Depending on how you keep track of your off-page SEO, you may have a list of backlinks contained in a spreadsheet, or you can manually enter a list of links.

Eye10’s Backlink Monitor has two main methods of finding the status of your backlinks, either through a CSV file upload for spreadsheets or manual input of links.

Not sure what your backlinks are? Don’t worry! When you subscribe to Eye10, you’ll also receive access to our Backlink Checker, which will give you a complete list of referring domains

See a rundown of where your backlinks originate, which will display the H1 (title) tag and the URL.

The most valuable backlinks will be from trustworthy websites with a high DA (domain authority). Although paying for backlinks on private blog networks or other spam websites is tempting, search engines frown on this black hat SEO technique. So, always look for paid opportunities that will offer genuine benefits to your website because of the quality of the referring website.

Organic backlinks are highly desirable because not only are these not paid for, but they help signify trust.

Suppose anything doesn’t look quite right with your ‘link from’ section; that is, the link you paid for isn’t originating from the site you intended. Also, if the website isn’t deemed a helpful result, it will need resolving to ensure it doesn’t negatively impact your SEO.

Within paid posts and organic content alike, the placement of an external link is important. Ideally, a link will be placed over a related word known as anchor text.

Backlink Monitor will tell you which words or phrases are used to point the link to your website. For paid traffic, you should expect a high level of relevancy for the anchor text.

But for any organic traffic, it’s helpful to see what words or phrases others associate with your content. There may be further SEO optimizations you can make to that page as a whole, depending on any trends you notice within the anchor text.

Knowing your website has backlinks and where they originate only tells half the story. Status delves deeper to uncover what these backlinks are doing for your website.

We’ve color-colored the status section, so you can quickly identify any issues with your backlinks.

The possible statuses you may see include:

Green - The link was found and it passes on link juice.

Blue - The link was found. It’s okay from an SEO point of view, but it doesn’t match the anchor text you specified when importing the link.

Yellow - All links on this page are not followed by Google, so they will not pass on any SEO value (page rank).

Red - The link was not found on this website.

Dark orange - This link is not followed by Google and it has user-generated content inside.

Light orange - This link is not followed by Google and is sponsored by an affiliate.

Violet - This link is user-generated content posted by users on online platforms.

Purple - This link is paid or sponsored by an affiliate.

If you’d like to understand what these statuses mean for your SEO strategy, please consult our Backlink Monitor FAQs section below.

If Google indexed a page, this simply means it appears on Google, and its contents are crawlable. This is essential if you want your content to be found online. It can take anywhere from a few days up to a few months to index new web pages or websites, although you can request a manual indexing review by Google.

Backlink Monitor will display whether your links are indexed by Google. If they are, then a green icon will appear, which is clickable. We suggest seeing how your links appear in the SERPs (search engine results pages), including the page metadata, to ensure all aspects remain SEO friendly.

If the link is not indexed, we suggest consulting Google Search Console to see what the error could be. Also, double-check the spelling of the link, as even one character difference in the URL will cause the link not to work on either the website where the page has been linked from or the data you are trying to check in Backlink Monitor.

We’ve answered some of the most common questions about Backlink Monitor below, along with common queries about the importance of backlinks for SEO.

Don’t see your question below? Reach out to us any time or drop us a line if you’d like us to cover your query in greater detail for an upcoming Eye10 blog post.

SEO experts have created Eye10 to help website owners master their SEO strategies. Our team has carefully considered all the tools necessary for this mighty task, and the inclusion of Backlink Monitor is no exception.

For paid links especially, it’s crucial to know that the link originates from the agreed website and is still live. Plus, having the correct anchor text is also essential for SEO. If you don’t have a tool such as Eye10’s Backlink Monitor, it’s difficult to keep on top of all these aspects, which could mean you’re paying for backlinks but not seeing the intended results.

Why take that chance when Backlink Monitor gives you all the information you need instantly? Whether you want to know the status of paid or organic backlinks, it’s never been easier to keep track of your off-page SEO efforts with Eye10’s Backlink Monitor.

Great question! As the names suggest, both Backlink Monitor and Backlink Checker will give you information about all of the backlinks your website has.

The main difference is that Backlink Checker will tell you the origin of your backlinks. In contrast, Backlink Monitor goes into greater detail about the status of your backlinks, such as whether the links are indexed on Google and if there are any errors you need to know about.

We recommend using Backlink Monitor and Backlink Checker in tandem with each other so that you’ll never miss a beat where your backlinks are concerned.

