So keep reading till the end to learn the definition of backlink analysis, its benefits, and best practices for analyzing your backlink profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is a backlink analysis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Before anything else, let\u2019s define what backlink analysis is anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backlink analysis is the process of analyzing your backlinks with the help of different tools to understand the credibility, relevance, and overall health of your backlink profile. <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal of this approach is to get data into your website\u2019s health and also find insights on how to make your backlink profile<\/a> stronger. With the help of analyzing your backlinks, you can refine your link building strategies and enhance your overall website SEO performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that search engines consider links as a sign of your site\u2019s authority, which highlights even the importance of backlinks<\/a> for improving search engine rankings. So, let\u2019s move on and discuss why you should care about backlink analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, the list of advantages of backlink analysis can be quite long, but let\u2019s discuss the most important ones that emphasize the significance of analyzing your backlink profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you check backlinks that point to your website, it helps you discover new link prospecting opportunities and strategies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can find broken backlinks, or brand mentions on reputable websites, then reach out to them with the help of outreach tools<\/a> and gain new valuable backlinks. Plus, you can identify what your web pages are linkable assets and focus on creating more of this content to attract backlinks naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the help of backlink analysis, you can outperform your competitors by building a successful and winning backlink profile. In this phase, you compare your backlink profile with your competitors to find out what you’re doing well and where you might need to improve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maximizing efforts in your strengths and addressing your weaknesses will help you make your backlink profile better and stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the main goals of backlink profile analysis is to detect and remove spammy or toxic links that not only don\u2019t add any value to your backlink profile but can even harm the website\u2019s reputation. Learning about different types of backlinks<\/a> can help you identify which links contribute positively to your SEO efforts and which ones could potentially harm your website\u2019s reputation. By solving issues before they can cause real damage, you can guarantee the strong health of the backlink profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyzing your backlinks gives insights into what types of content bring more backlinks. Having this information on your hands, you can improve content strategy<\/a> and create more link-worthy content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, thanks to well-planned backlink analysis, you will maximize your link-building efforts and search engine rankings as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this stage, let\u2019s talk about the main factors of tracking your backlinks and what kind of metrics you should pay attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step of doing backlink competitive analysis is finding the total number of your referring domains and referring pages as well. Understanding the difference between referring domains vs backlinks<\/a> can offer deeper insight into the quality and diversity of your link profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, you can check unique domains to find out how diverse and strong your backlink profile is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the next step of backlink monitoring<\/a>, you can find both do follow and no follow links, as both of them carry importance in enhancing the credibility of your backlink profile. <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n What is important to know is that do follow has the power to boost your website\u2019s SEO rankings. On the other hand, making backlinks no follow means giving a signal to search engines to ignore and not consider them. So, no follow links don\u2019t add value to SEO ranking, but they will make your backlink profile diverse and natural. Interesting research shows that 10.6% of all backlinks<\/a> to the top 110,000 sites are marked as no follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahrefs can be helpful in this process, as by entering your Ahrefs account and inserting the domain URL in the Overview section, you can check the percentage of no follow and do follow backlinks. In this particular case, the website has more than 70% of do followed, and almost 30% no followed backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re unsure of what is Ahrefs<\/a> or how to use it for backlink analysis, check out our guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Backlinks from credible and authoritative websites are signs of trustworthiness for search engines, so you should check what kind of websites you have backlinks from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the next stage, check whether your backlinks are from websites that are contextually relevant to your content. Remember, search engines value relevance and prioritize websites that deliver relevant and unique content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t hesitate to check anchor texts to ensure they are based on effective primary keywords<\/a>, are relevant to your content, and seem natural. Also, pay attention to the fact that anchor texts provide context to search engines about the content of the linked page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyzing the backlink profiles of competitors can help identify backlink gaps and find new opportunities for making backlink profiles stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You shouldn\u2019t miss the step of finding and cleaning toxic or spammy backlinks, ensuring backlink profiles\u2019 health. Don’t know what these are? Our SEO glossary will help you learn all those terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With all these factors in mind, you may consider when it’s best to audit your backlink profile and how to be prepared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, let\u2019s speak about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok, now you know how important backlink analysis is and what components you should keep an eye on when analyzing your backlinks. So let\u2019s discuss when you need to dedicate effort to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Measure the impact of your link building strategies regularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You prepared a new link building strategy; you need to conduct a backlink analysis to find out your starting point where you are at that moment and after the campaign is running for a while to measure its effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, unfortunately, there can be situations when your website metrics drop. So, you need to analyze your backlink profile to identify