Link Building Part of the backlink quality guide
Backlink monitoring: how to know when a link goes live or disappears
How to monitor backlinks: what each check should verify, how often to run it, which tools see what, and a free spreadsheet method for the links you earned.
Nikunj Thakkar Published 9 min read
Short answer
Keep a list of every link you earned and re-check each linking page on a schedule: weekly for the first three months, then monthly. Each check should confirm the page loads, your link is still on it, it points to the right URL and its rel attribute hasn't changed to nofollow or sponsored.
On this page
To monitor backlinks, keep a list of every link you’ve earned and re-check each linking page on a schedule: weekly for new links, monthly once they’ve been stable for about three months. Each check should confirm four things: the page still loads, your link is still on it, it points where it should, and its rel attribute hasn’t changed.
This guide covers what a proper check verifies, how often to run it, what free and paid tools can and can’t see, and a spreadsheet method you can set up in ten minutes. It’s part of our hub on what makes a high-quality backlink, because a link is only as good as the time it stays live.
Key takeaways
- Monitor the links you earned by exact URL. Don’t rely on an SEO tool’s “lost” report alone.
- A full check covers page status, link presence, target URL and the rel attribute.
- Weekly for the first three months, then monthly, is enough for most sites.
- Google Search Console shows a sample of links and doesn’t flag removals or nofollow.
- When a link goes, contact the editor within days, not months.
What is backlink monitoring?
Backlink monitoring is the routine of re-checking the pages that link to you so you know when a link appears, changes or disappears. It covers two jobs: confirming a promised link actually went live, and catching links that later get removed, redirected or switched to nofollow. A link that has disappeared is a lost link.
Links disappear more often than people expect. Ahrefs looked at links pointing to more than two million websites since January 2013 and found that at least 66.5% had rotted (Ahrefs link rot study). Pew Research found that 23% of news webpages contain at least one broken link (Pew Research Center, 2024). If you earn links and never look at them again, some of that work is quietly undone every year.
What should a backlink check verify?
A useful backlink check verifies five things: the linking page returns a 200 status, your link is still present, it points to the URL you expect, the rel attribute is unchanged, and the anchor text and surrounding sentence still make sense. A tool that only reports “link found” misses the last three.
| Check | Why it matters | What a failure looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Page status | A deleted or redirected page takes your link with it | 404, 410, a redirect to the homepage, or a login wall |
| Link present | Editors trim lists and rewrite posts | Your product is gone from the article, or listed without a link |
| Target URL | Your own site changes can break a good link | Link now points to a page you deleted, or to an old domain |
| rel attribute | Sites change outbound link policies | A followed link becomes nofollow or sponsored |
| Anchor and context | The surrounding text decides what the link says about you | Anchor changed to “click here”, or the paragraph about you was cut |
The rel check is the one people forget. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints about which links to consider (Google Search Central Blog), so a change from followed to nofollow is a real change in value, even though the link still “exists”. For a single page, paste its HTML into the nofollow link checker to see every link to your domain and its attributes.
How often should you check your backlinks?
Check new links weekly for the first three months, because that’s when edits, rewrites and “we’ve changed our policy” decisions most often happen. After that, monthly is enough for most sites. Check your most valuable links (the ones that send sign-ups) weekly for as long as you have them.
There’s no Google rule here; this cadence balances effort against how quickly you can act. The reason to check often is the follow-up window. An editor who added you three weeks ago remembers the conversation and can restore a link in a minute. One who added you two years ago may have left the site.
What can each type of backlink monitoring tool see?
There are three types of backlink monitoring tools: Google Search Console (free, your site only, a sample of links), index-based SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush (discover new and lost links across the web from their own crawl), and URL-list monitors that re-fetch the specific pages you tell them to.
| Google Search Console Links report | Index-based tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic) | URL-list monitors and spreadsheets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finds links you didn’t know about | Yes, a sample | Yes, widest coverage | No |
| Confirms a specific link is live today | No | Only as of the crawler’s last visit | Yes, on each check |
| Shows nofollow / sponsored | No | Yes | Yes, if configured |
| Alerts on removal | No | Yes (for example, Ahrefs Alerts for new and lost backlinks) | Yes, or you scan a sheet |
| Cost | Free | Paid plans; Ahrefs has a free tier for sites you verify | Free to cheap |
Google Search Console. The Links report is free and comes straight from Google, which makes it the best source for links Google knows about. But Google’s documentation is clear about the limits: it shows “a sample of internal and external links”, the links “may have since been removed”, and the report “doesn’t specify if a link is marked as nofollow.” It’s for discovery, not monitoring.
Index-based tools. Ahrefs, Semrush and Majestic run their own crawlers and report new and lost links across the web. Ahrefs Alerts notifies you when a site gains or loses backlinks, and these tools are the right way to find links you didn’t build. Their weakness is timing and false positives: a “lost” link may be a crawler that hit a timeout or a page that loads content with JavaScript.
URL-list monitors. These re-fetch the exact pages you list and look for your link. Several dedicated tools do this, and so does a spreadsheet. This is the right method for links you earned through outreach, because you already know the URLs.
Free one-off checkers such as Backlink Watch sit in between: you enter a URL and get a list of the backlinks the tool finds at that moment. That helps with discovery, but nothing is saved or re-checked, so it can’t tell you when a link you earned goes missing.
How do you monitor backlinks for free?
You can monitor backlinks for free with a Google Sheet: list each linking page, then use IMPORTXML to pull the links on that page that point to your domain. Add Google Search Console for discovery and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, Ahrefs’ free tier for sites you verify, and you have reasonable coverage at no cost.
