Find backlinks in Google: where the data lives now and the operators that still work

Google's own backlink data for your site lives in one place: the Links report in Google Search Console, which lists your top linking sites, your most linked pages and your most common anchor text, and lets you export the lot. The link operator that once returned backlinks from the search box was retired years ago, so the search results are no longer where you look up a link profile. What Google search is still excellent at is finding link opportunities and unlinked mentions, and that is the job worth doing in the search box.

Between the Links report for your own site, Bing Webmaster Tools as a free second source, and a handful of operators for prospecting, you can do nearly all of this without a subscription.

Google's own data: the Links report

1. Open Search Console and select the property for your site. Verify it first if you have not already.
2. Click Links in the left menu. You get external links and internal links side by side.
3. Top linking sites tells you which domains link to you and how many times. This is your referring domain list.
4. Top linked pages tells you which of your pages the web decided to cite. Those are your strongest assets, and linking from them to your commercial pages is the cheapest work available to you.
5. Top linking text is your anchor text distribution. Mostly brand and natural phrases is the healthy pattern.
6. Export each report. The export is a sample rather than every link ever made, and it is Google's sample, which is the one that counts.

Two limits worth planning around rather than worrying about. The report covers the property you verified, so verify the domain property to see everything across subdomains and protocols. And it refreshes periodically rather than instantly, so check it monthly and treat a new link as pending for a few weeks.

A free second source

Bing Webmaster Tools is free, takes a few minutes to verify, and gives you a backlink report from a different index, plus a similar sites feature that surfaces domains linking to comparable sites. Running both reports and comparing them takes twenty minutes and routinely finds links one of them missed.

What the link operator did, and what replaced it

For years you could type a link operator with a domain into Google and get a partial list of pages linking to it. The results were always a sample, Google stopped supporting it, and it no longer returns link data. The replacements are exactly the three above: the Links report for your own site, Bing for a second view, and a backlink tool when you need a competitor's profile. For how those tools differ and what their scores mean, see what is a backlink.

Operators that still earn their place

What you want to find	What to type	Why it works
Unlinked mentions of your brand	Your brand name in quotes, with a minus site operator excluding your own domain	Every result is a page that already talks about you. Asking for a link is a one line email with a high reply rate
Mentions of a founder or spokesperson	The person's name in quotes, plus a company or topic word	Quotes and interviews often credit a name without linking the site
Resource and link pages in your field	Your topic plus intitle or inurl with resources, links or useful	These pages exist to collect good references, so they are receptive to a genuinely useful one
Industry bodies and directories you are missing from	Your category plus association, institute, members or directory	Membership listings are durable, relevant links that competitors often have and you do not
Content of yours republished without credit	A distinctive sentence from your page, in quotes	Where somebody has used your work, a credit and a link is a reasonable and usually welcome request
Pages citing data you could replace	The claim or statistic in quotes, with a year	If the source is outdated and you have fresher data, offer it
Everything indexed on a competitor's site	The site operator with their domain, plus a topic word	Shows which of their pages exist and which earn citations, which is a content plan

Turning unlinked mentions into links

1. Run the brand search excluding your own domain, and export the first three pages of results.
2. Open each one and check whether your name is already linked. Many are.
3. For the rest, find the author or the contact page.
4. Send three sentences: thank them for the mention, give the exact URL you would like linked, and say why it helps their reader. No template, no attachment.
5. Record every send and reply. Expect a healthy share of yes, because you are asking for a correction rather than a favour.

This is the highest reply rate work in link building and almost nobody does it systematically. For the wording, see backlink email templates.

Finding a competitor's backlinks

Search Console only covers sites you own, so a competitor's profile needs a backlink tool. The free tier of any of the main ones gives you referring domain counts and a sample of links, which is enough for the useful question: which sites link to two of your competitors and not to you. Build that list, work down it in order of relevance, and you have a prospecting plan grounded in evidence rather than in a tool's score. For the vetting side of hiring help with it, see backlink strategy.

This page covers finding links with Google's own tools and search operators. For auditing a profile inside a platform suite, see the Semrush backlink audit. For what Search Console measures elsewhere, see the Search Console guide.

What gets asked about find backlinks in Google

Does the link operator still work in Google?

No. Google stopped supporting it and the search box no longer returns link data. The Links report in Search Console is the replacement for your own site, and it gives you more than the operator ever did.

Why does Search Console show fewer links than a paid tool?

The report shows a sample of what Google holds, and every commercial tool shows what its own crawler found, which includes links Google has discounted. Use Search Console for what Google sees, and a tool for competitive comparison.

How often does the Links report update?

It refreshes on Google's own schedule rather than live. Check it monthly, and judge the trend across quarters, which is the timescale link work pays back on anyway.

Can I see which single page a link points to?

Yes. Click a linking site in the report and you get the target pages on your site and the linking pages on theirs. That detail is what lets you confirm that links are reaching the pages you chose.

Do nofollow links show up?

Links marked nofollow, sponsored or ugc can appear in reports. Keep them in your picture of the profile: they bring real visitors, and a page that sends you customers has done its job whatever the attribute says.

Is there a free way to monitor new links?

Set a search alert on your brand name and on your most distinctive phrases, check the Links report monthly, and keep Bing Webmaster Tools verified as the second source. That combination costs nothing and catches both new links and new unlinked mentions.

Citations that do not come from links

The Links report counts pages that link to you. An assistant forms its view from mentions as well, including the ones with no link at all: a name in a list, a quote in an article, a line in a forum thread.

That means your link profile understates some of your influence. Search your brand name and check which unlinked mentions would make an assistant name you, then ask the assistants about your category and see which of those sources appear. AI Knows Us lists the cited sources for each answer, and that turns mention hunting into a shortlist of pages to approach.