798.5 billion backlinks indexed
Check backlinks for my website before you chase ChatGPT
Owners keep asking how to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. We keep a link index of 181 million domains, so you can see what the cited sites have that yours lacks.
- Free DR lookup, no key or card
- Count links to your shop and to the sites AI tools name
- Plain-English steps for owners, not agencies
$ curl "https://ailinkboost.com/api.php?action=overview&q=yourshop.com&key=sk_live_..."
What it is for
Check backlinks for my website: four jobs that fit a shop owner
Most owners need four numbers and one habit. Everything below is free or costs fractions of a cent.
Count your own links
Type your domain in the box above. You get DR and a referring-domain count in seconds, no sign-up. This is your baseline.
Count the sites AI tools name
Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity for the best option in your town, write down the domains it cites, then look each one up.
Spot the gap
If three cited rivals have 400 referring domains and you have 12, you know the size of the job. If the numbers match, links are not your problem.
Repeat once a month
The index refreshes about monthly, so a monthly check is the honest rhythm. Anything faster just shows noise.
The whole lookup in one line
Free actions need no key. Swap in your own domain and run it from a terminal, or just use the box at the top.
curl "https://ailinkboost.com/api.php?action=overview&q=yourshop.com"
# returns JSON: domain rating, referring domains, backlink countWho it is for
Why a link count is a clue and not an answer
AI answer tools pull from web results, and pages that rank well tend to have links pointing at them. That is the connection, and it is a loose one.
No one outside the labs publishes how ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews pick a source, and anybody selling a precise formula is guessing. Google says AI Overviews draw on pages that are already indexed and eligible to show a snippet in Search.
So treat links as one clue. Before you spend anything, rule out the dull causes: a page that blocks crawlers, a business name spelled three ways, a thin page that says almost nothing. The troubleshooting table walks through those in order.
Our own crawler and our own link index supply the numbers, refreshed about once a month, so a link won last week may not appear yet.
How it works
Your first thirty minutes
- 1
Look up your own domain
Use the free box. Write down DR and referring domains in a note with today's date.
- 2
Collect the cited domains
Ask three AI tools the question your customers would ask. Copy every domain they name.
- 3
Look those up too
Same box, same note. The competitor checklist shows what else to record.
- 4
Decide if links are the gap
Compare the numbers. The myth page helps you read them without panic.
- domains in our link graph
- 181,132,097
- domain-to-domain links
- 2.77 billion
- per credit, from $0.10 per 1,000 calls
- $0.0001
- free credit on sign-up, no card
- $100
Where we stand
Good for counting, weak for everything else
We answer one question well: who links to whom. Keyword research, rank tracking and daily-fresh crawling belong to Ahrefs or Semrush, and for those you should pay them.
- Link data refreshes roughly monthly
- DR here is our own 0-100 metric, not Ahrefs DR or Moz DA
- Nothing here predicts what an AI tool will say tomorrow
FAQ
What owners type before they find us
How do I check backlinks for my website for free?
Paste your domain into the box at the top of this page. It calls our free domain lookup and returns DR plus your referring-domain count without a key. For lists of links, anchors or competitors you spend credits, and the $100 sign-up gift covers about a million basic calls.
Can backlinks get my shop into ChatGPT?
Maybe, and only indirectly. ChatGPT search uses web results and shows its sources, so a page that ranks and gets cited elsewhere has a better chance. Read the myth page before buying anything.
Why does my competitor show up in Perplexity and I do not?
The causes run from crawler blocks to thin pages to plain popularity. Count links on both sites first, because that takes two minutes. If your numbers are close, look at your page content and business details instead of buying links.
Is a free backlink checker enough?
For a small site, yes, to begin with. A free lookup gives you a baseline and a rival comparison. You only need paid listings when you want to see individual linking pages, anchors or which sites link to two rivals but not to you.
How often should I look?
Once a month. Our index refreshes about monthly, and AI answers wobble from day to day, so weekly checks mostly show noise. The monthly runbook fits in half an hour.
Do I need the API or just the website?
Most owners only need the website lookup. The API matters if you run several client sites, or want a spreadsheet to pull numbers by itself. Calls cost from $0.0001 and there is no subscription or monthly minimum.
