Backlink Management with Google Sheets: Our Approach (+ Free Template)

Let’s be real—tracking backlinks can get messy sometimes.

Between link exchanges, outreach emails, and follow-ups, you may feel overwhelmed. But what if we told you that Google Sheets could make everything easier?

We use it every day for efficient backlink management, and we’re sharing exactly how.

Even better? Along with learning how to use Google Sheets for managing backlinks, you can also download a free template to start keeping track of your link swaps right away.

Ready to take control?

What is Backlink Management?

Backlink management is the process of organizing and tracking your links to ensure they are properly exchanged with link partners and updated.

Let’s find out why it’s something you simply can’t overlook in your link building strategy.

Why You Can’t Ignore Backlink Management

If you’re serious about link building, tracking backlinks is a must. Here’s why:

• Stay Organized: We create a separate Google Sheet for each link partner to keep track of everything in one place.
• Less Confusion: Monitoring the progress of link exchanges in a sheet is more efficient than using email, for instance. Emails can get messy, and important details often get lost.
• Track Progress in Real-Time: With a worksheet, we can see the status of each link request, so we’re always in the loop.
• Easily Scale Your Efforts: As the number of link partners grows, managing backlinks through a sheet becomes even more valuable. 
• Effective Collaboration: Both we and our partners can add link requests right into the sheet. No more back-and-forth emails or messages on LinkedIn and Slack, leading to better collaboration. Even our partners love how simple it is!

Now, let’s walk through our process for keeping backlink management organized.

How to Manage Backlinks with Spreadsheets

Here’s how we keep everything organized using a simple backlink sheet.

Step 1: Set Up a Worksheet & Add Your Requests

Once partners have agreed to exchange backlinks with us, we create a Google Sheet for backlinks immediately. 

“It serves as a worksheet, and in some cases, all the communication goes there, simply by mentioning each other,” says Mariam, one of our link building specialists.

A simple sheet keeps everything organized. Here’s what it’s made up of. 

We use three different subsheets: 

• Partner’s Requests – Backlinks they’ve requested from us
• Our Requests – Backlinks we’ve requested from them
• Analytics – A balance tracker to see how many backlinks we owe each other

In the screenshot above, you can see one of our partner’s requests. But let’s break down each column:

• Domain – The website where the partner wants a backlink from
• Link From – The specific blog URL where the backlink will be placed. The coolest part here is we use a special formula that automatically generates the domain when you input the page URL.
• Link To – The partner’s target page that will be linked to
• Anchor – The anchor text they want us to target
• Text Edits – The text edit with the anchor text integrated
• Status – The progress of the link request (e.g., “Pending” or “Live”)
• Notes – A space for comments

The analytics section helps us track the balance of backlinks, ensuring that both we and our partners benefit equally. Using special formulas, it calculates all the backlinks from the subsheets and allows us to see how many backlinks are live, pending, etc. 

This way, no one is left giving more than they receive. Plus, this allows us to build stronger relationships with partners.

With this simple backlink sheet, we never lose track of a link swap—just clear, easy collaboration without any headaches.

Step 2: Track and Update Link Exchange Progress

Creating a worksheet is just the first step. You actually have to use it as a backlink manager. And hey, if you can get your partners to use it too, even better!

With over 1,000 partners worldwide, remembering every link exchange manually would be impossible. 

That’s why every time a new conversation starts with a partner, we open the corresponding worksheet to check where things stand and add new requests.

But tracking isn’t just about adding a bunch of link requests. It’s about keeping everything up to date. That’s why we have a dedicated “Status” column. 

Here’s how it works:

• Check – A new request is added and needs review.
• Pending – The request is in progress.
• Live – The backlink is live (time for a happy dance!).
• Rejected – The request got rejected due to different reasons (e.g., didn’t meet guidelines, was placed in a restricted article, or was not relevant to the context).
• Removed – Oops, the backlink was live but got deleted (e.g., during a content update). If we or our partner can’t recover it, we’ll get a replacement in place.

So, our advice is to keep things fresh and stay on track, and the backlinks will do the hard work for you!

Step 3: Keep Your Worksheet Clean and Updated

Staying organized is highly important, and that’s why we run weekly audits, reviewing all the worksheets we have with our partners.

These regular check-ins enable us to go through all the requests, remove any outdated information, and make sure everything is current.

For example, if a backlink is already live, but the sheet still shows it as pending, we can catch that during the audit and make the necessary changes.

This approach keeps everything clear and ensures we’re working with accurate data—because, at the end of the day, clean data is the backbone of a successful backlink campaign.

Conclusion

Great job! You already know how to use a spreadsheet for backlink tracking and how to manage your backlinks.

Just keep everything updated, stay organized, and you’ll see the results. It’s that simple. Now, go ahead and start managing those backlinks!

FAQ about backlink management