Know What You Have Before Building More
Before you build a single new link, you need to know what your current link profile looks like.
Good links helping you. Bad links hurting you. The full picture.
That's a link audit. And every serious SEO strategy starts with one.
Step 1: Export Your Backlink Data
Pull your complete backlink profile from:
Use at least two sources. Each tool crawls different parts of the web.
Step 2: Categorize Your Links
Sort every link into categories:
High quality: DA 30+, relevant niche, editorial placement, real traffic.
Neutral: Low-DA sites but legitimate. Forum mentions, small blogs, social profiles. Not helping much, not hurting.
Toxic: Spammy directories, PBN sites, link farms, foreign-language spam, paid link schemes.
Step 3: Analyze Anchor Text Distribution
Pull your complete anchor text profile. Is it natural? Compare against the ratios in our anchor text strategy guide.
Red flags:
Step 4: Check for Manual Actions
In Google Search Console, go to Security & Manual Actions. Any existing penalties for unnatural links?
If yes, that's your top priority.
Step 5: Evaluate Link Velocity
Plot your link acquisition over time. Are there unnatural spikes? Sudden drops? Both are concerning.
Step 6: Compare to Competitors
How does your link profile compare to the sites ranking above you? This reveals whether your problem is quantity, quality, or both. Running a competitor backlink analysis alongside your audit makes this crystal clear.
Step 7: Create an Action Plan
How Often to Audit
Full audit: quarterly.
Quick monitoring check: monthly.
After 20+ years, we've seen countless sites unknowingly dragging around toxic link baggage. Don't let that be you.
Start with a full SEO audit at SEO Checkup. 113 tasks including link profile health. Free. 30 seconds. No credit card.
You can't fix what you don't measure.