Eye10’s Backlink Monitor allows you to add your website’s backlinks to track their status over time. As well as seeing the origin of the backlink, you can also find details on the anchor text used, the status of the backlink, whether the backlink has been indexed by Google, and when the backlink was created

When using Eye10’s Backlink Monitor, you’ll notice we give you a color-coded status relating to each backlink you upload.

If you get an unexpected status, such as red, meaning the link was not found on the website, then some fixes may be required.

For paid backlinks, you’ll need to contact the website administrator if you notice any usual or unexpected errors. That’s because you will usually require the fix within the backlink host website rather than your website. The exception is if the URL has changed since the backlink was created. For example, if the backlink returns a ‘404 not found’ status code, either the link was misspelled or has changed since its implementation. If you change your URL structure manually or move the page to a new location, then any backlinks on other websites will no longer work.

In the future, when paying for backlinks, always check the content uploaded onto the website, ensuring the anchor text is in the correct place and that all the links work as expected. This way, backlinks will offer your SEO strategy the maximum benefit, as everything will be correct and in order from the start. Over time, Backlink Monitor will ensure things stay that way.

In an ideal world, every website would receive instantaneous organic backlinks that would raise its domain authority and, therefore, its page rankings. It can take time and effort to get backlinks (especially for newer websites or competitive niches), which is why paid backlinks are sometimes necessary as part of your off-page SEO efforts.

First and foremost, you can look for websites with a high domain authority and accept submissions for paid or sponsored content.

It’s also sometimes possible to gain backlinks by sending press releases to websites or writing to them directly to see if they would be interested in a collaboration. If so, there will need to be an agreement that your content will feature links to your website. In most cases, you’ll need to write and submit this content yourself, although some websites have the right to the final edit to ensure it stylistically fits with their brand. Any sponsored or paid content will usually also have to be labeled, in line with advertising standards.

Avoid buying backlinks on spammy websites or private blog networks, which can result in penalties from Google. As well as researching the domain authority and general reputation of the website, it’s also possible to view the “Who Is” information of a website for free. Use your judgment to only pay for backlinks from reputable sources. While these are likely to cost more, the link value will be well worth the investment, especially if you also want to avoid search engine penalties.

Remember, you should also seek to gain as many organic links as possible. To do this, ensure your pages have been well written and designed so that users find your page to be a helpful result and have an excellent browsing experience. This will encourage more shares of your page and will soon catch the attention of search engines for all the right reasons.

Organic backlinks are preferred as they cost nothing to gain, and there’s no limit on the number you can receive. The only hurdle you need to overcome is encouraging said organic backlinks in the first place.

Aside from sharing links to your content on social media (Facebook, Instagram bios, Pinterest, YouTube descriptions etc.), you should encourage others to share your content as much as possible.

Firstly, look at the design of your website and whether social and email share buttons or link shorteners feature on the page. These offer one-click solutions that make shares of your pages or blog posts far more likely.

Also, do your research (including SEO research) to ensure that what your page has to offer is of genuine interest to your users. The more your pages are aligned with what people are not only searching for but expect to see on a web page, the more likely your content will be shared.

When looking to build web traffic to newer sites, you can also encourage shares of your pages through contests on social media, with a share of a page and a like or follow counting as an entry.

Other organic methods should be considered, including press releases, forum comments, and directory submissions.

Absolutely! Backlinks are hugely important for any SEO strategy, as they demonstrate to search engines that the result is helpful to other users. Therefore, all websites should strive to gain many backlinks, mainly through organic shares.

The tool you’re currently reading about on this page is Backlink Monitor. However, included in every Eye10 subscription is Backlink Checker. Use Backlink Checker to see how many backlinks your website has and the origins of each backlink.

You can then export the data into a spreadsheet and use it in Backlink Monitor, where Eye10 will go into further detail about the status of each backlink your website has.

When it comes to answering this question, it all depends on how the backlinks are created. In terms of paid backlinks, experts suggest not exceeding 25-30 paid backlinks per day. This number is quite high, given each backlink doesn’t represent actual clicks to your website but individual links placed on content such as a sponsored post.

In terms of organic links, the sky’s the limit. Consider that an article that goes viral may receive anywhere from hundreds to millions of backlinks in a single day. Search engines certainly wouldn’t penalize the website for having so many shares. In fact, they would look to highlight the content as a top result. This is another reason organic backlinks are often preferred over paid backlinks, as the same limitations don’t apply, and in general, organic backlinks are seen as more trustworthy.

Anchor text is an SEO technique that involves placing an external or internal link over a related phrase.

It's common to see the phrase 'click here to denote a link. The only trouble is that this phrase offers no relevance to the page it links to, so it doesn't benefit your SEO strategy.

