Backlink Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

One high-quality backlink can carry more weight than dozens of low-quality ones. That's why it's important to do it right. To understand how a website interacts with others and how these connections impact search engine rankings, it's necessary to perform a backlink analysis.

In this article, the experts at Promodo will explain everything you need to know about backlinks, the role of backlink analysis in SEO, and how to get backlinks.
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What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links from other websites that lead to your resource. Another website mentions your content and adds a link so that its users can visit and read your article, product, or service. This is what backlinks are.

It’s a fundamental element of web structure that connects different sites, allowing users to gain additional information and helping search engines better understand the relationships between sources.
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Are backlinks useful for SEO? Yes!

They impact several factors at once:

1. Improving search engine rankings. Google views backlinks as an indicator of a site’s authority. The more quality backlinks (it's important to note: not just “more links,” but “quality links”) leading to your site, the higher the chance that your content will be considered useful, and therefore, it will rank higher in search results.
   
   
2. Increasing organic traffic. If the links to your site are integrated naturally and relevantly into the content, users are more likely to click on them, looking for answers to their questions.
   
   
3. Ensuring faster site indexing. When a search engine crawls a webpage and finds a backlink leading to your site, it follows that link to open and index it. Backlinks from authoritative blogs with fast crawl rates help speed up the process of indexing your site. This way, your site will appear faster and higher in search results.
   
   
4. Building trust and reputation. When authoritative sources link to you, it automatically boosts the trust in your content, both from users and search engines.
   
   

“A well-formed, unique strategy for building a backlink profile is already half the success in SEO promotion of your site”.

Oksana Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo

Which Backlinks are Considered High-quality?

Not all backlinks are equally valuable. Google and other search engines pay attention to:

1. The authority of the referring site. If a high-trust resource (e.g., a popular blog or news portal) links to you, such a backlink is considered valuable.
   
   
2. Backlinks should appear organically, and the content must be relevant. For example, if you've partnered with a clothing brand but your site's content is about flowers, the relevance in this case would be low. Unnatural backlinks, created with the aim of manipulating SEO, can result in penalties.
3. In the past, it was popular to buy hundreds or thousands of random links. That time is over. A smaller number of quality backlinks will yield results. A large number of bad backlinks will not.
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How to Get High-Quality Backlinks

1. Create valuable content that will be shared and linked to.
2. Guest blogging: Write a quality article for another authoritative site in your industry and add a link to your resource. These publications can be either free or paid. It's important to find the right partners.
3. ‍Analyze competitors: Use tools like Ahrefs or SE Ranking to see who is linking to your competitors and identify opportunities to build your own backlinks. A qualitative competitor backlinks analysis is a MUST. ‍
4. Promote your content: Use social media, email marketing, and partnerships to draw more attention to your site.
   
   

Important: To truly assess the value of a backlink, consider not only its weight but also other factors:

• Organic traffic
• Relevance of the topic and audience
• Ratio of inbound/outbound links
• Placement of the link
• Diversity of backlinks
• Stability of the link
• History of backlinks for the respective resource

What makes a backlink valuable for websites?

Three principles of effective link building:

1. Reliability of the source
2. Relevance to the content
3. Proper anchor text

“Another important metric is the organic traffic of the linking domain. The number of visits helps Google understand how authoritative the resource linking to your site is, which in turn helps determine the quality of the donor”. Oksana Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo

What is Backlink Analysis?

Backlink analysis is the process of evaluating the backlinks (links from other websites) pointing to your site. It helps to understand how these links impact your website’s search engine rankings, traffic, and overall authority. By assessing the quality, relevance, and source of each backlink, you can identify which links are benefiting your SEO efforts and which may be harming your site. Regular backlink analysis allows you to refine your link-building strategy, remove harmful links, and focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks that improve your site's visibility and reputation in search engine results.
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Tools for Analyzing External Links

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is one of the most widespread SEO backlink tools. A simple and free platform from Google that allows you to view all backlinks pointing to your website. If you're looking for basic information about links to your site, Google Search Console is perfect. It can also analyze donor pages and identify issues related to link indexing.

Minus: Limited functionality for analyzing competitors.

Ahrefs

Well-known as one of the leading tools for link analysis, Ahrefs offers:

• Comprehensive backlink profile analysis, including anchors and donors.
• History of changes in the backlink profile.
• Comparison of backlink profiles with competitors.
• A massive, regularly updated database.

