Goal
To execute a comprehensive SEO Backlink Audit on any website that clearly identifies what’s working, what needs to be fixed, and action steps on what to work on first
learn.llmdecode.com
Back to all resources
SOP-076
How to perform a backlink audit on your website
Backlinks are an extremely important ranking factor for search engines, you want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the links you are getting, and are not being penalized by poor links that you might have acquired
Type
SOPs · PDF
Execution time
Starting from 2h
Last updated
27 March 2024
Who does this
The person responsible for SEO
Length
17 pages
Comes with
From Leads to Sales: Funnel Building 101
Ideal outcome
The end-user receives a comprehensive audit that lets them know the state of their current backlink health, along with specific action steps on what to do next
Why it matters
Backlinks are an extremely important ranking factor for Search Engines, you want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the links you are getting, and are not getting penalized by poor links that you might have acquired throughout the time
Before you start
None
Key steps 21 steps
What is inside 27 headings
1 Environment setup 2
- Create a SEMRush account.
- Create an Ahrefs account.
2 SEMRush - Identify potentially toxic backlinks 11
- Log in to SEMRush here: Semrush
- Click “Backlink Audit” on the sidebar → Enter the website that you want to audit → Click “Start Backlink Audit”:
- Select “Root domain” (unless you are sure you want one of the other options) → Click “Brand settings”;
- Enter all the possible ways (common variations, common acronyms) your brand could be mentioned online → Click “Domain category”
- Select the categories that fit your website → Click “Target countries”:
- Select the target countries that fit your website → Click “Start Backlink Audit”:
- When it’s ready, you'll get a success message, click “Go to results”:
- Glance over the ‘Overall Toxic Score’, this will already give you a general idea regarding how spammy the link profile is (and how much work you’ll have to do), the lower the better. → Click “Audit”.
- In the top-right corner click “Export to CSV”:
- Open the CSV file in Google Sheets.
- Open and make a copy of the Template 033: Backlink Audit Worksheet (web version) (Spam Audit Sheet) → Paste the values from the CSV file you opened in the previous step into the template:
3 Take action on spammy backlinks
4 Identify 404 (broken) backlinks 5
- Open ahrefs, and enter the site you want to analyze in the box, click the magnifying glass icon, and then click “Broken”:
- Click ‘Export’ → ‘Full export’ → ‘Start Export’
- Copy the content of that CSV over to the Template 033: Backlink Audit Worksheet (web version) (404 Audit Sheet)
- (Optional, might save you time) Make sure those URLs are still 404’ing and remove them from the list if they aren’t, using Urlitor:
- Copy the “Link URL” from column ‘K’ → Paste those lines in the text box → Click ‘Submit’
5 Take action on 404’d backlinks
6 Analyze your top linked pages 3
- Open ahrefs, and enter the site you want to analyze in the box, click the magnifying glass icon, and then click “Best by links”:
- Export your data to CSV:
- Paste your data on the Template 033: Backlink Audit Worksheet (web version) (Popular Pages Sheet):
The document 17 pages
The file is locked
It comes with From Leads to Sales: Funnel Building 101, or with the full library.
Bought from LLM Decode before? Sign in to pay ₹ 1,999.00.