-quality links, literally with 0 effort.

I can set alerts for:

• Branded mentions: Non-linked mentions of my brand on websites.
• Competitor brand mentions: So that I can find websites mentioning my competitors. Hey, I’m good too, mention me as well!
• New/lost links: Daily/weekly/monthly reports on new and lost backlinks.

I believe that gets you an idea of why Ahrefs is considered to be one of the best backlink checker tools?

You can read my detailed SEMrush vs. Ahrefs comparison for a better understanding of the two tools mentioned thus far.

Ahrefs Pricing Plans

Ahrefs has 4 pricing plans-

• Lite- $99.00/mo.
• Standard- $179.00/mo
• Advanced- $399.00/mo
• Agency- $999.00/mo.

The “Lite” and “Standard” plans can be tried for $7.00.

3. Serpstat

Serpstat is another tool that deserves a mention on this list of the best backlink checker tools.

Backlinks overview

Alike with every backlink finder tool, I enter the URL I wish to analyze on Serpstat:

And here’s the overview that it brings me:

As is evident, the displayed results include:

• Follow links.
• Nofollow links.
• RDs
• Referring subdomains.
• Number of backlinks.
• Referring homepages.
• IPs
• Subnet class Cs.

Just below this overview, two graphs show me the new links, and overall change in the backlink profile over time.

Then, a new and lost links’ graph is displayed:

Followed by the backlink type (image/text/redirect), and anchors.

If you scroll further down, a TLD and country list is displayed.

So far so good. Nothing seems to be missing.

Let’s dive into the details then.

In-depth backlink data

Again, I click on the “backlinks” link from the overview tab.

This is what’s shown to me:

This data includes:

• The source URL
• External links from the page (total number of outgoing links from the exact URL).
• Follow/nofollow.
• Link type
• Target URL
• First & last-seen date.

Other features

Using the left-sidebar, I can access Serpstat’s other backlink-based features.

They let me check:

• The lost backlinks.
• Active backlinks.
• Anchor texts.
• Top pages.
• Referring domains.
• And Malicious links.

No rocket-science here.

Simply click on one of those tools, and you get the details.

Serpstat Pricing & 5-day Trial Promo Code

Despite being one of the best backlink checker tools, Serpstat has one of the lowest entry points.

It offers 4 plan-choices:

• Lite: $69.00/mo.
• Standard: $149.00/mo
• Advanced: $299.00/mo.
• Enterprise: $499.00/mo.

Serpstat offering 5-day trial promo code “updateland_serpstat” for UpdateLand readers. It’s available until the 1st of August. Grab this opportunity right now by clicking here and applying coupon code”updateland_serpstat“.

4. Moz

If you’ve even barely touched the SEO world, you know of MOZ.

If you haven’t, well it’s arguably the most popular SEO company on the planet.

Database-size is clearly one of the primary reasons why I believe Moz is one of the best backlink checker tools in the industry.

It boasts of 40.7 trillion links in its database. That’s more than both SEMrush and Ahrefs.

Backlinks overview

Here’s what its “Link research” module offers:

I simply enter a domain in its link explorer, and select the URL-structure (root/subdomain/exact page) I wish to crawl.

And, here are the results:

It displays:

• Domain Authority: This is one of the most popular, more accurate domain-strength metrics in the SEOsphere. The higher the DA, the easier that domain will rank for its keywords. (And, if it’s a competitor, higher the DA= harder the competition.)

Here’s an except from Searchenginejournal which tells us the importance of DA.

Note that DA isn’t a “Google-metric”. Even then, people, SEOs, brands and companies pay a lot of attention to it. (Hence, the reason I said it’s popular).

Anyway, the other displayed metrics for a backlink analysis are:

• Linking domains (RD): This is the no. of unique domains. Moz also shows the newly found and lost domains in the last 60 days on this overview.
• Inbound links: It’s the total number of backlinks, even including multiple results from the same RD (referring domain).

Then, there’s a graph displaying the newly discovered, and lost backlinks. This graph is plotted on a 7-day axis.

Moving on, there’s a neat breakdown of Follow and Nofollow links.

It also displays the top pages for the site.

Clicking on any of the links shown above gets us more details about that specific pages’ link-profile.

Scrolling down, there’s the “top anchor” list along with the DAs for the linking domains

When analyzing specific content, this helps us understand the kind of links we’d need to outrank this specific URL.

What slightly differs with Moz is that it lets us export specific links. E.g. you can selectively export the linking domains, top pages, follow links, all links and so on.

