Whether you’re looking to improve your rankings or need clarification on what’s going on with your website, backlink analysis can provide invaluable insight.
Like a health check-up, backlink analysis is vital for keeping your site in shape. Regularly analyze your link profile to spot potential issues and fix them before they cause problems.
Look at the Domain
High-quality backlinks tell search engines that your content is worthy of a link and are an essential part of your SEO strategy. Think of them as “votes of confidence” from peers who value what you say and want to share it with their audience.
However, not all backlinks are quality links, which can negatively impact your site’s performance. These toxic links are typically unnatural or have been built using black hat tactics that Google has taken action against and can hurt your rankings and lead to a penalty.
To prevent penalties and improve your site’s rating, avoiding toxic backlinks would be the right approach. The best way to spot toxic backlinks is to perform a regular backlink analysis as part of your SEO activity.
Toxic backlinks are links that don’t have any EAT or quality, and they can be challenging to identify because they often appear in spammy contexts. These can include keyword-stuffed links in discussion forums or spammy comments across multiple blogs.
Ultimately, toxic backlinks can lead to significant organic traffic and visibility declines. Depending on how many unnatural links you have, it may be sitewide or limited to a specific set of pages and site sections.
To get rid of these toxic links, you’ll need to contact the webmaster and ask them to remove the link or to create a disavow file. In some cases, these are the only options available, so take the proper steps to remedy the issue and regain your rankings before it worsens.
Look at the Anchor Text
When performing backlink analysis, one of the things that you want to look at is the anchor text. It’s an essential part of your website that search engines see and helps you rank for keywords.
Using the correct anchor text is vital to your SEO strategy because it tells users and search engine bots that the link they click is relevant. It can increase your page ranking and provide a better experience for your readers.
You’ll want to use specific words and phrases that describe the content you’re linking rather than generic terms like “click here.” It can help you make a more natural connection with your audience and get you the rankings you need for keywords relating to the subject of the link.
Google uses anchor text to gain confidence that the linked-to page is relevant to a particular topic. It is especially true for internal links between your pages, which are a great way to build trust with your visitors and help them find more information on a topic.
Using the wrong anchor text can lead to a drop in traffic and revenue, so you must follow best practices for this crucial SEO element. Using a tool that lets you sift through your entire backlink profile will allow you to spot and fix issues. You’ll also be able to compare posts or pages with high-quality backlinks with those that aren’t performing well.
Look at the Time of the Link
Backlink analysis is vital to any SEO strategy, allowing you to spot situations that could negatively impact your rankings. It can also help you identify new link-building opportunities for your site and competitors.
One of the most fundamental metrics of any backlink analysis is the number of links pointing to a website. It is a good indicator of how much authority that site has gained over time.
Also, you want to look at the quantity of referring domains. It will tell you how many unique sites are linking to your website.
While link quantity once ruled SEO, search engines today prefer quality. It would be best to target authentic, relevant, and high-authority pages for your link-building efforts.
Look at the Page
Toxic backlinks can hurt your search rankings by dragging down your website’s authority. While SEO algorithms have become better at detecting and discounting harmful links over time, it’s still essential to maintain a quality backlink profile.
Toxic links can come from several sources, including spammy and low-quality domains. They can also result from black hat SEO techniques used by your competitors or if you’re attempting to build backlinks from far-out ccTLDs and directory-style sites that aren’t relevant to your industry.
In addition to domains, looking at the page when performing backlink analysis is essential. Many backlink audit tools use automated checks to flag toxic links. However, there are better ways to identify them, as it can miss links from domains with good content.
Some more comprehensive tools offer a range of toxicity scores based on various factors. These are designed to help you identify potential problem links and filter them out before removing them from your site’s link profile.
Once you’ve identified a list of potentially toxic domains, you can create a whitelist of those you want to keep. While it will be simpler to determine the quality of links you’re attempting to preserve, maintaining your link profile will save you a ton of time and effort.