What is a Backlink Audit and Do You Need One?
So you're looking to strengthen your company's off page SEO strategy, and you may have heard the phrase 'backlink audit' floating around everywhere. Backlinks play a crucial part in determining page authority and rankings, but not all backlinks are created equal and some can even harm your website's SEO efforts so it's essential that you're able to identify these bad backlinks. This is where backlink audits come into play.
But what exactly is a backlink audit, and how would you even start conducting one? In this blog, we'll be going through everything you need to know about backlink audits, signs that you need an audit, and their importance in improving the authority of your website.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are an essential aspect of SEO, allowing your pages to rise through the rankings and boost organic search traffic. They're essentially links from one website to another, which then acts as a type of 'vote of confidence' from one website to the other. This value that a referring domain passes onto your site is often called 'link juice' or ‘link equity’.
Backlinks are one of the top ranking factors for search engines. When high-authority referring domains link to your content, search engines like Google perceive your content as valuable and relevant, resulting in improved rankings. For example, a link from a super high authority website like the NHS or BBC websites is going to do wonders for your link equity – if you can get one!
If you don’t think you’ll ever get a backlink from a major publication or website, don’t fret – backlinks from websites with similar content and topics are also very useful. For example, if you create a website to sell your indie video game, a backlink from a games reviewing site may be more beneficial than a backlink from a completely unrelated site. Search engines see that websites with similar topics are linking to your site and this makes your website look even more valuable, increasing your pages’ likelihood of climbing the rankings on the SERPs.
Unfortunately, low-quality or spammy backlinks can have the opposite effect, leading to penalties or a drop in rankings. This is why paying for backlinks on irrelevant and low authority sites can actually harm your SEO in the long run.
Backlink audits explained
In order to measure and strengthen your website's domain authority, you'll first need to conduct a thorough backlink audit. A backlink audit involves a comprehensive analysis of the backlinks pointing to your website with the aim of finding any potential issues that could be affecting your website's domain rating and organic traffic.
Signs of backlink issues
Ideally, you'll want to conduct a backlink audit before your website begins to suffer. But if you're still on the fence, here are some signs of backlink issues that you can check for beforehand:
- Sudden ranking drop: If you notice a significant drop in your website's search engine rankings, it could be due to a penalty as a result of a bad backlink profile.
- Manual action notification: A manual action is a penalty imposed by Google to sites that they believe aren't respecting its guidelines, and these are typically sent out as a result of unnatural backlinks to your website. Google penalties can have a severe impact on your website's visibility, so a backlink audit can aid in the recovery process.
- Unnatural link warnings: Google may also send out warnings, via Google Search Console, regarding any unnatural or manipulative links.
Benefits of a backlink audit
With a thorough backlink audit, you'll be able to find out which backlinks are both beneficial and harmful to your website's SEO performance. It’s a key first step in creating a link building strategy which uses high-quality, relevant backlinks that positively impact your SEO efforts. Let’s look at some of the specific benefits of a backlink audit.
Improving link building strategies
A backlink audit can provide valuable insights into your existing link building efforts. Regularly performing a backlink audit is essential to maintaining a healthy backlink profile. It helps you identify and disavow harmful backlinks and prevent low quality links and spam referring domains from dragging down your own website's search rankings.
By understanding which backlinks are most valuable, you can refine your link building strategies and focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from relevant sources.
Staying ahead of competitors
In the fiercely competitive online landscape, staying ahead of your competitors is absolutely vital to a website's performance. A backlink audit can help you identify the backlink opportunities your competitors might already be utilising, allowing you to seek out backlinks from the same sources. Or, it can help you identify your competitors’ missed opportunities and swoop in to claim backlinks instead. Either way, looking at your backlink data and analysing that of your competitors gives you a competitive edge.
Identify and fix broken backlinks
With a backlink audit, you can quickly identify backlinks pointing to your website that result in a 404 page. This is a problem both for your SEO and for user experience; anyone following that link to your site will not be able to see the content that they are interested in. This can lead to frustrated potential customers leaving your site without making a conversion or even seeing any of your content!
Enhancing website authority and trust
A healthy backlink profile enhances your website's authority and trust in the eyes of both search engines and users. Regular backlink audits ensure that your website maintains a positive reputation.
How to conduct a backlink audit
So now that we've broken down how important backlinks and backlink audits are to establishing authoritative websites, let's go through the basic backlink audit process so you can start improving your website's search engine rankings.
Step 1: Gather backlink data
To start off, you'll need to compile backlink data through a backlink source analysis. This is when you figure out how many backlinks your website has and which types of referring domains are linking to your site.
You'll need to use a backlink analytics tool like Google Search Console (previously called Google Webmaster Tools), Ahrefs, or SEMrush to compile a list of all the websites linking to your own website. These tools can provide valuable insights into link metrics and anchor text distribution.
We recommend compiling all this link data into one spreadsheet where you can easily see the number of backlinks and what referring domains are linking back to your own website.
