Link building isn’t optional. Google has repeated time and time again that links matter.
But how do you know which backlinks to go after? You start by understanding what you already have. That’s where backlink analysis comes in.
This article will discuss why a backlink analysis is important, how to perform one, and what you should do after the analysis.
A backlink analysis audits all the links pointing to your site. It tells you about:
By analyzing your backlinks, you can better understand their performance, relevance, quality, and contextual significance. This is important because the backlinks pointing to your site can have a large impact on your rankings.
Not all links are created equal. The right backlinks can boost rankings, build authority, and bring qualified traffic.
It’s not just about having lots of links; it’s more important to have links from well-respected websites that show you’re an expert in your area.
Before you start working on getting new links, it’s a good idea to check how your current links are doing. This process helps you see what’s working well, what needs improvement, and where you might find new opportunities. For example, you can determine:
Like other SEO aspects, you should conduct an analysis regularly to ensure everything works. However, some extenuating circumstances call for a backlink analysis.
These include:
Conducting a regular backlink analysis will help ensure nothing takes you by surprise.
Wading through thousands of backlinks manually is daunting. Thankfully, there are solid tools to help you dig in:
All of these tools can analyze links in some capacity. It’s important to explore each tool to understand which is right for your needs. You may even consider using multiple tools to ensure you’re extracting as much information as possible.
After you’ve chosen your tool, it’s time to conduct your backlink analysis. Every report should include:
By gathering the right data on your links, you can gain valuable insights. For our examples in the following sections, we’ll use Ahrefs as a tool.
Log in to Ahrefs and go to Site Explorer. Plug in your domain URL to analyze.
Then, go to the side menu and click on “Backlinks.”
Here you can look at:
Your SEO tool will either tell you how many unique domains are linking to your site, or you can manually look at each backlink to know where it’s linking from.
Segmenting your backlinks by domain helps you understand how many of your backlinks are from different websites. A backlink profile with a variety of domains looks natural to Google and can reach a broader audience. Thousands of backlinks from one site may look unnatural — a red flag for search engines. So, discovering which sites are already linking to yours can help refine your link building strategy and uncover other link opportunities.
Here’s how to segment by domains in Ahrefs
And here’s what your screen should look like:
The next component you’ll want to analyze is link quality. Search engines look for page-to-page relevance of links. Third-party tools look at these link metrics when determining a site’s ranking, including:
It’s important to note that you should take these metrics with a grain of salt, as they never tell the whole story. The two most important aspects of a high-quality link are relevancy and human value.
What’s nice about Ahrefs is that you can filter your referring domains by Dofollow, Nofollow, best links, DR, and traffic. So no matter what KPI you’re tracking, you can filter by it. Use filters to zero in on the links that actually matter:
Anchor text shows you how sites are linking to yours. It serves as another signal of relevance for search engines.
In Ahrefs, navigate to the anchor text using the left-side menu:
And here’s what that screen looks like:
When looking at anchor text, keep these best practices in mind:
Ahrefs will show you low-DR or suspicious-looking links. A toxic backlink is a link from another site that can harm your SEO and affect your website's rankings. These links are considered spammy or manipulative. Additionally, Google reports that,
"Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site."
If something looks sketchy or off-topic (like random foreign gambling sites), take note. You may want to disavow them using Google Search Console later. But don’t panic—this is advanced stuff and rarely needed because Google’s spam filters have become so advanced that they typically just ignore these types of links.
Understanding which content earns the most links tells you what resonates with your target audience and can help direct your content strategy.
Go to “Best by links” to see which pages on your site are attracting the most backlinks.
You should be able to see the target page, the number of referring domains, how many links to the page, and what types of links are linking to the page (DoFollow, NoFollow, new, old, etc.)
This tells you what’s working, so you can:
Now that you have a clear understanding of your website's performance, it's important to compare it with your competitors.
In Ahrefs, go to the top navigation bar and click “All tools.” Click on “Competitve Analysis.” You should come to this page:
Now you can find who is linking to similar pages from your competitors. Select “referring pages,” then:
From there, you can filter the links to show from all competitors, links with a certain DA, DoFollow versus NoFollow, and many more. This tool is a great asset for outreach.
As you complete your competitor analysis, ask yourself:
So, now you’ve got a mountain of data. What next?
Here’s what we recommend:
A proper backlink analysis gives you the insight to:
And if you're serious about SEO, you can't afford to skip it.