potential issues and help you turn things around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On every occasion you have to do backlink analysis, you should be prepared. Start by setting clear goals that will be your guidepost during this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the next stage, decide what metrics you need to examine: it can be the number of backlinks, anchor text diversity, and more. Lastly, ensure you have all the necessary tools that will give you relevant data and help you refine your link building strategies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok, you are also prepared to check your backlink profile; now let\u2019s discuss which effective steps you should take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s face it: even the most beneficial strategy won\u2019t work if you don\u2019t know how to implement it effectively. So, let\u2019s discuss effective approaches for backlink competitive analysis together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First and foremost, examine the overall number of backlinks that you bring to your website. The reason is obvious: you should compare this number for backlinks with competitors to find out overall authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is interesting to note is that statistics show that pages with the highest number of total backlinks<\/a> usually rank high in Google. So, in this stage, you need to discover a broader picture of your website\u2019s online reputation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, having a large number of backlinks shows that other websites consider your content valuable and link-worthy.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n To check the total number of backlinks, you can enter your Ahrefs account, enter your domain in the Overview section, and see the total number of backlinks, which in the case of this website is 12.2K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the next step, you go beyond the total number of backlinks. Instead, you should understand whether those links are from different websites and segment them based on unique domains. The reason is that Google and other search engines love diversity. On the other hand, too many backlinks can be a sign to them that your website is following manipulative tactics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you should ensure backlinks that point to your website are from various authoritative and credible websites. For that, you need to use the help of Ahrefs, and in the same way you check total backlinks, you can find out the number of referring domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check domain rating (DR) for high-quality backlinks<\/p>\n\n\n\n We mentioned that having a big number of backlinks is generally a sign of your credibility. However, the credibility of those backlinks is even more important, and valuable backlinks from reputable websites will improve the website\u2019s authority and boost rankings as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this stage, instead of focusing on quantity, you need to check the authority of websites that you have backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s check via Ahrefs: In this particular case, 11% of backlinks are websites with 50-49 DR, which is quite a good case. But it\u2019s important to note that 35% of backlinks are from websites with 0-9DR, so website owners should find out the reasons behind it and solve the issue. In some cases, they need to disavow these links with low DR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next step in your backlink profile analysis process is to identify the anchor text of backlinks. You better not miss this step, as anchor text plays a crucial role in providing context to users and search engines about the linked content. Effective anchor text optimization<\/a> ensures that links appear natural, relevant, and beneficial for both SEO and user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When examining your backlinks, check the words or phrases used in the anchor text. Ideally, linking sites would use your target keywords as anchor text, giving clear signals to search engines about content relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1:<\/b> Log in to your Ahrefs account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2:<\/b> Navigate to the “Overview” section and enter your domain name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3:<\/b> Access the “Backlinks” section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 4: <\/b>Utilize the “Best links\u201d feature, an innovative aspect of Ahrefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 5: <\/b>Pay attention to the “Show best links only” or \u201cExclude best links only\u201d options for refining results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 6:<\/b> Focus on the DR,URL rating (UR) and anchor text<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, let\u2019s discuss how your anchor text should be. First, ensure that it is relevant to the linked content. Plus remember, anchor texts should be keyword-rich, but they also should naturally fit into the content. Without a doubt, you should avoid including generic phrases like \u201cClick here\u201d or \u201cRead more\u201d in your anchor text. Understanding different types of anchor text<\/a> can help you choose the most effective and natural options for your links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t need links that don\u2019t add any value to your backlink profile, right? So, when doing a backlinks check, you should find broken ones. These are links that direct readers to your web page that doesn\u2019t exist, so they typically come across as 404 error text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broken links can make your website seem less trustworthy. So, you need to regularly check your backlinks to find broken ones. Ahrefs can be extremely helpful in this process. Once you identify them, knowing how to fix broken links<\/a> will allow you to restore your site\u2019s integrity and prevent any negative impact on your SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later fixing these broken links, you’re boosting your website’s visibility but also making sure website visitors have a smoother and more reliable experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no way you want to harm your website’s reputation and visibility, so better stay away from spam links as much as possible. These low-quality links try to artificially boost websites’ search engine rankings but instead can lead to penalties from search engines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, it’s quite important to regularly monitor your link profile and disavow spammy links. This way, you will maintain a healthy and credible online presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poor-quality links from irrelevant sources, link farms, and comment spam can damage your website\u2019s online reputation because it is associated with spammy websites. When you outsource backlinks<\/a>, it’s especially important to ensure that the backlinks are from reputable sources. This minimizes the risk of acquiring spammy links, which can negatively affect your site’s reputation and search engine rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok, your goal is to help your company win the competition and outperform your competitors. Well, doing competitor backlink