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Backlink Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide
February 24, 2025
12 mins
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.
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.
Are backlinks useful for SEO? Yes!
They impact several factors at once:
“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
Not all backlinks are equally valuable. Google and other search engines pay attention to:
Important: To truly assess the value of a backlink, consider not only its weight but also other factors:
Three principles of effective link building:
“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
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 audit 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.
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.
Well-known as one of the leading tools for link analysis, Ahrefs offers:
Minus: Subscription costs start at $99 per month.
“Ahrefs is the most commonly used tool among SEO specialists for analyzing a website's external backlink profile”. Oksana Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo
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:
Serstat is another backlink audit 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.
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.
The analysis is a key to the quality link-building process. That’s why you need to consider several parameters when doing the backlink quality analysis:
Use reliable SEO tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or SE Ranking to collect all backlinks to your website. This gives a complete picture of who is linking to you and helps in assessing link quality.
Download your backlinks in a convenient format (e.g., CSV or Excel) to facilitate detailed analysis. Ensure that you include metrics such as domain authority, page authority, anchor text, and referring URL.
Evaluate each backlink’s authority. Links from high-authority domains carry more weight for SEO. Check metrics such as Domain Rating (DR), Domain Authority (DA), or Trust Flow depending on your tool.
Verify that the referring site’s topic aligns with your industry. Relevant links from related niches are more valuable and contribute to topical authority.
Avoid backlinks from link farms, directories with no moderation, or sites with thin content. These may harm your SEO rather than help.
Detect any backlinks pointing to pages that return 404 errors. Reach out to the linking site to update the URL or redirect these broken links to live content.
Use tools like Google Disavow Tool to remove or disassociate harmful backlinks that may negatively impact your rankings.
Select 2–3 competitors ranking higher for your target keywords. Study their backlinks to discover potential linking partners, content ideas, and strategies for link acquisition.
Create a report that includes:
Outline steps to eliminate low-quality or harmful backlinks, either by contacting webmasters or using the Disavow Tool.
Build a sustainable strategy for acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks. Include methods like:
“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.
Read in our SEO case study, effective backlink analysis and identifying toxic backlinks allowed Promodo's team to reach impressive results for our client.
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.
[[FAQ-START]]
Backlink analysis is the process of examining all external links pointing to your website to assess their quality, relevance, and potential impact on SEO performance.
Yes. Paid tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz provide more accurate, comprehensive, and actionable backlink data than free tools, making them valuable for strategic SEO work.
You can check backlinks using tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or SE Ranking. Export the data for further analysis, evaluate link quality, and identify opportunities or toxic links.
[[FAQ-END]]
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