Well, this is totally possible with SEMrush and Ahrefs as well. However, the filters need to be applied manually in those cases.

In-depth backlink details

Again, when I click on the “inbound links” link on the overview page, I get the details for each individual backlink.

Here’s a page with the detailed insights:

See that “Page Authority” metric?

It’s the same thing as DA, but not for the entire domain, rather it’s calculated for the exact page/URL you’re analyzing.

Apart from this, the other displayed details include:

• Anchor text
• PA (Page authority)
• DA (Domain Authority).
• Linking domains (RDs)
• Spam score.
• First/last seen date. (can be revealed by clicking on the “more info” button).

On the same page, neat filters are offered:

So, I can filter the links based on:

• Link source: when I need to check links to the URL from a specific domain.
• Link type: Has filters such as follow, nofollow, canonical, redirect, redirect and so on. I can only search for the exact type of links which interest me.
• Link state: Filters in this category include all links, “active” and “lost” links.

Link Intersect

If you’ve read this best backlink checker tools list with attention, you already know what this is.

It’s a tool which lets me find the gap between me and my competitors’ backlinks.

The maximum no. of competitors I can add with Moz Link Intersect is 5, excluding my own domain.

The results page shows me the DA, spam score, the exact backlinks which my competitors have (but I don’t).

Compare links profile

This is another competition-research tool that Moz offers.

I can add 4 URLs in addition to my own domain for the comparison.

And, here are the results:

Well yes, it’s a “number-based comparison”.

Compares the total number of links, DA, spam score etc. for all the entered domains.

Perfect for setting benchmarks, eh? Set goals, go smash them!

Link tracking list

Unfortunately, no this isn’t a link-tracker as dynamic as the one offered by Ahrefs.

Rather, I get to enter my URL in the tracker.

And then, I can enter a list of domains I wish to obtain links.

If and when the links are obtained, it’s reflected on this page.

It’s more of a “to-do” list rather than  tracker.

 Moz Pricing

Moz has 4 pricing plans:

• Standard: $99.00/mo
• Medium: $149.00/mo
• Large: $249.00/mo
• Premium: $599.00/mo.

5. Majestic SEO

I simply go to Majestic SEO, and enter my target URL.

It also lets me choose from “historic index” (shows all the links and data which may or may not exist today, but did exist at some point in time).

And, I can choose if I wish to analyze subdomains, root domains, or exact URLs.

Backlinks overview

Here’s the overview I get for the backlinks:

• It displays: The total number of backlinks (both historic and live).
• RDs : Again, both historic and “fresh” referring domains.
• Referring IPs
• Referring subnets.

*Some of this data requires paid subscription, which I don’t have.

However, in my early days Majestic was (free) a true life-saver and hence it’s on this list.

In-depth backlink data

Scrolling down, Majestic is a data-powerhouse.

For starters, it displays the .edu and .gov links, as well as unique RDs.

Then, it shows the “language-based” percentage breakdown of all the links the target URL has.

There also is a time-based graph of the link-changes for my target URL.

However, the most important is its backlink breakdown.

It shows the:

• External backlinks.
• Supplemental backlinks
• Total links

Then, there’s a meter showing the live vs. deleted links, non-homepage vs. homepage links, direct vs. indirect links, follow vs. nofollow links, and http vs. https links.

You can also see the link-type chart on the screenshot above.

It shows what % of the links are images, texts, frames or redirects.

If I scroll further down, I get anchor-text details:

This data includes the total no. of links, deleted links and the nofollow links for specific anchors.

And well, all of this data is using Majestic’s free search.

Majestic SEO Pricing Plans

Majestic SEO offers 3 paid plans:

• Lite: $49.00/mo.
• Pro: $99.00/mo.
• And API: $399.00/mo.

6. Link Miner

Honestly, I only recently stumbled upon Link Miner.

Once I did, I just knew it deserves a spot on this list of the best backlink checker tools.

So, I enter my target URL on Link Miner.

I get to choose if I wish to analyse all links, new links or only the lost links.

Backlinks overview

Here’s the result-page generally presented to me:

As is evident, this includes:

• Citation flow
• Trust flow
• Referring IPs
• Referring domains.
• And Active backlinks.

In-depth backlinks data

No extra clicks required.

On the same page (and in the same screenshot above), you can see columns of data next to each backlink.

