How to Check YouTube Video Backlinks

Think backlinks only matter for websites? Think again.

Your YouTube videos are competing for search rankings just like web pages. And just like web pages, backlinks pointing to your videos can make the difference between sitting at position 15 and dominating page one.

Here’s what most creators miss: YouTube videos show up in both YouTube search and Google search. Those external links pointing to your video? They signal to both platforms that your content is worth watching. Yet most YouTubers have zero clue how many backlinks their videos have, where they’re coming from, or whether those links are actually working.

If you’re serious about YouTube SEO, you need to track your video backlinks. Let me show you exactly how.

Why Backlinks Matter for YouTube Videos

Let’s address the elephant in the room: does YouTube even care about backlinks?

The short answer is yes, but probably not in the way you think.

YouTube’s algorithm primarily cares about watch time, engagement, and click-through rate. Those internal signals drive most of their ranking decisions. But here’s where it gets interesting.

Google Search Integration

When your YouTube video appears in Google search results (not YouTube search, but regular Google), backlinks absolutely matter. Google treats your video URL like any other web page when ranking it in their search results.

Think about searches like “how to tie a tie” or “best camera settings for portraits.” Videos dominate those results. And the videos that rank highest? They tend to have stronger backlink profiles pointing directly to the video URL.

The Authority Signal

Backlinks act as votes of confidence. When a popular blog embeds your video or links to it as a resource, that tells both Google and YouTube that your content has value beyond your own channel.

This creates a compounding effect:

• External sites link to your video
• Google sees the video as authoritative
• The video ranks higher in Google search
• More people discover and watch it
• YouTube’s algorithm notices the increased engagement
• YouTube ranks the video higher in their search

It’s a virtuous cycle, but it starts with those external backlinks.

Standing Out in a Crowded Space

There are 800 million videos on YouTube. In saturated niches, watch time and engagement metrics start looking similar across top creators. Backlinks become a differentiator.

If you and a competitor have similar videos with similar engagement, but your video has 50 quality backlinks and theirs has 3? Guess whose video Google is more likely to surface.

How to Find Backlinks to Your YouTube Videos

Now for the practical part. Here are the tools and methods that actually work.

Method 1: Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs is probably the most comprehensive option for checking YouTube video backlinks.

1. Go to Ahrefs Site Explorer
2. Paste your full YouTube video URL (the whole thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEOID)
3. Hit search and navigate to the Backlinks report

You’ll see every external page linking to your specific video, along with:

• The linking domain’s authority
• Anchor text used
• Whether the link is dofollow or nofollow
• When the link was discovered

The catch? Ahrefs isn’t free. But if you’re serious about YouTube SEO, it’s an investment that pays off.

Pro tip: Check backlinks to your entire channel too. Enter youtube.com/c/YourChannelName or youtube.com/@YourHandle to see the full picture.

Method 2: Google Search Console

Here’s a free option most creators don’t know about: you can add your YouTube channel as a property in Google Search Console.

1. Go to Google Search Console
2. Add a new property
3. Select “URL prefix”
4. Enter your channel URL (https://www.youtube.com/channel/CHANNELID)
5. Verify ownership through your linked Google account

Once verified, you can access the Links report to see external sites linking to your channel and videos.

The data isn’t as detailed as Ahrefs, but it’s straight from Google and completely free. You’ll see:

• Top linking sites
• Top linked pages (your videos)
• Total external links

The downside is that GSC shows links at the channel level, not individual video level. You won’t get the granular per-video breakdown you’d get from paid tools.

Method 3: SEMrush Backlink Analytics

Similar to Ahrefs, SEMrush can analyze backlinks to any URL, including YouTube videos.

1. Open SEMrush Backlink Analytics
2. Paste your video URL
3. Review the backlink report

SEMrush provides authority metrics, anchor text analysis, and link attributes. Their free tier is limited, but you can check a handful of videos before hitting the paywall.

Method 4: Free Backlink Checkers (Limited)

Tools like Ubersuggest, Small SEO Tools, and various free backlink checkers can technically check YouTube URLs. But their databases are usually smaller and less frequently updated.

For a quick sanity check? They work. For comprehensive analysis? You’ll miss a lot of links.

Method 5: Manual Google Search

The old-school method still works in a pinch.

Search Google for: link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOURVIDEOID

Or search for your video title in quotes along with “-site:youtube.com” to find pages that reference your video without being on YouTube itself.

This won’t give you a complete list, but it’s useful for finding major publications or sites that link to you.

The Problem with Backlink Discovery

Here’s what nobody tells you about those backlink reports: just because a tool says you have a backlink doesn’t mean it’s actually working.

I’ve seen it countless times. Someone pulls their YouTube video’s backlink report from Ahrefs, gets excited about 30 new links, and assumes their SEO is improving. But when you actually dig in:

• 10 of those links are from pages that no longer exist
• 5 are nofollow (minimal SEO value)
• 3 are from pages that block Google’s crawler
• 2 are from sites with noindex tags
• Several are from spam sites you’d rather not be associated with

The backlink report showed 30 links. The reality? Maybe 10 are actually passing value.

This gap between reported backlinks and effective backlinks is where most YouTube creators (and website owners, frankly) go wrong.

Verifying Your YouTube Video Backlinks

Discovery is step one. Verification is step two. And step two is where most people stop.

When you verify a backlink, you’re checking:

Does the Link Actually Exist?

Pages change. Websites get redesigned. Guest posts get edited. That backlink from six months ago might have vanished without anyone noticing.

