Website link audit

Checking a website's backlinks begins with downloading links from multiple sources. Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Serpstat, Majestic, and other services use their own databases, so the set of URLs found typically varies. For a complete analysis, the data is combined, cleared of duplicates, and organized into a common structure.

This approach is also suitable for bulk backlink checking on large projects. The resulting table can store the source, domain, page URL, anchor, target page, attribute, and additional metrics. The array is then broken down into groups for analysis.

Checking the number of backlinks and referring domains

Checking the number of incoming links shows the overall size of a profile, but without the number of unique domains, this figure is of little use. A single, consistent footer block can generate thousands of backlinks from a single site, although the actual number of independent sources will remain unchanged.

Therefore, a website's analysis of the number of external links is carried out in conjunction with an assessment of referring domains. Additionally, the distribution by domain zones, countries, languages, and site types is checked. This helps determine how diverse the profile is and which sources make up the bulk of it.

Finding new and lost backlinks

New and lost links show how a profile has changed over time. Steady growth, isolated spikes, and massive loss of donors require different interpretations. The dynamics are compared with actual SEO work, publications, and website changes.

If you need to view a site's backlinks for a specific period, new/lost links data helps you quickly identify relevant placements. Lost backlinks are checked separately: a link could have disappeared after an article was deleted, a page was closed, a URL was changed, or the donor site itself changed.

It's impossible to determine link quality based on a single indicator. Domain Rating, Domain Authority, Trust Flow, and other third-party metrics are useful for initial sorting, but a final assessment requires examining the site itself, its visibility, topic, content, and the nature of its outbound links.

Link quality checks also consider region, language, and audience relevance. For a local Ukrainian business, a link from a relevant Ukrainian resource with stable search traffic may be more beneficial than a placement on a large foreign site that is completely unrelated to the service or target geography.

DR, DA, Trust Flow and other metrics

DR in Ahrefs, DA in third-party services, and Trust Flow and Citation Flow in Majestic are calculated using the platforms' own formulas. Google doesn't use these numbers as official ranking metrics. They are used for comparative analysis and quick filtering of large lists.

During an audit, metrics are reviewed alongside organic traffic, keyword volume, domain history, and page quality. A sharply elevated metric with a lack of visibility and meaningful content requires further review, as do unexpectedly low metrics for a legitimate industry resource.

Thematic and regional relevance

Topical relevance shows how closely a site's content relates to the business or topic of the landing page. An article on a specialized resource usually appears more relevant than a random mention on a site that publishes materials about everything.

Regionality is also taken into account when checking a website's external links. For local promotion, local media, company directories, industry associations, and regional projects can be valuable. For an international website, the analysis is based separately on countries, languages, and target search markets.

Checking donors for spam and low quality

A suspicious donor often exhibits several characteristics simultaneously: a large number of irrelevant publications, constant outgoing commercial links, poor search visibility, automatically collected pages, or a sudden change in the domain's topic.

One indicator shouldn't automatically flag a site as problematic. Checking a site for backlinks requires context. For example, a small industry blog may have modest metrics but publish expert content, receive targeted traffic, and naturally link to useful resources.

An anchor profile shows the texts through which external sites link to a project. It typically includes the brand name, URL, commercial phrases, product and service names, neutral words, and image links. Distribution depends on the niche, brand awareness, and promotion history.

The audit looks for inconsistencies, repeating patterns, and anchor text that doesn't align with the page's content. It also checks to see if dozens of identical commercial links have been created in a short period of time. Comparisons with competitors help understand the typical structure within a given search result.

Branded anchors

Branded links include the name of a company, domain, product, or consistent brand spellings. For well-known projects, their share is often higher, as websites receive natural mentions from news, catalogs, reviews, and affiliate content.

During the audit, the diversity of such anchors and their consistency with the actual name are checked. If the brand is almost absent and the profile consists primarily of commercial phrases, this is a reason to take a closer look at the link building history and placement sources.

Commercial anchors

Commercial anchors contain words that promote services, categories, or products. Such links can be part of a normal profile, especially if the text is naturally related to the page content. Problems most often arise when the same structure is repeated extensively.

An analysis of a site's external links reveals which commercial phrases were used most frequently and which URLs they led to. This data is then compared with branded, URL-based, and non-anchored links, as well as with competitors' distribution.

URLs and non-anchor links

This group includes clickable URLs, domain names, neutral constructions, and other links without a direct commercial intent. They often appear in reference materials, source compilations, directories, and natural editorial mentions.

During verification, not only the link text but also the surrounding content is assessed. The same URL may be located within a useful, relevant article or among a large block of random outbound links. The placement quality will vary in these situations.

Irrelevant and spammy anchors

Spam anchors can appear without the website owner's involvement. These often include foreign words, names of third-party products, automatically generated phrases, or topics that are in no way related to the project. These findings are grouped and analyzed along with the source domains.

The presence of a few odd anchors doesn't mean the site has a ranking problem. The decision is made after reviewing the scale, history, and quality of the donors. Reducing the influence of external links is only considered where there is a genuine justification.

Link attributes help search engines understand the nature of a link's mention. "Dofollow" typically refers to links without any special restrictive attributes. "Nofollow" is used to indicate that a link should not be treated in the usual way. "Sponsored" is for advertising placements. UGC is used for user-generated content.

The audit evaluates the distribution of different types. Nofollow links are not automatically considered useless, as they can attract users, provide brand mentions, and be a natural part of a profile. There is also no universal dofollow and nofollow percentage for all niches.

Link dynamics show how backlinks and referring domains have changed over months or years. Periods of growth, plateaus, massive losses, and significant spikes are analyzed. These changes are compared with acquisitions, PR activities, migrations, and other activities.