These include:

• TF (Trust flow)
• CF (Citation flow)
• ET (External links on the link-source).
• FB: Facebook shares.
• AR: Alexa rank
• Anchor text
• And LS: Link strength.

Note that each link also has a “DF/NF” indication. This stands for dofollow/nofollow.

The AR and LS indicators do make things easy, don’t they?

I now know which links will yield better results for me than the others.

Link-snapshot

Link Miner is the only tool on this entire list of the best backlink checker tools offering this feature.

I can click on any of the backlinks.

And, it shows me a snapshot of the link-source, with the anchor-text outlined.

The orange annotation in the screenshot above isn’t done by me, rather Link Miner.

The benefit?

I get an idea of what exactly the article is about.

Is it a roundup post?

An interview maybe?

Is there a scope for me to get my link added?

All of this, without having to manually visit each of those pages.

Link Miner Pricing

A total of 3 plans are offered:

• Basic: $29.90/mo.
• Premium: 39.90/mo.
• Agency: $79.90./mo.

7. UberSuggest

Ubersuggest was initially a keyword research tool.

It now offers a lot more than just that.

I must say, it’s probably one of the simplest and most user-friendly backlink checker tools in the industry.

Ubersuggest shows:

• Total number of links.
• Total no. of RDs.
• Domain strength.
• Anchor texts.
• Link types (text/image).
• Link attribution.
• A colour-coded, graphical interface.

Backlinks Overview

I enter my domain in the Ubersuggest search-box.

And it shows me this overview:

No other charts or graphs are shown for the backlinks just yet.

However, we can click on the “backlinks” link on the overview for details insights.

In-depth backlink details

Here’s what the backlink report page looks like:

It displays:

• Domain score: The domain’s strength. The higher the better.
• Total number of backlinks. (Shows the nofollow links separately as well.)
• Total number of RDs. (.gov and .edu links displayed separately.)

Then there’s a pretty clean graph showing the backlinks over time (refer to the screenshot above).

Scrolling down, I find the new & lost links comparison graph.

Helps me understand the URL’s backlink strategy (or its success/failure) to some extent.

Even this graph is color-coded to show the dofollow and nofollow links separately.

And then finally, I get the individual links and their stats.

This includes the source site’s name, its URL, the target URL, domain score, page score, link type (image/text), anchor text, and first/last seen dates.

That’s everything Ubersuggest offers.

Sure, it’s not as feature-rich as Moz or Ahrefs.

E.g. it doesn’t offer TLD distributions, geo data, or doesn’t even have the link-hop feature (clicking on backlinks to get more data about those specific source URLs).

But, if you’re just starting out, it totally can be one of the best backlink checker tools in your arsenal.

Ubersuggest Pricing Plans

The tool offers 3 plans:

• Individual: $29.00/month.
• Business: $49.00/month.
• Enterprise: $99.00/month.

8. Open Link Profiler

If you were searching for best free backlink checker tool, you have it now.

Despite being free, the data is overwhelming and more than impressive.

Backlinks overview

Simply go to the homepage, and enter your domain in the search-box.

This is the kind of result-page you should be seeing:

So, the overview includes:

• Unique links: This is basically the number of RDs. However, the “total links” too are mentioned right here.
• Links to homepage.
• Trusted links: These are basically dofollow links. Just below this, it also shows the “X labelled links”, these are links which either have the nofollow, UGC or Sponsorship attributes.
• LIS: Link Influence Score is an internal metric OPL assigns to the “quality” of these backlinks. The higher this number, the better quality links the website has.
• Industry: Not a major “feature”, but the overview also shows the industry this URL belongs to.

In-depth backlinks data

Unlike all the other best backlink checker tools mentioned above, I do not need to click anywhere to get in-depth reports.

I simply scroll down.

This is what a backlink report on OPL looks like:

It includes:

• The LIS
• Link source title and URL
• Anchor text.
• Target URL.
• First & last-seen dates.

And, I must say the filters OPL offers are arguably the most detailed ones throughout all the other best backlink checker tools.

I can filter for source URLs, anchor texts, TLDs, industries, LIS, and a number of “and/if” filters for the destination URL.

On the left-sidebar, a number of additional tools are offered.

These help me get more detailed insights into:

• The anchor texts (total number of times used, % out of total links.)
• Countries.
• Link contexts: Shows the “type” of article/source a link is obtained from. E.g. reviews, news, blog, interview, event etc.
• Pages: Shows the total number of links, for every single page on the target website.
• Link age: Offers me date-ranges, year-based. I can click on the exact “year” for which I wish to check the backlinks.
• LIS Distribution: I find it’s helpful for competition research. Helps me understand the quality or strength of the links I need to outrank the target URL.

