Backlink Analysis

Backlink analysis is the process of reviewing the links that point to a website to understand their quantity, quality and relevance. It is used to judge a site’s authority, find risks such as spammy links, spot lost links and uncover link opportunities from competitors.

Written by Paul Hoda, SEO consultant since 2005. Last updated 8 November 2026.

What backlink analysis looks at

  • Referring domains: how many different sites link to you. Referring domains usually matter more than the raw number of links.
  • Quality and relevance: whether linking sites are trusted, real and related to your topic.
  • Anchor text: the clickable words used. Natural profiles have a mix, led by brand names and URLs. Heavy use of exact-match anchor text can look manipulative.
  • Link attributes: the balance of followed, nofollow, sponsored and UGC links.
  • Target pages: which pages attract links and which have none.
  • Growth over time: new and lost links, and any sudden spikes in link velocity.

Why it matters for SEO

Links remain one of the ways search engines discover pages and judge their importance. Analysing your link profile shows whether your off-page signals support your goals, where you are vulnerable and what to do next. Analysing competitors shows why they may outrank you and which sites might link to you too.

It is also a key step before any big change. Before a migration or redesign, knowing which pages hold your strongest links means you can redirect them properly and avoid losing value.

How to run a backlink analysis

  1. Gather data: export links from Google Search Console and at least one third-party tool, such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Majestic. Each tool sees a different part of the web.
  2. Group by domain: review sites rather than individual links to keep the job manageable.
  3. Check quality: look at relevance, real traffic and content. Use metrics like Domain Rating or Spam Score as filters, not verdicts.
  4. Review anchor text and targets: flag unnatural patterns and pages with links that now return errors.
  5. Compare with competitors: run a link gap check to find sites that link to several competitors but not to you.
  6. Act: reclaim broken links, plan outreach and handle genuinely harmful links.

What to do with the findings

  • Broken links to your site: fix with redirects through link reclamation.
  • Competitor links: build a prospect list for link building and PR.
  • Manipulative links you created: ask for removal or tagging, and consider the disavow tool if you have a manual action or a serious risk.
  • Strong pages: use internal links from well-linked pages to pass value to important ones.

Common mistakes

Relying on a single tool gives an incomplete picture. Disavowing large numbers of links because a tool labels them “toxic” can do more harm than good: Google has said it already ignores most spammy links. Another mistake is focusing only on totals and ignoring relevance, which is what makes links genuinely valuable.

Key Takeaways

  • Backlink analysis reviews the quantity, quality and relevance of links to a site.
  • Referring domains usually matter more than total link counts.
  • Use Search Console plus at least one third-party tool for better coverage.
  • Competitor analysis reveals realistic link opportunities.
  • Fix broken links with redirects before chasing new ones.
  • Be cautious with disavowing based only on tool scores.

Related Terms

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