How to Monitor Backlinks with Ahrefs
Track new and lost backlinks with Ahrefs. Set up monitoring, alerts, and competitor link tracking for ongoing SEO visibility.
Step-by-step
How to Monitor Backlinks with Ahrefs
Set up your project
Add your domain as a project in Ahrefs (if not already). The backlink monitoring runs automatically once your project is created — no additional configuration needed.
Review new and lost links
In Site Explorer, go to 'Backlinks' → 'New' to see recently acquired links, and 'Lost' for links that disappeared. Each entry shows the linking page, anchor text, DR, and first/last seen dates.
Set up Ahrefs Alerts
Go to 'More' → 'Alerts' → 'Backlinks'. Add your domain for new backlink alerts. Also add competitor domains to monitor their link acquisition. Choose daily or weekly email frequency.
Analyze trends over time
The 'Referring domains' chart shows your link growth trend. A healthy site gains more links than it loses. If you see a spike in lost links, investigate — it could indicate a site migration issue or link removal campaign.
Tips
Pro tips
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Set up alerts for competitor domains too — when they earn a new link, it's an opportunity signal for you
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Check 'Broken backlinks' regularly — these are links to your site that now point to 404 pages. Set up redirects to reclaim the link equity
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Monitor the 'Anchor text' distribution over time to ensure it stays natural and diverse
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