Open Link Profiler Pricing

While the tool can totally be used for free, some of its features do require registration.

It offers 4 plans:

• Standard: $69.00/mo.
• Smart: $99.95/mo.
• Professional: $249.95/mo.
• Enterprise: $999.95/mo.

9. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo offers what could be the most unique (and colourful) backlink checker tool that there is.

It displays not just the backlinks.

But, the “social signals” for each of those backlinks as well.

Beware though, it’s not for you if you seek advanced metrics or data for your links.

Links overview

I enter the URL I wish to analyze on Buzzsumo’s backlink checker:

And here are the results it gets me:

It’s shows the URLs, but then it also shows the following data for each of these URLs:

• Facebook shares
• Twitter shares
• Pinterest shares.
• Reddit engagement.
• Number of links (from the link-source to external URLs)

I do agree, there isn’t much “backlink” data offered.

A basic filter does exist.

It lets us select the time of these links being found. E.g. 1 year, 2 year, 24 hours and so on. Specific date-range too can be selected.

Buzzsumo also lets us create “alerts”.

Nothing too fancy. You’ll simply be alerted either instantly, or once/day based on your choice.

Buzzsumo Pricing

Buzzsumo too has 4 plans:

• Pro: $99.00/month.
• Plus: $179.00/month.
• Large: $299.00/month.
• Enterprise: $499.00/month.

10. Linkody

Linkody is one of those tools which doesn’t always make it to the best backlink checker tools lists.

That’s simply because of its extremely limited database.

But, if you’re just starting out, it still isn’t completely useless.

I enter my domain in the Linkody backlink checker search box.

Then, a similar text-box asks me to enter the domain of at least one of my competitors.

And once that’s done, I get backlinks report.

Backlinks overview

With Linkody, there’s no separate “overview” and “in-depth” report page.

It’s all available on the same page.

Here’s a result-page:

It shows me:

• The source URL.
• Landing page (Target URL).
• Anchor text.
• GL: Google Index, checks if the source is indexed.
• Rel: Dofollow/nofollow attributes.
• Moz DA
• Alexa rank
• Country of the source website.
• TLD
• EFL: External follow links from the source URL.

The details aren’t lacklustre.

Everything that we may wish to know for a backlink, is sure displayed.

The only problem? It showed me less than 500 links for a domain whereas SEMrush got me over 5million for the same.

However, quite a few filters are offered:

I get to filter for Moz rank/ DA/PA, Spam score, Google Index, dates, etc.

Helps me find potentially more fruitful links immediately (when spying on a competitors’ URL).

Linkody Pricing Plans

It offers as many as 5 plans:

• Webmaster: $14.90/mo.
• Advanced: $24.90/mo.
• Pro: $49.00/mo.
• Agency: $99.00/mo.
• Agency XL: $153.00/mo.

11. Alexa

Let’s be honest, Alexa initially was more of a “rank-monitoring” platform than a SEO tool.

However, everyone evolves, and so did Alexa.

Honest warning though, it’s not super advanced, neither does it have a massive database.

It’s more of a competitor backlinks-research tool.

Anyway, I go to Alexa’s backlink checker tool, and enter my site (and that of my competitors).

A list showing me the backlinks to the sites I entered comes up:

The only metric shown is “Alexa rank” for these backlinks.

See that “sites” metric?

It shows how many sites, out of those which I entered, are getting a link from a specific source.

Each individual URL linking to each of my entered sites is shown as well.

Basically, it can be used to find the links you’re missing.

A trimmed down version of what SEMrush’s backlink-gap feature offers.

Alexa Pricing Plans

Alexa offers two simple plans to choose from:

• Advanced: $149.00/mo.
• Agency: $299.00/mo.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to backlinks.

Or, the best backlink checker tools in general.

(Feel free to skip these if you’re a seasoned SEO, I’ll primarily be covering the very basics).

#1. Do backlinks help you rank higher in 2020?

This is the dead(est) horse, or question, when it comes to backlinks.

However, the question remains, do backlinks actually help?

In my personal experience, they did and they do.

This detailed Ahrefs study proves the same.

#2. How many backlinks do you need to rank at the top?

Well, the “number” in my personal opinion isn’t as important as the “quality”.

E.g. you can create a dozen web 2.0s, a PBN or links from lower-quality sites.

