How to Use Link Explorer

The Link Explorer tool which is part of the Diagnostics & Tools section, allows you to explore the backlinks for any site. This makes it an ideal tool for competitive analysis and develop an understanding about which sites links to sites like yours. It’s straightforward to use: simply enter a URL and click Explore. By default, this will show you a list of web page URLs that contain a link to the specific URL along with the title of that page.

Scope and Filters

The Link Explorer tool provides additional options and fields that you can use to scope and filter links pointing to the URL you entered:

  • Filter by site: only show pages that have links to the entered URL that are part of this site
  • Anchor text: only show links from pages containing the specified anchor text
  • Additional query: only show pages that link to the URL that also rank for the entered search term
  • Scope: select URL to show all linking pages to the specified URL or Domain to select all pages linking to the domain of the specified URL
  • Source: select External to find all linking pages from other domains or Internal to see all links from within the website of the specified URL
Link Explorer in Webmaster Tools

What about Links pointing to My Own Site?

While Link Explorer is capable of showing you a view of your own site’s links, the Inbound Links tool is much more comprehensive and provides you with the exact link text for each link.

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