Backlinks — links from other websites pointing to yours — are one of Google’s most important ranking signals. A website with many quality backlinks ranks better than a website with few. Knowing how to audit your own backlink profile and compare it against competitors is an essential SEO skill for any Bali business serious about organic search performance.
Why Backlinks Matter for Bali Business SEO
Google treats a backlink from a reputable website to yours as a vote of confidence. When a well-known Bali travel blog links to your villa’s article about the best sunrise spots near your property, Google reads this as: “a website that people trust has vouched for this content.” The more quality votes you accumulate, the higher your authority signals — and the higher your organic rankings tend to be.
For Bali businesses competing for high-value search terms like “private villa Seminyak” or “traditional Balinese restaurant Ubud,” backlink authority is often the differentiating factor between page 1 and page 3 rankings — especially when two websites have similar content quality and technical SEO.
Free Tools to Check Your Backlinks
Ahrefs Backlink Checker (ahrefs.com/backlink-checker). The most comprehensive free backlink tool. Enter any domain to see your top 100 backlinks with linking domain authority, anchor text, and do-follow/no-follow status. Ahrefs maintains the largest backlink index of any SEO tool. Free tier is limited but sufficient for initial audits.
Google Search Console. Under “Links” in your Search Console dashboard, Google shows you which sites link to your website, which pages receive the most links, and the most common anchor text used. This is Google’s own data about your backlinks — the most accurate source for your own website, though it doesn’t show competitor backlinks.
Moz Link Explorer (moz.com/link-explorer). Similar to Ahrefs but uses Moz’s database. Provides DA scores alongside backlink data. Free with limited daily queries.
Ubersuggest (ubersuggest.com). Neil Patel’s tool provides backlink data with a more generous free tier than most competitors. Good for initial competitive analysis of Bali market websites.
What to Look For in Your Backlink Profile
Referring domains count. The number of unique domains linking to you (not total links — one domain can link multiple times, but additional links from the same domain add diminishing value). More referring domains generally equals stronger authority.
Link quality distribution. Review the DA/DR of the sites linking to you. Ideally: a mix of high-authority links (travel publications, industry sites) and moderate-authority links (local directories, partner sites). If your backlink profile is dominated by very low DA sites (under 10), you may have low-quality links that add little value.
Anchor text distribution. The text other websites use when linking to you. Healthy distribution: branded anchor text (your business name), URL anchors (your actual URL), and some descriptive anchors (“Bali villa rental,” “boutique hotel Seminyak”). A profile dominated by exact-match keyword anchors (“best villa Canggu”) can look manipulative to Google — often a sign of a prior link buying campaign.
Do-follow vs no-follow. Do-follow links pass SEO authority. No-follow links (used by most major platforms — Wikipedia, Reddit, news sites’ user comment sections) don’t pass direct authority but contribute to a natural-looking link profile. A backlink profile with 100% do-follow links looks artificial.
Checking Competitor Backlinks
The most valuable application: entering a competitor’s domain into Ahrefs or Ubersuggest to see where their backlinks are coming from. If a competing villa is ranking above you for “private villa Canggu,” their backlink profile will show you which publications, blogs, and directories are linking to them — giving you a direct roadmap for your own backlink building efforts.
Look specifically for: travel blogs that have linked to competitors (are they accepting guest posts?), tourism directories that list competitors (are you listed?), and press coverage in regional media (pitch the same journalists).
Need help auditing your backlink profile and building a legitimate backlink strategy for your Bali business? Contact Bali Web Design.