They’ll never have the kind of impact that a direct dofollow link from a relevant niche, high quality site will have on your ranking.

It also depends on your competitors.

How many backlinks does the #1 result for your keyword has for now?

You don’t need to match it, but it sure will get you a fair idea.

#3. Is SEMrush better than Ahrefs?

Yes, and no.

Depends on what exactly your end-goal is.

In my personal opinion, SEMrush is the better overall SEO suite, while Ahrefs is a better backlink analyzer tool.

#4. Is SEMrush better than Moz?

These are two of the best backlink checker tools in the industry.

Minor features such as pricing, overall UI, support etc. is what differentiates one from the other.

You can read my detailed SEMrush vs. Moz comparison to know which of these two is better.

But in one word, yes, SEMrush does hold a slight edge over Moz.

Final Verdict- Which best backlink checker tools should you go with?

SEMrush.

If you need the most amount of data, and a complete SEO toolkit, SEMrush is my personal recommendation to you.

I doubt you just need a “backlink checker”.

SEO has a number of different playing fields.

SEMrush covers them all.

However, if you’re focusing exclusively on “backlinks”, Ahrefs is the next best bet.

And just in case you need a plan C, there isn’t a better alternative than Moz.

In fact, Moz could very well be used instead of any of the other two (SEMRush / Ahrefs) as well.

Being honest, the other options on this best backlink checker tools list may not be as advanced, data or feature-rich as these three.

However,  they still get the job done for most individuals and smaller groups or projects.

That’s all I had in my arsenal as far as my own backlink checking experience goes.

However,  I’d love to know which of these best free backlink checker tools you’d go with.

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Best Domain Registrar To Buy Domain Name In 2020

Registering a domain name is the first step towards starting your blog. If you are confused about the best domain registrar you should go for, I’m here to help. In this article, I’ll be telling you about 16 the best domain name registrar in 2020.

For the novice, who is not a tech-savvy, selecting the best domain name provider is no less than a rocket science. And that’s pretty obvious!

When there are hundreds of domain registrar companies out there and all of them are claiming to the best, selecting the best is a real hurdle. But since we are here, there is no need to be confused about.

After a rigorous research, I’ve selected the top 16 best domain name registrar companies you can trust upon and use to register your domain name at a reasonable price.

But before we move further to check out the best domain name providers, let’s first check out what qualities we should consider in a domain registrar company before taking its services.

Qualities to Consider before choosing the Best Domain Registrar

There are some features which the best domain registrar must have. Some of those features are given below. So before finalizing any domain name registrar for you, consider the below-given qualities and go for the best one!

• Make sure the Domain Registrar you are going for is ICANN accredited. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is an organization which is responsible for managing all the domain names all over the Internet. If your domain Registrar is not registered through ICANN, probably you are being cheated on the name of a domain registrar company!
• The second and the most important feature you should be looking into is the Customer service. Best domain registrars have the 24/7 active customer support available through various mediums like live chat, email, phone etc.
• Pricing and renewal rates! Always check if the Domain name registrar you are going for is budget friendly to you or not. Also, domain name renewal charges must be checked. Some companies charge extremely high domain renewal charges. Stay away from such companies.
• Do check the policy of domain name transfer. Because many times we need to transfer the domain name from one registrar to another. And at that time, we get to know about the company’s hidden policies like additional charge and the time taken for domain transfer.
• The last and yet another very important factor is the Reputation of the domain registrar. Do check if the company you are going for has a reputation in the market. Also, read the experience of the existing users with that company!

If you consider all these points carefully, probably you won’t ever face any issues in future. Now let’s move further to check out the list of top 16 best domain registrar.

Now that you know how to select the best domain name registrar company, I guess you can easily search for one on the Internet! But since there are so many domain registrars available out there, it’s not an easy task to check the features of all the domain registrar individually and select the best one.

So to ease your work, I’ve done that research part and compiled a list of top 16 best domain registrar companies on the Internet.

In the end of the article, you will never ask in life “where should I buy my domain name”. Because this quick domain registrar reviews will help you select the best place to buy domain name.

So let’s get started with the top 16 best domain registrar 2020 where you can rely upon for buying domain names!

16 Best Domain Registrar in 2020

1. Domain.com (Recommended to buy domain names)
2. NameCheap
3. GreenGeeks (Perfect to setup your blog)
4. Bluehost
5. DreamHost
6. Namesilo
7. Hover
8. iPage
9. Gandi
10. Dynadot
11. Godaddy
12. Hostgator
13. Register.com
14. 1&1
15. Name.com
16. Enom

Let’s dig dipper.

