How to find backlinks in Google Search Console [Step-by-step guide]

Most SEO professionals check their backlinks in Ahrefs, Semrush or SE Ranking. But the most accurate source for your backlinks is actually free and comes directly from Google itself: Google Search Console (GSC). Here's a full guide to finding, analysing and using backlink data from GSC.

Why Google Search Console is unique

Third-party tools like Ahrefs build their own crawler indexes. They're skilled, but never see all links. GSC shows you the links Google itself has discovered and uses to rank your site. It's the most reliable source for your real link profile — and it's free.

Step 1: Log in to Google Search Console

Open search.google.com/search-console/ and log in. If you haven't set up GSC for your site, it's the first step in any technical SEO effort.

Step 2: Navigate to the Links report

In the left sidebar, find "Links" at the bottom. Click it, and you get an overview with 4 sections:

• External links (Backlinks): All links pointing to your site from outside.
• Internal links: Links between your own pages.
• Top linking sites: The domains linking to you most.
• Top linking text: The anchor texts others use when linking to you.

Step 3: Analyse your external links

Click "More" under "External links". You get a full list of all linking domains. For each source, you can see how many links they have to your site, and which of your pages they point to.

What matters here isn't the count — it's the relevance. Scanning the list, you can quickly tell if the links come from:

• Relevant industry portals and media (good sign)
• Generic directories and web 2.0's (lower value)
• Nasty spam pages or PBN's (red flag)

Step 4: Find your most-linked pages

Under "Top linked pages", see which of your URLs get the most backlinks. Many discover that the homepage gets disproportionately many links, while their most important commercial pages get almost none. That's a big opportunity — those are the pages that need more links via strategic link building.

Step 5: Analyse anchor text distribution

Under "Top linking text", see the most-used anchor texts. Look for:

• Brand anchors: E.g. "magnus løv schmidt" — healthy sign, natural profile.
• URL anchors: E.g. "magnusloev.dk" — also natural.
• Generic anchors: E.g. "click here" — weak but natural.
• Commercial anchors: E.g. "SEO specialist Copenhagen" — powerful but too many = spam signal.

Step 6: Export data for deep analysis

Top-right in each report, export to CSV or Google Sheets. This lets you cross-reference with Ahrefs data, filter by DR / traffic and identify lost links by comparing exports over time.

Step 7: Disavow toxic links (only if needed)

Seeing clearly spammy links that could hurt? Use Google's Disavow Tool to ignore them. But be careful — Google is quite good at ignoring low-quality links on its own. A misused disavow can do more harm than good. Better to contact a professional as part of a SEO audit if in doubt.

GSC link report limitations

• Data isn't real-time — can take days/weeks.
• Report shows max 1,000 rows per category (enough for most).
• No history — only the snapshot state.
• No quality score per link — you assess yourself.

That's why I combine GSC with Ahrefs or Semrush for the complete picture — they have history, DR scoring and broader data.

What to do with the insight?

Once you've analysed your link profile, you can identify your strongest linking domains and nurture the relationship, find pages missing links, correct anchor text distribution and identify link types that work — then build more of them. Combined with smart internal linking and thoughtful off-page SEO, GSC data is an excellent foundation for your link building strategy.

Conclusion

Google Search Console is the most undervalued backlink analysis tool — and it's free. Using it 30 minutes a month, you know more about your real link profile than 90% of the market. It's data straight from the source, and should be a fixed part of your SEO routine.