- List your links. One row per earned link: linking page URL, your target URL, date won, editor’s name and email.
- Pull your link from the page. In a new column, use
=IMPORTXML(A2, "//a[contains(@href,'yourdomain.com')]/@href"), with A2 holding the linking page URL. It returns the link if it’s on the page. - Pull the rel attribute. In the next column, use
=IMPORTXML(A2, "//a[contains(@href,'yourdomain.com')]/@rel"). Empty means a plain followed link. - Flag problems. Add a column with
=IF(ISERROR(B2),"CHECK","OK")so rows that return nothing stand out. - Open every flagged row yourself.
IMPORTXMLcan’t read pages that load links with JavaScript or block automated requests, so a flag means “look”, not “lost”. - Repeat on your schedule. Don’t count on the formulas refreshing on their own; reopen the sheet and review it once a week.
This works well up to a few dozen links. Beyond that, the manual “open every flagged row” step becomes the bottleneck, and a dedicated monitor or a tool that handles it for you starts to earn its cost.
What do you do when a link goes missing?
When a monitored link goes missing, first confirm it yourself in a normal browser, then work out the cause: page deleted, post rewritten, URL changed, link switched to nofollow, or a problem on your side. Then contact the editor quickly with a short, friendly note and the exact fix.
The most common causes and the right response for each are below; our guide to reclaiming lost backlinks goes through every cause in detail.
| Cause | First move |
|---|---|
| Your target page moved or was deleted | Fix it yourself with a 301 redirect; no email needed |
| Article rewritten and you were cut | Ask whether you can be considered for the next update, with one new reason you fit |
| Page deleted or redirected | Ask whether the content moved somewhere else on the site |
| Link changed to nofollow | Check if it’s site-wide; if only yours, ask whether it was intentional |
| Site migrated to a new CMS | Point out the broken or missing links; migrations drop links by accident |
For the wording, start from the ready-made link reclamation email template. If the editor still names you but the link is gone, the unlinked mention email fits better.
How do you get rid of a backlink you don’t want?
Ask the site owner to remove it, and only reach for Google’s disavow tool if that fails and the links put you at risk. Google says that in most cases it can work out which links to trust on its own, so most sites never need to disavow anything (Search Console Help: disavow links).
Google’s own threshold is narrow: disavow only when you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links, and they have caused a manual action or likely will. If that’s you, our disavow file generator formats the list in the plain-text layout Search Console expects. A few odd links from scraper sites are normal and need no action.
Which backlink metrics should you track over time?
Track links won, links still live after 30 and 90 days, and the share that are followed. These three numbers tell you whether your outreach produces links that last. Total backlink count and authority scores move for reasons you don’t control, so don’t use them as the main monitoring signal. Two more worth a glance each quarter: your anchor text distribution, and the new links your competitors are winning.
Retention is the underrated one. A campaign that wins 20 links and keeps 19 is better than one that wins 30 and keeps 15. If your retention is poor, look at which kind of links disappear: paid placements and link insertions often vanish when a site cleans up, while editorial mentions in maintained articles tend to stay. To see what each retained link actually cost you, plug your numbers into the link building cost calculator. For what each method costs up front, see backlink prices by method.
Doing it without the spreadsheet
The spreadsheet method works, but it depends on someone remembering to open it. In BacklinkGenie, every link you win through the agent is found on the live page and then checked again every week. If a link is removed or changed to nofollow, it’s flagged in your Links view and you get an email, so you can follow up while the editor still remembers the conversation. The checks are included on every paid plan; how it works shows the full flow from finding posts to monitoring. For agencies, the same checks feed client reports; see link building for agencies.
That only covers links won through the agent. For links you built elsewhere, use the free method above or an index-based tool.
Monitoring is the last step of earning a good link, not an afterthought. If you’re still deciding which links are worth the effort in the first place, go back to the backlink quality guide and its scoring method.
Questions people ask
Does Google Search Console tell me when I lose a backlink?
No. The Links report shows a sample of links Google has found over time, and Google says those links may since have been removed. It doesn't send alerts, doesn't show nofollow, and can lag behind reality. Use it to discover links, then check the ones you care about directly.
Why does my SEO tool show a link as lost when it's still there?
Index-based tools report what their crawler saw on its last visit. A timeout, a temporary error, a cookie wall or a page that loads links with JavaScript can all look like a lost link. Open the page yourself before you email the editor.
What should I do when a monitored link changes to nofollow?
Check whether the whole site changed its outbound link policy or only your link. If it's site-wide, there's little to ask for. If only yours changed, a polite note asking whether it was intentional often gets it reverted, especially if the editor added you for free.
Should I monitor competitors' backlinks too?
It's useful for prospecting rather than protection. New links to a competitor show you which articles and editors are active in your category right now. Ahrefs Alerts, for example, can notify you when any website or URL you enter gains or loses backlinks.
What is a dofollow backlink?
A dofollow backlink is a normal link with no rel value such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc, so it can pass ranking signals to the page it points to. Dofollow isn't a real HTML attribute; it only means the link isn't qualified. This is why monitoring checks the rel attribute: a followed link can be switched to nofollow later without disappearing from the page.
Are backlinks still relevant in 2026?
Yes. Google's own documentation says it uses links as a signal when determining the relevancy of pages and to find new pages to crawl, and its spam policies still police link schemes. What has changed is that a few relevant editorial links count for more than a large number of weak ones, and those are the links worth monitoring.
Written by
Nikunj Thakkar · Founder, BacklinkGenie
Nikunj builds BacklinkGenie, an outreach agent that pitches editors for links you earn rather than buy. He writes about link outreach, email deliverability and how products end up in the posts people read.
Published · Last updated