1. Domain.com

Website: https://www.domain.com/

Domain.com was founded in the year 2000 and since then, it’s been wildly popular domain name registrar organization with over millions of active users.

Domain.com offers not just domain registration but several other services like web hosting, VPS hosting, Email, SSL certificates, web design etc. And certainly, the list of service offered by domain.com is very long.

Registering a domain on domain.com is extremely budget friendly. If you register your domain on domain.com, you get many free services like URL Forwarding, Email Forwarding, Transfer Lock, Total DNS Management and more.

All in all, Domain.com aids you in not just registering your domain name. There is everything offered by this registrar that you need to run your online business successfully!

2. NameCheap

Website: https://www.namecheap.com/

Namecheap is yet another best domain registrar in the industry. As the name suggests, Namecheap offers domain name registration on the cheap rates. Besides, you also get Privacy protection at no cost.

Namecheap has over 1 million existing customers and the number is rapidly increasing. Like Godaddy, Namecheap also offers services for hosting and managing domains. Besides, the interface of Namecheap is also very seamless.

Good customer support, no up-sells, and high-range of LTDs are some other key features in the list! If you are a newbie and not feeling confident about the process of the registering domain and the pricing, go for Namecheap. Trust me, it’s worth giving a try!

If you are buying a domain name for setup your blog, then Namecheap can be best choice for you. Namecheap offers cheap shared hosting plans. Starting price is $1.44/month. Best part? It offers one domain name free (terms and conditions applied) when you buy annual web hosting. Click here to get more details.

3. GreenGeeks – Perfect to Setup Your Blog

Website: https://www.greengeeks.com/

If you are on a short budget and want to setup your blog, then GreenGeeks is the best choice for you.

You will get everything here from domain name, SSL to web hosting. Yes, you don’t need to look for another resource to buy web hosting and SSL. GreenGeeks will take care of everything.

Lite plan is best for you. It starts at $2.95/mo.

It includes:

• 1 Website
• Free Domain Name for 1st year
• Free WildCard SSL
• Unlimited Web Space
• Unlimited Data Transfer and more.

If there is any possibility to setup more than one blog in the future, Pro plan is perfect for you.

Support is 24/7/365. Also It guarantees 99.9% uptime. Best part? If you are not satisfied with their services, you can get your money back. All you need to cancel your hosting plan within 30 days.

4. Bluehost

Website: https://www.bluehost.com/

Bluehost is already an industry-leader when it comes to servers. In fact, it offers one of the best cheap WordPress servers (recommended by WordPress itself!)

Bluehost is also without doubt the best domain registrar 2020.

It facilitates the purchase of nearly all the popular TLDs, including .com/.net/.org/.tech/.site/.store/.biz etc.

There’s 24X7 live-chat available in case you get stuck.

Privacy Protection is pre-bundled with each domain for $11.88/year, but can be removed before checkout.

The renewal charges at Bluehost are always at industry-standard.

The default lock-in is 60-days. You can’t transfer your domain to other providers before this period is over (this is a requirement from ICANN).

There are no additional charges on transferring domains to Bluehost, it costs the same as registering a new domain.

Credit Card and PayPal accepted for payments.

5. DreamHost

Website: https://www.dreamhost.com/

DreamHost is a very well known ICANN-accredited company and one of the top players in domain registration and hosting industry. Dreamhost provides most of the classic TLDs at an affordable price. Besides, DreamHost also offers free WHOIS privacy package.

DreamHost is an all-in-one solution for all your online business needs. The domain booking is just one of the services that DreamHost offer. Apart from domain booking, DreamHost is known mainly as a hosting company.

DreamHost is highly trustable and very popular website building and domain registration platform which you can also consider as your best domain registrar. To know more about their hosting and domain registration plans, you can visit its official website given above.

6. Namesilo

Website: https://www.namesilo.com/

The next up we have is Namesilo. It’s yet another one of the cheapest domain name registrar with all the necessary features. Namesilo boasts all the qualities of the best domain registrar.

The cheapest rates, simple integration, free lifetime whois privacy, least renewal fees and so forth. Besides, one feature that sets Namesilo part is the free domain parking facility. If you have a premium domain which you are willing to sell, Namesilo helps you do that.

It allows you to showcase your domain for free on their website and doesn’t take any share of the selling price! Besides, Namesilo has a very clear and visible pricing structure.