Therefore, anchor text is about using the opportunity to add further relevance to your pages and can be used within your website or to link to other websites.

Let's say your website was a dentist's office. Some examples of where anchor text could be beneficial are when writing a blog if you made keywords such as 'teeth whitening', or 'braces' as anchor text. Each of these phrases would contain a link (just once, where appropriate) to pages on your website where users could book these services.

When anchor text is used for internal links, this helps to keep users on your website for longer. For paid or organic content on other websites, anchor text is crawlable by search engines which is why it's great for SEO.

If a purple-colored status is given in Backlink Monitor, a paid or sponsored affiliate link has been used.

Affiliate links are part of affiliate marketing schemes used by companies to generate sales. If you are part of an affiliate scheme and place an affiliate link on your website, you will earn a commission if a user clicks your link and purchases that product.

There’s no harm in using affiliate links whether you’re the person who set up the scheme or if you are using affiliate links to generate passive income through your website. However, according to Google’s quality guidelines, affiliate links must be properly qualified to avoid penalties.

If you’re unsure what qualified links mean for affiliate links, Google has put together a helpful guide to show you what to do.

We suggest checking the status of any affiliate links that are backlinks through Backlink Monitor. If they display a purple status color, they are good to go! If not, it could lead to penalties from Google soon (if it hasn’t already), which will negatively harm your page ranking.

It’s one thing saying how great your company is, but it’s another thing entirely when your customers say it on your behalf! User-generated content consists of the likes of comments on your articles, review websites (i.e., Tripadvisor or Trustpilot), mentions, social media tags, and check-ins.

Regarding how user-generated content affects your SEO, Google’s John Mueller recommends that only the pages you are happy to send traffic to on your website should be indexed. After all, having backlinks that originate from a source that paints your company in a negative light isn’t ideal!

Backlinks, where user-generated content is detected, will return a violet status color on the Backlink Monitor. We recommend looking at the origin of any backlinks to see if any indexing adjustments need to be made.

404 errors refer to a type of status code. All status 4xx codes refer to errors and should be avoided at all costs. With a 404 error, it will display a message to the user saying ‘404 not found’, instead of loading the content the user expected to see.

In terms of SEO, 404 errors instantly end the user journey and are more likely to result in the user exiting the page. When you consider the purpose of backlinks (especially paid backlinks), 404 errors are even less ideal because that traffic simply isn’t getting through to the page.

An incorrect URL usually causes 404 errors in the link which is supposed to point to the website. This can happen for several reasons, including the URL being incorrectly copied and pasted or if the URL structure has changed since it was first used. As a website owner, you need to be extremely careful about changing the URL structure and moving or deleting pages as any links pointing to that page will instantly cease to work. The result is fewer website visits, which will impact conversions.

Link juice is a term in SEO that’s used to describe the power passed to another site through links.

As we know, search engines aim to send their users relevant results. Link juice is essentially a vote of confidence in another website, which is why it’s important for your SEO strategy. The more backlinks your website has, the more link juice is passed over to your website, which can be instrumental in helping your page to rank highly on search engines.

Backlink Monitor will display a green status color if the link juice from another website has been passed on successfully. The more green you see in your list of backlinks, the better!

Off-page SEO refers to all efforts made ‘off the page’ to help your website rank higher on search engines. Off-page SEO is one of three main SEO techniques you should be using alongside on-page and technical SEO.

Off-page SEO includes influencer outreach, guest posts on other websites, social media engagement, bookmarking websites, forum submissions, and blog directory submissions. All of which culminates in giving your website more backlinks, which refer to websites that contain links to your websites.

Off-page SEO is important because search engines want to see that people are sharing your content and actively sending users there on their own accord. When this happens, it signals that the content is relevant and of interest, making it more likely it will also offer the same properties to other users on the internet too.

Eye10’s Backlink Monitor and Backlink Checker make it easier than ever to manage your off-page SEO efforts. See which websites link to your website, and check the links' status to ensure they are performing optimally.

The common question is, what is the difference between on-page SEO and off-page SEO?

In the above question, we covered how off-page SEO relates to all efforts off of your website to encourage more backlinks. This includes social media shares or guest articles on other websites. The aim is to demonstrate to search engines that your content is relevant because each backlink essentially acts as an endorsement of your website, especially if the domain authority of that website is high. It’s also a generally reputable website.

On-page SEO refers to techniques such as keyword implementation, meaning search engines can find your website when users type in related search queries. Also, ensuring a good user experience for your users to keep your bounce rate low.

On-page SEO is very much focused on the content of your website, including the body copy, titles, images, and page metadata. Off-page SEO is more of an outreach role, especially in liaising with other websites to host paid content.