Step 2: Identify toxic backlinks
Analyse the backlinks for quality and relevance. Spammy and toxic backlinks from irrelevant or spammy sites, link farms, or directories can be really detrimental to your website's backlink profile so you want to make sure all linked pages are high authority and healthy.
Use your chosen backlink audit tool to assess the following metrics for each link:
- Domain Authority (DA): Focus on links from websites with a higher DA as they tend to be more trustworthy.
- Page Authority (PA): Check the authority of the specific web pages linking to you. Similarly to DA, a web page with a higher PA is preferable.
- Spam Score: Many backlink analysis tools have a spam score feature that indicates the likelihood of a link being harmful. Aim to disavow any of your site's backlinks with high spam scores.
Step 3: Analyse anchor text diversity
Another key factor to watch out for during your backlink audit is anchor text diversity. This involves verifying that your site's anchor text distribution is natural and not overly optimised with specific keywords.
To begin analysing anchor text diversity, gather a comprehensive list of anchor text used in backlinks pointing to your site. Next, categorise these anchors based on their keywords and themes. Look for patterns, such as over-optimised or spammy anchors, which may raise red flags with search engines.
A diverse range of anchor texts, including branded terms, naked URLs, and long-tail keywords, is indicative of a healthy link profile. Ensure that no single anchor dominates the link portfolio, as this may seem unnatural to search engines. By examining anchor text diversity, you can enhance your website's SEO, improve search engine rankings, and avoid potential penalties for manipulative link practices.
Step 4: Assess link relevance
Aside from cleansing your site of spammy links, link relevance is also another key factor to consider. Google prefers websites that have a diverse link profile, but you also want to make sure that most backlinks and referring domains linking to your site are both high-authority and relevant to your website's content.
Firstly, carefully review the content and context of the linking page. Ensure that it shares a thematic connection with the linked page, indicating a logical and meaningful association. Look for relevant keywords and topics within the anchor text and surrounding content, as this reinforces the link's context.
Additionally, you'll want to consider the authority and credibility of the referring domains to gauge their influence within the industry your business is in. Relevance also involves evaluating the overall user experience and whether the link provides valuable information to visitors. By thoroughly assessing link relevance, you can build a strong and reputable backlink profile that will then boost your site's organic traffic.
Step 5: Disavow unwanted links
When you disavow unwanted links, you are essentially telling search engines not to consider any toxic or broken links pointing to your site when evaluating the authority and relevance of your website
To start, compile a list of every toxic or spammy backlink you want to disavow. If you've found any nofollow links when going through your site, don't worry about including them. Nofollow links don't pass on any authority and therefore such links won't affect your Google ranking.
You'll then want to create a disavow file in a .txt format and list the URLs or domains you want to disavow, one per line. Include comments in the file to clarify the reason for disavowing each link.
Once the file is ready, access the Disavow Tool in Google Search Console and upload your disavow file. Google will then consider your request, and over time, those unwanted links should be disregarded when assessing your site's ranking. Remember to only disavow links from spammy or irrelevant sources, as disavowing legitimate links could harm your site's SEO.
Step 6: Monitor and maintain
The fun doesn't stop after the backlink audit is over – now you'll need to consistently maintain and monitor your website's backlink profile to make sure no toxic links can harm your site's performance again.
Keep track of your backlinks over time, as some might become broken or redirected, and fix them promptly. If you want to increase the number of backlinks leading to your site, you can also start a link building campaign using link building tools for a quick fix. However, we don't recommend using paid links as they can be risky and end up harming your backlink profile in the long run. Instead, focus on building high-quality, authoritative backlinks through guest posting, outreach campaigns, and content promotion.
At the same time, keep an eye on any potentially harmful or toxic links and disavow them promptly to prevent negative impacts on search rankings. Something you'll need to keep an eye out for is negative SEO attacks, which is when a site is made to look like they're using black-hat SEO strategies and is then penalised by Google. Being prepared for a negative SEO attack at all times will help you maintain a healthy backlink profile.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, a backlink audit is an indispensable tool for any website owner or digital marketer looking to optimise their online presence search engine rankings. By conducting a thorough analysis of the inbound links pointing to your site, you can identify potential issues, weed out harmful or low-quality backlinks, and ultimately improve your website's authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines.
Whether you're dealing with penalties, experiencing a drop in rankings, or simply aiming to maintain a healthy link profile, we hope this blog has helped show how crucial a backlink audit is in your SEO strategy. Remember, the digital landscape is ever-evolving, and staying vigilant with regular audits ensures that your website remains competitive and relevant amidst the changing algorithms. So, take the time to invest in a backlink audit and watch as your website gains the competitive edge it deserves in the vast online realm.
If all this still has you scratching your head over spammy backlinks and backlink profiles, we're here to help! We're Viaduct Generation, a mission-first agency that's all about helping businesses boost their organic traffic. Contact our friendly team of SEO experts today and we'll help you sort out your backlinks, plus some other things we might spot along the way. With our proven SEO expertise, you'll see results and ranking boosts in no time!