Where most of the companies ask additional service charge on domain renewal, domain transfer charge etc, Namesilo doesn’t ask for any such hidden fees.

7. Hover

Website: https://www.hover.com/

Hover is extremely TLD-rich.

From the traditional, popular ones such as .com/.org/.net, to the newer, less-popular ones such as .family/.farm/.bargains/.blackfriday everything is available.

The renewal prices do spike, but only a dollar or two as compared to the introductory prices.

Discounts are offered on renewal, if you have 10 or more domains. The more domains, the better the discounts.

It also offers this advanced “Hover connect” feature.

If you don’t have a lot of experience, Hover lets you connect your domain to your host in a couple clicks!

There is a transfer-fee, however, it depends on the specific domain being transferred. 7-days is the average required time for transferring domains (varies depending on the domain extension).

The remaining time on the domain is rolled over, and an extra year added when it’s transferred to Hover.

The best part is, it offers 100% free WHOIS privacy protection.

The live-chat unfortunately isn’t available 24X7.

8.  iPage

Website: https://www.ipage.com/

iPage is not exclusively a domain registrar company but a hosting service provider. I won’t say it’s the best domain registrar company ever, but you can give it a try!

iPage is a popular name in the industry and providing its services since 1998, so there is no trust issue at all. Besides, they are also known to offer good customer support. 

However, it might seem a little costly to some people, but if you have got money in your pocket and want to go for a stable domain registrar, you might find iPage suitable.

9. Gandi

Website:  https://www.gandi.net/

Gandi offers over 700 domain extensions.

This is one of the highest as far as “numbers” go making it (arguably) the best place to register domain name.

It’s also one of the very few domain name providers which offers a free SSL certificate as well as 2 mailboxes (3GB each) with its domain names.

Purchasing a domain also enables you for a 50% discount on its servers.

It also offers 1-click third party integrations, so the domain can be linked to them without much hassle.

What’s best? The renewal prices do not change for most extensions.

Furthermore, a list transparently shows each domain’s current price, as well as the renewal prices, no hidden fees!

10. Dynadot

Website: https://www.dynadot.com/

Dynadot is the best place to buy domain name if you seek exceptional access to TLDs.

It even offers geo-specific (Internationalized Domain Name) TLDs such as . .中文网/ .онлайн/ .भारत/ etc.

Obviously, .com/.org/.net/.us and other more common extensions can be registered as well.

Offers impressive transparency. Initial onboarding (first time) price as well as renewal prices are displayed in a list for each TLD.

Often offers sales and discounts providing for much cheaper onboarding prices than  the ones mentioned in the list.

Free whois protection is offered on all  (applicable) domains.

Even offers control on the level of privacy you need for your domains, or for specific domains.

Also offers free email forwarding. Also protects the mailboxes from spam.

The standard 60-day transfer-lock is applicable.

Live-chat does exist, but has a long initial response time. However, once you reach an agent, they’re extremely quick!

Payments can be made with Cards, PayPal, Skrill, Bank wire, Cheque, eCash, Wechatpay, Money orders etc.

11. Godaddy

Website: https://www.godaddy.com/domains

Godaddy is one of biggest names in the domain name Industry. It’s one of the fastest growing domain name registrars which hold as large as 30% shares of all the booked domain names online.

There are lots of the features offered by Godaddy which makes it one of the most popular domain registrar in the industry! There are over 17 million customers that trusts GoDaddy and over 71 million domains are registered with Godaddy.

From reasonable price to highest security, and all almost all range of TLD domains, Godaddy offers all the basic and advanced features that we want to see in our domain registrar. Besides, Godaddy also offers hosting service.

Apart from domain registration and hosting service, Godaddy also offers logo designs and website designing services. So in all, buying the domain and running a full-fledged website, everything can be done on Godaddy without any hassle.

12. Hostgator

Website: https://www.hostgator.com/

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Hostgator (unless you’ve been living under a rock, or are ad-blind, they do spend a fortune on those!)

It markets itself, and is also considered by many (me included, to some extent) to be the best domain name registrar.

Available TLDs include .com/.org/.site/.online/.us/.biz/.tech and many others.

Does offer transfer-lock making sure the domain stays safe.

The domain renewal prices are a bit steep, at times up to 3x of the first-year (onboarding) price.

But then again, the companies which do not increase their renewal prices, do not offer onboarding discounts as massive as Hostgator either.