A backlinks monitor or other monitoring service helps track changes regularly. A one-time audit uses history to identify anomalies and understand the current state. A sudden spike isn't considered a problem in itself: the publication of a major study or news item can also generate a lot of backlinks in a short period of time.

Acceptor pages show where external link traffic is directed. For many sites, the majority of natural links point to the homepage, research, useful articles, or popular content. Commercial pages may receive significantly fewer mentions.

During the analysis, a distribution by URL type is created and compared with competitors. If a priority category has little external support, while similar competitors' pages receive links from specialized sites, this area can be considered in the further strategy.

Finding 404 links and old URLs

After deleting pages or changing the structure, external sites may continue to link to old URLs. Checking your site's incoming links helps identify such URLs and determine whether they have suitable, up-to-date replacements.

If the new page matches the old content, a proper 301 redirect is usually considered. It's not advisable to redirect all 404s to the homepage. Each link is validated to ensure that the user and search engine are directed to the correct page.

Problematic links are identified based on a combination of characteristics. Sites with clear signs of spam, large numbers of irrelevant posts, suspicious domain history, automated pages, and a large number of unrelated outbound links are checked.

After the initial filtering, questionable sites are reviewed manually. A link audit shouldn't involve removing all links with low metrics. A legitimate, small website may have a low DR, but good content, a relevant audience, and decent search visibility.

When can Google Disavow be used?

The Google Disavow Tool is designed for specific situations where a website owner needs to tell Google which links to disavow. It's not necessary to use it after every backlink check. An erroneous listing can affect legitimate placements.

Before preparing the file, the source of the links, the domain history, the scale of the problem, and the ability to remove the placement directly are checked. The decision is made carefully and documented. It's not recommended to automatically upload all domains flagged as suspicious by the backlink checker to Disavow.

Incoming, outgoing, and internal links refer to different areas of analysis. Backlinks lead from other domains to a website. Outgoing links direct users from the website to external resources. Internal links connect pages within the same domain.

Checking outbound links and analyzing internal links can be performed as part of a broader SEO audit. During a link audit, the bulk of the work is focused on the incoming profile, but obvious errors with outbound links or internal distribution can be flagged as additional recommendations.

Competitive analysis helps evaluate your profile relative to sites that already hold prominent positions in Google. This is done by selecting competitors from organic search results for target queries. Known business competitors may not be the same as those actually competing for search traffic.

For each domain, referring domains, backlinks, anchor text, pages with the most links, and growth dynamics are collected. Then, the types of platforms, donor quality, and link distribution are compared. This analysis reveals where the project is significantly lagging and which sources are already being used in the niche.

Link Gap – finding missing donors

Link Gap or Link Intersect helps find sites that link to multiple competitors but don't link to the project being analyzed. This list is useful for finding industry media, directories, partner resources, and platforms available for publication.

Each identified domain is additionally manually verified. The mere presence of links from three competitors does not guarantee the site's quality. Only relevant sites that meet the project's theme, region, quality requirements, and promotion model are included in the plan.

How does competitive analysis help you build a link building plan?

The comparison shows the approximate size of the gap, the most popular content types, and the pages that receive the most inbound links. Based on this data, you can prioritize, select outreach areas, and understand which landing pages require additional support.

This plan doesn't boil down to trying to replicate a competitor's entire profile. Some links are impossible or pointless to copy. The goal of the analysis is to find consistent patterns, check available sources, and allocate budget where new placements have a clear purpose.

Backlinks to a website are links from other domains that lead to the project's pages. They can be placed in articles, catalogs, company profiles, reviews, news, and other materials.

The analysis takes into account more than just quantity. The source, host page, anchor, attribute, and target URL are also examined. This data, combined with the referring domains, forms a link profile.

You can view a website's external links using Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Serpstat, Majestic, Semrush, and other services. Depending on the tool, domains, individual URLs, anchors, history, and additional metrics will be available.

If you want to find the most comprehensive backlinks, it's best to combine multiple sources. One link checker or online backlinks service may miss some pages that are present in another database.

You can check your website's backlinks for free using tools with limited functionality and through Google Search Console for verified resources. This is enough to identify some of the links and get a general idea of the profile.

A full free check of the number of incoming links is usually limited by the amount of data. The audit also requires history, competitive comparison, anchor text, donor quality, and manual assessment of disputed sites.

Quality is assessed based on several parameters: the donor's topic, search traffic, visibility, region, indexation, page content, and the nature of outgoing links. Link location and the relationship of the text to the target page are also taken into account.

DR, DA, and other metrics help sort the sample, but they don't replace manual verification. A high metric without relevant content and visibility doesn't guarantee the value of a particular placement.

First, it's necessary to establish the scale and origin of such links. A few random spam URLs are usually treated differently than a systemic history of mass, unnatural placements.

Don't automatically remove or reject the entire suspicious list. Domains, anchors, history, and potential impact are checked. Only then is an action chosen: monitoring, contacting the site owner, or using Disavow if warranted.

When actively promoting external content, it's worth regularly checking backlinks and new referring domains. This helps monitor placements and promptly spot any significant losses.

For a project without ongoing link building, the frequency may be lower. The period is selected based on the rate of change, profile size, and the level of competition in search results.

Yes, competitor backlink analysis is part of the advanced link audit. Websites that rank for target queries are selected, and then their referring domains, anchor text, pages, and performance are compared.

This way, you can find incoming links to a competitor's website, identify duplicate sites, and compile a Link Gap. Each potential donor is then checked separately.

The main goal of a link audit is to analyze external links and backlinks. Internal links are related to on-page and technical optimization, as they connect pages within a single domain.

If obvious issues with internal linking or outgoing URLs are discovered during the process, they can be documented separately. A full analysis of internal links is best performed as part of a technical SEO audit.