How can I find out who is linking to my website?

Finding out who is linking to your website is crucial for monitoring your backlink profile, assessing the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and identifying potential issues or opportunities. Here's a comprehensive guide on how to discover who is linking to your website:

### **1. **Use SEO Tools:****

Several tools can help you track backlinks and provide detailed insights into who is linking to your site. Here are some popular ones:

- **Ahrefs:**
  - **Site Explorer:** Enter your domain in Ahrefs' Site Explorer and navigate to the "Backlinks" section. This will display a list of domains linking to your site, along with details like the anchor text, the page linking to you, and the link type (dofollow or nofollow).

- **SEMrush:**
  - **Backlink Analytics:** Use SEMrush's Backlink Analytics tool to enter your domain and view a comprehensive list of backlinks. You can filter and analyze the data based on various metrics.

- **Moz:**
  - **Link Explorer:** Enter your domain into Moz's Link Explorer to view backlinks. Moz provides insights into domain authority, page authority, and other link metrics.

- **Google Search Console:**
  - **Links Report:** Sign in to Google Search Console, navigate to the "Links" section, and view the "External Links" report. This shows a list of domains and pages linking to your site, along with the total number of links.

### **2. **Check Referring Domains:****

- **Referring Domains:** Most SEO tools offer a report on referring domains. This report shows the number of unique domains that link to your site. Checking this helps you understand the diversity and quality of your backlink profile.

### **3. **Analyze Backlink Quality:****

- **Domain Authority (DA):**
  - **Assess Link Quality:** High DA domains typically provide more valuable backlinks. Most SEO tools display DA or similar metrics to help evaluate the quality of the referring sites.

- **Anchor Text Analysis:**
  - **Review Anchor Text:** Analyze the anchor text used in the backlinks to ensure they are relevant and varied. This helps in understanding how your site is being referenced and can identify potential issues like over-optimization.

### **4. **Monitor Your Backlink Profile Regularly:****

- **Set Up Alerts:**
  - **Ahrefs Alerts:** Set up alerts in Ahrefs for new backlinks to receive notifications when your site gains new links.
  - **Google Alerts:** Use Google Alerts to monitor mentions of your website or brand, which can help identify new backlinks.

- **Regular Checks:**
  - **Periodic Reviews:** Regularly review your backlink profile to stay updated on new links, lost links, and any changes in the quality of your backlinks.

### **5. **Manual Search:****

- **Google Search:**
  - **Search for Your Domain:** Perform a Google search with queries like `site:yourdomain.com` to see indexed pages and potential backlinks. While this may not be exhaustive, it can help identify links you might not find through SEO tools.

### **6. **Analyze Competitor Backlinks:****

- **Competitor Insights:**
  - **Compare Backlinks:** Use SEO tools to analyze the backlink profiles of competitors. This can reveal opportunities for your site to gain similar backlinks or identify patterns in the industry.

### **7. **Evaluate and Disavow Toxic Links:****

- **Identify Toxic Links:**
  - **Analyze Low-Quality Links:** Identify any toxic or spammy backlinks that could harm your site's SEO. Look for links from low-quality, irrelevant, or potentially harmful sites.

- **Disavow Links:**
  - **Submit Disavow File:** If necessary, use Google's Disavow Tool to submit a file containing links you want to disassociate from your site. This helps prevent any negative impact on your site's rankings.

### **8. **Review Historical Backlinks:****

- **Historical Data:**
  - **Backlink History:** Use SEO tools to view historical data on your backlinks. This can help identify trends, lost links, or changes in your backlink profile over time.

### **9. **Check Link Building Efforts:****

- **Assess Campaigns:**
  - **Evaluate Outreach Campaigns:** Review the results of any link-building campaigns or outreach efforts to see if they have led to new backlinks.

By using these methods, you can effectively find out who is linking to your website, assess the quality and impact of these backlinks, and take necessary actions to improve your backlink profile. Regular monitoring and analysis are key to maintaining a healthy and effective link-building strategy.