# How do I find out who links to a given URL?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 30, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029 "2001-08-30T22:52:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Malice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@Malice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malice)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029/1 "2001-08-30T22:52:26Z")

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Is there a search engine designed specifically to identify sites that link to a requested URL? If so, where?

Searching using the target site’s URL ain’t cutting it anywhere…

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**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029/2 "2001-08-30T23:08:46Z")

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Both Google and AltaVista have that feature, using the same syntax. Type link:URLname as the search criterion.

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**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029/3 "2001-08-30T23:22:06Z")

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Also, check out [http://www.linkpopularity.com/](http://www.linkpopularity.com/)

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**Author:** ![Malice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@Malice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malice)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-out-who-links-to-a-given-url/79029/4 "2001-08-30T23:41:29Z")

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Thanks much – that’s truly helpful 🙂