analysis<\/a> gives you a chance to reach this goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you can find the main competitors and qualify all of their backlinks to define the backlink gap. This gives an amazing opportunity to find new backlinking opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another tactic is finding competitors\u2019 broken links and suggesting to these domains that they replace those links with yours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, try to find guest posting opportunities<\/a> when doing competitor backlink analysis to establish authority and build quality backlinks from reputable websites. You need to find websites where your competitors have guest posts and you don\u2019t, so suggest a guest blog collaboration to these websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, don\u2019t forget to conduct a content gap analysis<\/a>. This process starts by finding topics your competitor\u2019s websites cover, but you aren\u2019t, but it is quite engaging for their readers. So, you can invest effort into creating fresh and valuable content that will eventually attract backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t want to lose any opportunity to make your backlink profile better, so if you have backlinks that later have been removed or deleted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, but you are not lost on an uninhabited island, right? So you can reach out to those website editors and reclaim backlinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how to find your lost backlinks? Ahrefs gives a solution to this question as well. So to find lost backlinks, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1: <\/b>Enter your domain in the overview section of Ahrefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2: <\/b>Click on the “Backlinks” tab to explore your existing backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3: <\/b>Navigate to the “Lost” section to find your lost backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After having data about lost backlinks, you can proactively reach out to website editors to reclaim them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ok, you did a hard job and successfully conducted a backlink analysis, but what\u2019s next? We suggest steps that you should follow after monitoring your backlink profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain types of content are more likely to generate links. Original research and unique, informative articles tend to attract more backlinks than informational content. When you know the type of content that attracts links, one of the important link building tips<\/a> you can follow is creating similar content to generate more backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, keep an eye on keyword density within your content to make it better for both readers and search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an issue because these links don\u2019t pass on authority to any particular page on your website. On the other hand, building good backlinks will help get the link juice<\/a>, improving your website performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s imagine a situation when you are doing a health check-up; your goal is not only to detect health conditions but to improve your overall well being. The same goes for analyzing your backlinks, as it should put you on a path to make your backlink profile as stronger as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Backlink analysis is a crucial aspect of SEO, but there are several common mistakes that people may make. Here are some of them that you should avoid:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prioritize high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant sources. Low-quality or spammy backlinks can harm your site’s SEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy should you do a backlink analysis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Discover new arenas <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Outrank your competitors <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Make your backlink profile healthy and trustworthy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Improve your content strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What are the main components of backlink analysis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Complete backlink number<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Unique domains<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do follow vs. no follow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/no-follow-do-follow-backlinks-1024x159.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCredibility and authority of websites<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Relevance <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Anchor texts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Competitor backlink analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Toxic and spam links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When is the best time to do a backlink analysis, and how do you plan it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Periodically, for sure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Before and after link building campaigns <\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sudden drop in rankings <\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to do a backlink profile analysis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Analyze the total backlinks linking to your site<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Backlinks](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/backlinks-quantity-1024x205.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSegment unique domains<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ref](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ref-links-1024x205.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"URL](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ur-dr-ahrefs-1024x254.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCheck the quality of anchor texts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Best](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/best-links-ahrefs-feature-1024x577.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFind broken backlinks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/404-not-found-broken-backlinks-1024x421.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDiscover spam links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Analyze your competitors\u2019 backlink profiles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discover and try to reclaim lost backlinks <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/saynine.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/lost-backlinks-1024x577.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBacklink analysis is done! What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/b>Create more link-worthy content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Get rid of toxic or irrelevant links <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Identify areas for improvement in the backlink profile <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t do these when doing backlink analysis!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/b>Ignoring link quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n