Doesn’t offer free Whois protection and charges a small fee.

Live-chat is available 24X7.

Payment can be made using Cards, PayPal, Bank wires, a number of regional payment modes, gift cards, electronic cards etc.

Apart from Domains, Hostgator is also a leading name when it comes to virtual private servers.

13. Register.com

Website: https://www.register.com/

Register.com is the next leading online domain registration corporation which offers affordable domain name registration. They are there in the industry for about 15 years and over 2 million domain names are registered under Register.com.

Registering domain on Register.com is extremely smooth and it hardly takes more than a few minutes to get it done. Besides, Register.com is also known for its award winning customer support.

Register.com offers all the services you want in your best domain registrar. register.com provide a wide range of domains ranging from .com, .in, .edu to country specific domains.

Besides, you can also register some rare domains like .xyz, .club, .now etc with Register.com. Register.com offers a wide range of services like Who.is protection, Domain expiration protection, SSL certificates etc on affordable price.

14. 1&1

Website: https://www.1and1.com/domain-names

If none of the above domain registrars have satisfied you so far, I’m sure 1&1 will not fail to do that! It’s one of the very popular domain registrars out there with a very strong customer base.

The best part?? the best thing about 1&1 is the free 1-year hosting. Yes, you heard me right. While booking your domain on 1&1, you get 1-year free hosting for running and managing your website for free.

24/7 customer support, Advanced DNS management, A wide variety of domains, including new domain extensions, 1 email account with 2GB mailbox space & unlimited email forwarding are some other key features in the list!

There are several other features offered by 1&1 one of the very popular domain registrars. You can check all these features on the 1&1 official website!

15. Name.com

Website: https://www.name.com/

Name.com is a popular domain registration firm which is preferred by several users for registering their domains online.

The features of name.com include free SSL, separate email services, good customer support, Domain Nabber services to search for expired domains etc.

I don’t claim that Name.com is the cheapest domain registrar company on the Internet. In fact, they indeed have their own pricing modules for the domain transfer, who.is privacy protection etc. But this company is reliable and have a good reputation in the market.

So if you want to have your online presence, or if you are willing to start your business online by building a website, you can consider name.com as your preferred domain name registrar!

16. Enom

Website: https://www.enom.com/

With over 11 million domains registered under Enom, it’s one of the leading domain registrars across the web. On the basis of the number of the registered domain, Enom is not far behind GoDaddy and it holds about 3.6 shares of registered domain over the Internet.

Enom’s interface is user-friendly. Even if you are not a tech-savvy, you can easily register your domain with Enom.

Besides, it’s also budget friendly and is considered to be truly reliable when it comes to booking a domain name online. Moreover, Enom also offers easy integration interface with most of the Internet services.

Enom also offers SSL certificates facility and seamless Domain transfers. In the nutshell, Enom has everything that makes it one of the top domain registrars in the industry and I don’t wonder why 11 million people trust Enom for their online needs.

Beside these domain name registrars, there are so many other best domain sites like best Enom, Google Domains, Iwantmyname and several more. Besides, big hosting providers companies like Bluehost and HostGator also offers domain registrations services.

So choose the best domain registrar wisely else you might face trouble later! Along with the domain registrar, you should also take some care while selecting the domain name. So, here goes some bonus tips that you can consider to select the best domain names!

How to Select the Best Domain Name for You?

• Come up with a unique yet memorable name.
• Just don’t select a random name as your domain but make sure the name you are going for has something to do with the content you are about to provide on your website!
• Avoid using the numbers and special characters in your domain name.
• avoid using the long domain names.
• Try to go for the .com domain name extension. Because .com domain name is memorable yet have more trust ratio!

So these were some of the quick tips to consider while selecting a domain name for your brand! On this note, we have reached the end of the article.

Conclusion:

Buying a domain name online is not a rocket science! In fact, once you have decided the best domain registrar you should go for and you have picked an appealing domain name for you, it’s just a matter of few clicks!

If that domain name is available, you can book that name on any of the domain booking sites mentioned above and start your online journey!

So in the nutshell, the best domain registrar is one which is ICANN registered, have no hidden fees and offers privacy without any additional fees. Also, the company must have the reputation in the market.

After getting to know about these domain name providers, I guess now you exactly know where to buy domain names! Right?

But if you still have any doubts regarding domain registration, you can ask me in the comment section below. And if you know any better place to register a domain name which I’ve forgotten to mention in the list, tell that too! I’ll be happy to add that to my list!

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