It's important to assess the current situation before implementing a new link-building plan or revising an existing one. This is where a backlink strategy will help. If you ever feel like you need to contact an SEO company you can do that as well.

What is backlink analysis?

Backlink analysis is a thorough examination of a website's backlinks in order to assess its performance and find problems that could have an effect on its search engine ranking.

Backlink analysis is the SEO equivalent to a check-up at the doctor's office. You should do that on a regular basis to ensure everything is in working order, but you should also do it when you notice something goes wrong.

Completing this step is one of the most effective ways to learn about your site's health and the factors that influence its ranking. Perhaps you've seen a significant drop in your ranking or aren't making the progress you anticipated.

In addition, a backlink analysis will show you how your website compares to that of your rivals. You'll learn about the tactics your rivals employ and how you can apply them to your own company.

Finally, it's an opportunity to discover new growth possibilities that you haven't yet considered.

How to Do a Backlink Analysis

Choose the sites you want to analyze.

Select an auditing tool.

Get a quick overview.

Analyze the details.

See what your competitors are doing.

1. Choose the sites you want to analyze

Although it's clear that you'll be reviewing your own website, you'll also want to narrow down the number of competitors you want to look at.

You may already have a few in mind, but if not, you can choose sites that:

Provide similar products or services.

Are currently outranking you for your target keywords.

2. Select an auditing tool

While a manual backlink audit is possible, it's probably more effective to use a backlink tool that already has the features you need. There are a variety of backlink checker tools available, with varying prices and capabilities. They're typically found in a section of an SEO tool, such as Majestic or SEMrush.

3. Get a quick overview

It's time to begin the auditing process once you've chosen your auditing tool. Look at the results after typing your domain name into the search bar.

You'll begin with a large amount of data. Focus on the following metrics to get a fast understanding of how your site is performing:

The total number of backlinks: The number of links that point to the web. A backlink is created when website A writes a blog post and links to a page on website B. If this number is extremely low, it may be the explanation for your page's poor ranking.

Referring domains: The total number of websites linking to yours. Webpage A pointing to webpage B is one reference to a domain. Sorting these domains by authority will help you determine how relevant these pages are to your ranking and provide ideas for future outreach.

Top linked pages: The web pages that receive the most backlinks. This will help you figure out what kind of content is best for link building. To set a benchmark and learn where you fall, repeat this move with your competitors.

4. Analyze the details

Start by looking at your anchor texts, which are the words that are used to hyperlink your website. This is an excellent method for detecting spammy backlinks that could be harming your ranking.

If you're not sure if the referral domain is spammy, look at the anchor text and see if it relates to your site's content. It's probably spam if it looks like it came from your junk folder and contains crude language. If you've identified these links, you can contact the websites and request that they be deleted. It's a long shot, but it could work in certain situations.

When it comes to spam, take a look at your country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). The last section of a URL that designates the country from which it originates is referred to as a ccTLD. Another way to find websites that could be the source of your negative SEO is to use this method.

Next up: broken or lost links. You'll lose out on 'link juice,' or the chance to rank higher from a backlink, if you don't recognise your broken and lost ties. Furthermore, it can make crawling your website more difficult.

What are your options for resolving this issue? There are a few options for doing so:

Contact the referring domain and request that it be corrected.

The broken link should be redirected to a new page on your website.

Redirect the broken page to a similar-content page on your website.

5. See what your competitors are doing.

Be sure to compare your results to those of your rivals when you delve deeper into your domain. Examine the referring domains for the website that is outranking you, for example. If there's little overlap between your list and theirs, you may be able to figure out which domains to target.

Comparing the backlink acquisition rate to that of your rivals is also beneficial. Is it true that they're growing at a higher rate than you? It could draw attention to another area that needs to be looked into.