Whether you call them backlinks, inbound links, in-links, linkbacks or something else, anyone familiar with SEO knows that links from a site other than your own, to your own, are a good thing. While the extent to which a link will impact your search rankings depends on the quality and authority of the site from which the link comes, it’s always a good idea to keep tabs on how the volume of inbound links to your site is growing. Inbound links are generally considered to be an indication of quality content. In other words, if your content is useful to readers, it will be organically shared and linked to throughout the Web.

Below are 5 tools to check out to help you keep track of your site’s inbound links.

Yahoo Site Explorer

Yahoo Site Explorer is one of the few things Yahoo still does arguably well enough to continue using. It’s a completely free tool, and you can get a pretty comprehensive listing of links to your pages. The results can be filtered to exclude links from your own domain, or to show just inbound links to a specific page, rather than all pages of your site. The first 1,000 results can be exported for you to play with.

Backlink Watch

Backlink Watch is another free tool. It’s a good one for cross-analyzing backlink output results from other tools, but tends to be not as comprehensive as some of the other inbound link checking tools in this list. But, it’s free, so you get what you pay for. One cool thing about Backlink Watch is that with a decent amount of accuracy, it also displays the anchor text associated with your inbound/backlinks. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer has both a basic (free) and pro (paid) version. The tool is a strong one, and even if you only use the basic version, it’s a great way to get an idea of inbound link volume. You can also see the number of root domains linking to your site with the free version, and do some other cool things like compare link metrics.

Majestic SEO

Like Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO has both a free offering and subscription services. All that is required to use the free backlink checking tool is that you fill out a simple registration form. But as a free user, the data you have access to is limited. Under the “Top Backlinks” tab, for example, you’ll only be shown the top 5 backlinks to your site as a free member. As a paid member, Majestic SEO has tons to offer.

Advanced Link Manager

Made by the same people who make Advanced Web Ranking, Advanced Link Manager allows you to report on the evolution in volume of your inbound links. Advanced Link Manager also has an area where you can view inbound links by site and check out the anchor text of your backlinks, which is great insight to have. [Tip: If you're trying to rank for a particular keyword or keyword phrase and you see an inbound link from a site run or managed by a friend or someone you know, reach out to them and ask them if they'd be willing to tweak the anchor text of the link to your site. 9 times out of 10, it's no big deal and they'll be happy to do it].

What tools and resources do you use to measure the volume or impact of your inbound links? Share your tips or questions in the comments below!