A backlink audit reveals the health of your link profile — identifying toxic links that could harm rankings, lost links worth reclaiming, and gaps in your link building strategy. Regular audits protect your site from algorithmic penalties and ensure your backlink profile supports ranking growth.
Step 1: Export Your Complete Backlink Data
Pull your full backlink profile from at least two sources for comprehensive coverage:
- Google Search Console: Links report shows linking sites as Google sees them
- Ahrefs: The largest backlink database with the most detailed link data
- SEMrush: Alternative backlink database with toxic score analysis
Export data including: referring domain, linking URL, target URL, anchor text, link type (dofollow/nofollow), domain rating, and first seen date.
Step 2: Identify Potentially Toxic Links
Look for links that could trigger manual or algorithmic penalties:
Red Flags
- Spammy domains: Sites with no real content, excessive ads, or auto-generated pages
- Irrelevant foreign-language sites: Links from sites in languages unrelated to your market
- Link farms and PBNs: Sites that exist solely to sell or exchange links
- Exact-match anchor text at scale: Unnaturally high percentage of links with your target keyword as anchor text
- Sitewide links: Footer or sidebar links appearing on every page of a linking site
- Paid link directories: Low-quality directories that sell listings
Using Toxic Link Tools
- SEMrush Toxic Score: Rates links 0-100 based on multiple spam signals
- Ahrefs: No built-in toxic score, but filter by low-DR domains and check manually
- Manual review: Visit suspicious linking pages to assess quality firsthand
Step 3: Analyze Your Anchor Text Profile
A natural anchor text profile is diverse. Unnatural profiles trigger penalties:
Healthy Distribution
- Branded anchors (30-40%): Your company or domain name
- URL anchors (20-30%): Naked URLs or partial URLs
- Generic anchors (15-20%): “Click here,” “learn more,” “this article”
- Keyword anchors (5-15%): Target keywords as anchor text
- Topic anchors (10-15%): Related phrases and natural descriptions
Warning Signs
- More than 20% exact-match keyword anchors
- Very low percentage of branded anchors
- Repetitive anchor text across many linking domains
Step 4: Find and Reclaim Lost Links
Lost backlinks represent authority you have already earned — reclaiming them is often easier than building new ones:
Finding Lost Links
- Use Ahrefs Lost Backlinks report filtered to the last 3-6 months
- Focus on lost links from high-authority domains (DR 40+)
- Check why they were lost: page removed, link removed, or domain expired
Reclamation Tactics
- Broken target URLs: If the linking page still exists but your page 404s, redirect your URL or contact the site to update the link
- Content updates: If the linking page was updated and your link was removed, reach out with updated content that merits re-inclusion
- Expired domains: If the linking domain expired, nothing can be done — focus elsewhere
Step 5: Benchmark Against Competitors
Compare your link profile to top-ranking competitors:
- Total referring domains: How does your count compare?
- Domain rating gap: How far behind are you in overall authority?
- Link velocity: Are competitors building links faster than you?
- Link sources: Which sites link to competitors but not to you?
- Content that earns links: What type of competitor content attracts the most backlinks?
This comparison reveals how much link building is needed to be competitive and where to focus efforts.
Step 6: Take Action
Disavow Toxic Links (If Necessary)
- Only disavow if you have a manual penalty or clear evidence of a negative SEO attack
- Google’s algorithms are good at ignoring low-quality links — disavowal is rarely needed
- If needed, submit a disavow file through Google Search Console
- Include only clearly toxic domains, not just low-quality ones
Fix Broken Backlinks
- Identify your pages that receive backlinks but return 404 errors
- Set up 301 redirects from broken URLs to relevant live pages
- This immediately recovers lost link equity
Build a Link Building Plan
Based on your audit findings:
- Prioritize content types that earn links (based on competitor analysis)
- Target link sources from your competitor gap analysis
- Set monthly link building targets based on the gap you need to close
- Diversify your anchor text strategy if the profile is unbalanced
Backlink Audit Schedule
- Monthly: Monitor new and lost backlinks, check for sudden changes
- Quarterly: Full audit including toxic link analysis and competitor benchmarking
- After ranking drops: Immediate audit to check if link profile changes correlate with the drop
- After link building campaigns: Verify new links are indexed and contributing to authority
Quick Audit Checklist
- Exported backlink data from 2+ sources
- Reviewed and flagged potentially toxic links
- Analyzed anchor text distribution for naturalness
- Identified and attempted to reclaim lost high-value links
- Fixed broken pages receiving backlinks (301 redirects)
- Benchmarked link profile against top 3 competitors
- Created action plan for link building based on findings
- Scheduled next audit date