When a backlink audit makes sense
There are a few typical moments to run one. You are starting SEO and need a baseline. You switched agencies or freelancers and do not know what the previous one did. Traffic dropped for no obvious reason. Or you suspect someone is pointing junk links at your domain. A separate case is relaunching a site on the same domain, which we cover below.
The goal is practical. You are answering three questions: are your links helping, are any of them risky, and how does your profile differ from the sites that already rank above you.
Where to get link data
No single tool sees every link. Search engines report what they know, and third-party tools report what their own crawlers found. The sensible approach is to export from several sources, merge them into one sheet and remove duplicates.
- The links report in Google Search Console: free, but you must have the site verified
- The external links section in Yandex Webmaster, if part of your audience uses Yandex
- Paid link analysis tools, which have their own databases and extra metrics
- Your own records: contracts with past vendors, lists of paid placements, emails with site owners
How to judge each linking domain
Do not try to read thousands of domains one by one. Sort the sheet, look at the largest groups and the most suspicious rows first, and ask a few plain questions about each.
- Is the site related to your industry, city or audience? A link to a dental clinic from a medical portal or a city forum makes sense; one from a betting site does not
- Is it a living resource with original articles, comments and updates, or an empty shell built to sell links?
- Where does your link sit: inside an article, in a footer, or in a list of a hundred identical URLs?
- What language and country is the site? Masses of links from unrelated foreign sites look unnatural
- Does the link carry nofollow, sponsored or ugc attributes? They change how the link is treated
Anchor text and link growth over time
Anchor text is the clickable wording of a link. A natural profile has plenty of brand names, bare URLs and neutral words like “website” or “here”. If most links use the same commercial phrase, say “cheap furniture in Tashkent”, it looks like manufactured link building, and search engines are able to notice that.
Check the timeline as well. Steady growth is normal. A sudden jump of hundreds of links needs an explanation: a bulk directory submission, links bought by a former vendor, or a competitor acting in bad faith. Find the source first, then decide what to do.
Toxic links and what to do about them
Warning signs include directories created only to hold links, sites with hundreds of outgoing links per page, networks of identical sites, hacked pages with a link hidden in the code, and resources in questionable niches. A few such rows are not a reason to panic; almost every site collects some random junk.
The order of action is simple. If you or your vendor placed the links, contact the site owners and ask for removal. Google's disavow tool is meant for clear problems, such as a manual action for unnatural links; used carelessly, it can switch off useful links too. Yandex has no separate disavow tool. Above all, stop adding new questionable links.
Lost link value after a redesign
The most rewarding finding in many audits is links that point to pages that no longer exist. They appear after a structure change, removed sections or a move to a new platform: other sites still link to the old URLs, and visitors hit a 404 page. The value of those links is wasted, yet it is easy to recover by redirecting each old address to the most relevant live page.
This is why a new website should come with a map of old URLs and redirects planned before launch, not after. If you order a site development project, ask that matching old addresses against your list of external links be part of the scope.
Comparing with competitors and wrapping up
Look at which sites link to the competitors at the top: industry directories, associations, local media, partners, marketplaces. Some of those places are open to you too, and an abstract task like “get more links” turns into a concrete list.
The finished audit should contain a scored table of linking domains, the problem links with a decision for each, a list of opportunities and a work plan. Repeat the check about twice a year. The number of links is not the goal; one mention in a respected industry publication is worth more than dozens of random ones. If you want help reviewing your profile, or building a new site where links survive the move, the markdev team is happy to discuss your task.
FAQ
How often should I run a backlink audit?
A full review roughly every six months works for most businesses. Also run one before starting SEO, after changing agencies and after an unexplained traffic drop. Glancing at new links in Search Console can be done more often.
Should I disavow every bad link?
No. Search engines often ignore random junk on their own. Disavowing makes sense for clear problems, such as a manual action for unnatural links. Start by asking site owners to remove links you or a vendor placed.
Why do different tools show different numbers of links?
Each tool has its own crawler and database, and none is complete. That is why data from Search Console, Yandex Webmaster and third-party tools is merged and deduplicated.
What should I do with links pointing to deleted pages?
Set up a 301 redirect from each old URL to the closest relevant live page. The value of those external links then returns to your site without paying for new placements.
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