How to Check If Your Backlinks Are Indexed (5 Free & Paid Methods)

You built or bought a batch of links, and now you want to know one thing: does Google actually know about them? This guide shows you how to check if backlinks are indexed, step by step, with five methods that range from completely free to fully automated.

Each method answers a slightly different question. So before you start, it helps to know what you are really checking: a backlink only counts once Google has indexed the page the link is on. Therefore, every method below checks that page, not the link by itself.

Pick the method that fits the size of your list. For a handful of URLs, the free methods are enough. For hundreds, you will want a bulk tool.

Quick comparison

Method	Cost	Best for	Works for other people's sites?
1. site: search	Free	1–10 URLs	Yes
2. Exact URL search	Free	Double-checking a single URL	Yes
3. Google Search Console	Free	Pages on your own site	No
4. Ahrefs / Semrush	Paid	Finding which links exist	Yes, but not Google's index
5. Bulk index checker	Paid, low cost per URL	Hundreds or thousands of URLs	Yes

Method 1: The site: search (free)

This is the classic way to check backlinks indexed by Google, and it takes about ten seconds per URL.

Step 1. Copy the full URL of the page that holds your backlink.

Step 2. Go to Google and type site: followed by the URL, with no space. For example: site:example.com/blog/my-guest-post

Step 3. If the page shows up in the results, it is indexed. If Google says it found nothing, the page is most likely not indexed yet.

Tip: leave out https:// and www. to avoid false negatives. Also, remember that Google limits how many searches you can run quickly, so this method does not scale beyond a few URLs.

Method 2: Search for the exact URL (free)

Sometimes a page does not appear for a site: query even though it is indexed. As a second check, search for the URL itself.

Step 1. Paste the full URL into the Google search box, including https://.

Step 2. Look for that exact page in the first results.

Step 3. If neither this search nor the site: search returns the page, you can be fairly sure it is not indexed.

Method 3: Google Search Console (free, own sites only)

Search Console is the most reliable source, because the data comes straight from Google. However, it only works for sites you have verified, so it cannot check a guest post on someone else's blog.

Step 1. Open Search Console and select your property.

Step 2. Paste the page URL into the URL Inspection bar at the top.

Step 3. Read the result. "URL is on Google" means indexed. "URL is not on Google" comes with a reason, such as Crawled – currently not indexed.

The Links report also lists sites that link to you. If a linking site appears there, Google has found links from it. Keep in mind, though, that the report shows a sample and updates slowly, so a missing link does not always mean a problem.

Method 4: Ahrefs or Semrush (paid)

These tools are great for finding which backlinks exist and whether they are still live. Still, there is an important catch: they report what their own crawler found. They do not tell you whether Google has indexed the page.

Step 1. Enter your domain in the backlink report.

Step 2. Filter for new or lost links to see what changed.

Step 3. Export the linking URLs, then check their Google index status with one of the other methods.

In other words, use these tools to build your list, and use a Google-based check to verify it.

Method 5: A bulk index checker (paid, fastest)

Once you have more than a few dozen URLs, manual searches become slow and unreliable. A bulk index checker runs the Google checks for you and returns a result for every URL.

Step 1. Paste your list of backlink URLs into the checker.

Step 2. Start the check and wait for the report. With most tools, results arrive within minutes to an hour.

Step 3. Export the "not indexed" URLs and decide what to do with each one.

Our bulk Google Index Checker works this way: it runs a site: search and an exact URL search for each page and marks it as indexed or not indexed. Before that, you can run the list through our free Backlink Checker to remove dead pages, noindex pages and removed links, so you do not pay to check URLs that cannot be indexed anyway.

What to do with backlinks that are not indexed

1. Check for blockers. Look for a 404 error, a noindex tag, a robots.txt block or a canonical tag pointing elsewhere.
2. Give new links time. A link that is only a few days old may simply not have been found yet.
3. Send the page for crawling. An indexing service helps Google discover pages you do not control.
4. Replace hopeless links. If a thin page stays unindexed for many weeks, ask the seller for a better placement.

For a full list of causes, read why Google is not indexing your backlinks.

FAQ

How do I check if a backlink is indexed for free?

Search Google for site: followed by the URL of the page with your link. If the page appears, it is indexed. For extra certainty, also search the full URL on its own.

Can Google Search Console check backlinks on other websites?

No. URL Inspection only works for sites you own and have verified. For third-party pages, use a site: search or a bulk index checker.

Does Ahrefs show if a backlink is indexed by Google?

No. Ahrefs shows links that its own crawler found. That tells you the link exists, but not whether Google has indexed the page.

How often should I check my backlinks?

Check new links about two to four weeks after they go live. After that, a check every few months is enough, since pages can drop out of the index over time.

Why does a site: search sometimes show nothing for an indexed page?

Google's site: results are not a complete list, and small differences in the URL can matter. That is why a good check combines a site: search with an exact URL search.