Is It Dofollow or Nofollow?

A dofollow link passes SEO value. A nofollow link tells search engines “don’t count this as an endorsement.” Big difference for your rankings.

Many sites (especially forums, blog comments, and user-generated content) automatically add nofollow to external links. That Wikipedia link you got? Nofollow. That Reddit post? Nofollow.

Is the Page Indexed?

If the page linking to your video has a noindex meta tag, Google won’t include it in their index. Your backlink effectively doesn’t exist from an SEO perspective.

This happens more often than you’d think:

• Staging environments accidentally left public
• Pages set to noindex after publication
• Certain page types automatically noindexed by CMS settings

Can Search Engines See It?

Some sites block search engine crawlers with robots.txt or use bot detection that serves different content to Google than to regular visitors. If Google can’t see the page properly, they can’t see your link.

Is the Anchor Text Appropriate?

The clickable text of a link provides context to search engines. Natural anchor text (“check out this video tutorial”) is healthy. Spammy anchor text (“best video click here buy now”) is a red flag.

Checking all of this manually for every backlink? That’s hours of tedious work. And you’d probably miss half the issues anyway.

Building Backlinks to Your YouTube Videos

Now that you know how to check backlinks, let’s talk about building them.

Embed Outreach

The easiest backlinks come from embeds. When a blog embeds your YouTube video, that creates a backlink to your video URL automatically.

Find bloggers who write about topics your video covers. Reach out with a simple pitch: “Hey, I made a video that might complement your article on [topic]. Would you consider embedding it?”

If your video genuinely adds value to their content, many will say yes.

Resource Page Link Building

Search for resource pages in your niche: “[your topic] resources” or “[your topic] recommended videos.”

When you find pages that list helpful videos, pitch yours. Resource page curators are specifically looking for quality content to share.

Guest Posting with Video Embeds

When you write guest posts for other sites, include embeds of relevant YouTube videos. It’s a natural way to build backlinks while providing extra value to readers.

Just make sure the embed makes sense contextually. Forcing a video into an article where it doesn’t belong looks spammy.

Social Bookmarking and Communities

While many social links are nofollow, they can still drive traffic and lead to organic backlinks when people discover your content and share it on their own sites.

Post your videos in relevant subreddits, Facebook groups, forums, and communities. Not every link passes SEO value, but the exposure can generate links that do.

Press and PR

If your video covers newsworthy topics, press coverage is possible. Journalists and bloggers linking to your video as a source creates powerful backlinks.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a free service where journalists request sources. If you can provide expert commentary and point them to your relevant video, you might land some serious links.

Monitoring Your YouTube Backlink Profile

Checking backlinks once isn’t enough. Links come and go. Pages change. You need ongoing monitoring.

Set up Google Alerts: Create alerts for your channel name and video titles. You’ll get notified when new pages mention you, making it easy to track potential backlinks.

Monthly audits: Pull fresh backlink reports monthly. Compare to previous months to spot new links and lost links.

Verify new links: When you acquire a new backlink (through outreach or organically), verify it’s actually working. Many “successful” link building campaigns produce links that look good in reports but provide zero value.

Watch for toxic links: Occasionally, spammy sites will link to your videos. A handful of bad links probably won’t hurt you, but if you see a pattern of low-quality or suspicious links, take note.

YouTube-Specific Backlink Considerations

A few things work differently with YouTube URLs compared to regular web pages.

Multiple URL Formats

YouTube videos can have several URL formats:

• Standard: youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEOID
• Short: youtu.be/VIDEOID
• Embed: youtube.com/embed/VIDEOID

Some backlink tools combine these; others count them separately. When checking your backlinks, search for all formats to get the complete picture.

Channel vs. Video vs. Playlist

Backlinks can point to:

• Your channel page
• A specific video
• A playlist
• A timestamped video URL

Each serves different purposes. Channel backlinks build overall authority. Video backlinks help specific content rank. Understand where your links are pointing.

Video Page Changes

When you update a video’s title, description, or thumbnail, the URL stays the same, but the page content changes. This can sometimes affect how linking sites display your video (especially embeds). Periodically check that embeds are still rendering correctly on sites that link to you.

What to Do When You Find Broken or Lost Backlinks

During your audits, you’ll inevitably find backlinks that disappeared or stopped working.

For removed links: If a valuable link was removed, it’s worth reaching out to the site owner. Sometimes it was accidental (site redesign, CMS migration). A polite email asking if they’d consider re-adding the link occasionally works.

For broken linking pages: If the page linking to you now 404s, you can suggest they redirect it or restore the content. This helps them (fixing a broken page) and you (restoring your backlink).

For degraded links: If a link switched from dofollow to nofollow, there’s usually not much you can do. Some sites change their linking policies. Move on and focus on acquiring new links.

For toxic links: If you’re being linked to by obviously spammy sites and you’re worried about negative SEO, Google’s disavow tool lets you tell Google to ignore specific backlinks. Use it sparingly — disavowing legitimate links can hurt you.

Final Thoughts

YouTube SEO isn’t just about tags and thumbnails. For videos competing in Google search (which is where a lot of discovery happens), backlinks matter.

The creators who understand this have a significant advantage. While competitors focus only on on-platform optimization, you can build external authority that boosts rankings in both Google and YouTube.

Start by checking what backlinks your videos already have. You might be surprised — there could be links you never knew about. Then verify those links actually work. And finally, build a system for acquiring new backlinks and monitoring your profile over time.

It’s more work than optimizing a title and calling it a day. But that’s exactly why it works.