How To Do Backlink Audit — Link building Strategy , SEO
What Is a Backlink Audit?
A backlink audit is an important aspect of keeping your website’s link profile healthy and effective. It entails reviewing your existing backlinks to identify low-quality or potentially dangerous links and taking relevant changes to improve the SEO of your site.
First and foremost, backlinks are links to your website. So, a backlink audit is essentially a thorough examination of all the connections pointing to your pages from other websites.
During this audit, you will:
A. Examine the sites from which you have backlinks.
B. Learn which pages on your website have the most backlinks.
C. Determine dangerous backlinks
D. Discover new options for link building.
E. Make a plan to eliminate harmful backlinks.
How To Do Backlink Audit
I’ve condensed it down into 13 simple steps that even inexperienced SEOs and link builders can follow.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Gather Your Backlink Information:
Export a list of all the backlinks heading to your website using a backlink analysis tool such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, or Google Search Console.
Step 2: Determine Toxic or Poor-Quality Backlinks:
· Look for backlinks from websites that are spammy, low-quality, or irrelevant. These can be detrimental to your SEO. Consider the following factors:
· Links from link farms or private blog networks (PBNs).
· Links from low-domain-authority websites.
· Links to websites containing malware or that have been penalized by search engines.
Step 3: Examine Anchor Texts:
Examine your backlinks’ anchor texts. Make certain that they are both relevant and diversified. Excessive usage of exact match keywords should be avoided because it can result in search engine penalties.
Step 4: Examine any broken or redirected links:
Look for broken links or links that take you to irrelevant or incorrect pages. These can have a detrimental impact on user experience and SEO.
Step 5: Assess the Linking Domains’ Authority:
Examine the websites that link to you in terms of domain authority. In SEO, links from domains with a high authority are more valuable.
Step 6: Compare NoFollow and DoFollow Links:
Establish a distinction between nofollow and dofollow links. Although nofollow links don’t convey SEO authority, they might nevertheless be beneficial for traffic and variety.
Step 7: Eliminate or Disavow Harmful Links:
· Request the removal of damaging backlinks by contacting the webmasters of low-quality or spam-filled websites.
· Use the Google Disavow Tool to request Google to ignore certain links from recalcitrant webmasters.
Step 8: Strengthen Current Links:
Consider contacting the webmasters of any relevant but subpar backlinks and offering suggestions for improving the link structure.
Step 9: Track Progress
Recheck your backlinks frequently to make sure they are still relevant and clean.
Step 10: Create Fresh, Quality Backlinks:
Continue constructing high-quality, organic backlinks from reputable websites as part of your SEO plan.
Step 11: Find (and use) 404 errors
A. identify 404 Errors: To identify 404 errors on your website, use tools like Google Search Console or website auditing software. When a page that had existed is no longer accessible, several problems happen.
B. Examine the Cause: Find out the cause of these 404 errors. Common causes include removed or relocated pages, URL mistakes, or broken links.
C. Resolve 404 Errors: Fixing 404 issues entails either developing a bespoke 404 error page that offers the user useful information and navigation alternatives, or redirecting the broken URL to a suitable page (301 redirect).
Step 12: Country Specific Domains ccTLD Distribution
· List all the ccTLDs associated with your website
· Use web analytics tools like Google Analytics
· Optimize for Target Regions
· Acquire backlinks from local websites in your target regions
· Ensure that your website’s hosting server is located in or near the target country or region
· For pages that are available in numerous languages or regions, use hreflang tags to define language and regional targeting in your HTML code.
· Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
Step 13: Identify Negative SEO Attacks
involves monitoring your website and online presence to identify negative SEO attacks. Negative SEO refers to malicious attempts to harm a website’s search engine rankings and online reputation. Detecting and addressing these attacks is crucial to protect your website’s integrity
Step 14: Check For Manual Links Penalties
Maintaining a strong backlink profile and making sure your website conforms with search engine criteria both require checking for manual link penalties. When search engines, especially Google, find that a website has participated in manipulative link-building tactics that violate their quality criteria, they will manually penalize the links on the page.
Step 15: Record the Audit:
Keep a thorough record of your audit, including the steps you took, the dates they occurred, and the conclusions you reached
For the long-term health and effectiveness of your website in search engine rankings, performing a backlink audit is a continuous procedure. To keep a strong web presence, regularly review and enhance your backlink profile.
Conclusion
Each website’s link auditing procedure can be tailored using the methods mentioned above. You can mix and match until you discover the ideal solution for you; it doesn’t have to include every step. In order for you to observe a more thorough backlink analysis and link classification, we’ve included all the information we could.
A link audit for your website is quite helpful since it enables you to identify potentially harmful backlinks, strengthen your links, and boost organic traffic.
In general, backlink audits are an essential component of an online reputation management and SEO service provided by a digital marketing agency. They contribute to the agency’s success and exhibit a dedication to providing clients with favorable results.