Minus: Subscription costs start at $99 per month.
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“Ahrefs is the most commonly used tool among SEO specialists for analyzing a website's external backlink profile”. Oksana Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo

SE Ranking

This competitor backlink analysis tool integrates perfectly with SEO strategies and is suitable for both beginners and experienced SEO specialists. Features of SE Ranking include:

• Automatic tracking of changes in external backlinks (changes in URLs, content updates, etc.), which makes it a backlink watch free tool.
• Notifications about all changes, allowing quick responses to potential issues.
• Convenient graphs and tables for visualizing data.
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‍Serpstat

Serstat is another backlink analysis tool that you need to consider using when developing a backlink strategy. This platform is ideal for comprehensive analysis, checking not only the backlink profile but also the donors and anchors. It can also identify weaknesses in your linking strategy.

Backlink checkers provide valuable data, but their capabilities depend on the platform's features. To get the most accurate information, it is recommended to use multiple tools and compare the results.
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Important: No backlink checker tool gives a complete picture, as their accuracy depends on the algorithms and databases. For the most reliable results, combining several services and comparing their outcomes is best.

Read more about SEO tools comparison in Promodo’s research. 
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How to Perform a Backlink Quality Analysis

The analysis is a key to the quality link-building process. That’s why you need to consider several parameters when analyzing backlinks:

1. Domain Authority: There are various metrics for evaluating domain quality. For example, SE Ranking’s Domain Trust rates the domain on a scale from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more valuable the backlink profile of the domain.
2. Domain History: Use tools like the Wayback Machine to view the domain’s archive and track its historical sequence.
3. Site Security: Ensure the site uses a secure protocol (HTTPS) and does not have security issues.
4. Anchor Text: Anchor text, such as the phrase "Learn more about SEO," explains to both users and search engines what they can expect from the link. Therefore, anchor text must be clear, relevant, and natural.
5. Keywords the Site Ranks For: If the site ranks well for relevant keywords, it indicates its authority in that area. Use SE Ranking’s Competitive Analysis to generate a list of keywords and assess their quality.

Step-by-Step Guide to Backlink Analysis

Let’s view how to do backlink analysis: 

1. Identify All Backlinks Pointing to Your Site: Use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, or others to find all backlinks.
2. Export the Backlink List: Download the data in a convenient format (e.g., .CSV) for further analysis.
3. Assess the Quality of Each Backlink: Evaluate the authority of each source. The higher the authority, the more weight the backlink carries.
4. Check if the Donor Site’s Topic Matches Your Industry: Relevant links from similar industries are more valuable.
5. Identify Spammy Websites: Avoid links from suspicious or low-quality websites.
6. Spot Broken Links (404 Errors): Remove or replace these links.
7. Identify Toxic Links: Use Google’s Disavow Tool to remove or disassociate with harmful backlinks.
8. Analyze Key Competitors: Choose 2-3 competitors with better rankings and analyze their backlinks to identify potential partners.
9. Compile All Data into One Report: Include key metrics like total backlinks, anchor text distribution, and the balance of high-quality versus low-quality links.
10. Create an Action Plan to Remove Unwanted Backlinks: Outline steps to eliminate low-quality or toxic backlinks.
11. Develop a Link Building Strategy: Create a sustainable and targeted strategy to build high-quality backlinks.
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“It should be noted that removing low-quality backlinks from the site using the Google Disavow Tool may take a long time and may not be 100% effective. Therefore, for the effective backlinking strategy, it is worth additionally contacting the platforms where these links are placed and asking them to remove them”.

Babenko Oksana, SEO Specialist at Promodo

In our article, also read which links can harm your website. 

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A Few Tips from Promodo's Specialists About SEO Backlink Analysis

• Maintain relevance: Make sure that external links are relevant to your content and provide value to your audience.
• Limit the number of backlinks: While links from authoritative resources are helpful, an excessive number of external links can distract users and reduce the SEO value of your site.
• Regularly check your backlinks to ensure their relevance and functionality.
• Remember internal links: While much focus is often on acquiring external backlinks, internal links are equally important for SEO. Make sure your internal linking is optimized.
• Use various link-building tactics to ensure backlinks to different pages of your site.
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Read in our SEO case study, effective backlink analysis and identifying toxic backlinks allowed Promodo's team to reach impressive results for our client.
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Conclusions

It’s important to remember that the quality and relevance of backlinks should always be prioritized over their quantity. One authoritative and contextually relevant link can carry more weight than dozens of links from irrelevant or low-quality sources.

Backlinks are not just an SEO tool, but also a reflection of trust in your resource. Focus on creating content that provides value to your audience and follow the guidelines to ensure the long-term success of your site in search results.
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