What is backlink analysis?
It is a comprehensive review of a website's backlinks to analyze the site's performance and identify issues that could affect your search engine rankings.
Backlinks are formed when a website mentions another website on its site and links to it. It is the process of establishing connections through external websites. These connections help drive traffic to your site and also improve its authority.
For example, let's say Company A writes a blog post about building credit. Company B, a major credit card company, links to that article on their website. For Company A, this link is a backlink.
However, if you want a backlink to add value to your site, it must be a natural link. There are options that allow you to pay for links, but if you do, you risk lowering your rankings or getting banned by Google. Stick to getting natural backlinks that will help improve your site's ranking and increase your domain authority.
A comprehensive backlink analysis gives you a wealth of performance data that can be used to improve the performance of your posts and site, and see how your business compares to your competitors.
As we mentioned earlier, search engines view links as indicators of your site’s authority. A backlink analysis shows you all the links they are taking into consideration and gives you a better understanding of your site’s ability to rank well in search engine results.
Backlink analysis also helps you identify bad links. Links that are unnatural or come from spammy sites can result in a Google penalty, but finding and disavowing them maintains your site's reputation.
However, your site is not the only one you should analyze. You should also perform a backlink analysis on the sites of your main competitors.
Analyzing your competitors' sites will help you see how difficult or easy it will be to outrank them. It can also show you any potential click opportunities you may be missing out on and give you ideas for your own link building strategy.
How to do a backlink analysis?
If you've never performed backlink analysis on your site or your competitors' sites, there are some basic steps you can take to get started:
How-to-do-a-backlink-analysis
1. Choose the sites you want to analyze
The first step to backlink analysis is to select which sites you want to analyze. Your own site should be your first priority, but from there, you may need to do some research.
You probably already know who your main competitors are. If you're a local business, it's the other businesses in your area that offer similar services. If you're an e-commerce retailer, there are other sites that sell the same products. These sites should be high on your list.
From there, you can identify potential competitors with some quick Google searches. philippines phone number example Type your keywords into the search bar and see which sites come up first. These are the sites you're ultimately trying to outrank, and analyzing their backlink profiles will show you how you can do that.
Depending on the tool you use, you may also be able to access a list of sites that are competing for the same keywords organically.
2. Select a backlink analysis tool
Once you've selected the sites you want to research, choose the research tools you want to use. This is largely a matter of preference, but some of the most popular options are:
Ahrefs
SEMrush
Moz Open Site Explorer
These are paid tools, but they all offer some variation of a free trial, so we recommend trying them all for your first analysis and deciding which one best suits your needs.
3. Enter each domain and collect the information you want
Once you've selected your sites and an analytics tool, enter each domain into your chosen tool and start gathering information.
Performing backlink analysis involves examining a lot of data, and unless you track it, you won't be able to use it to make decisions about your marketing strategy.
That said, the tracking method doesn't have to be complicated. An Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet will do the trick.
What should you look for in a backlink analysis?
Like many online analysis tools, backlink analysis provides a wealth of information. And while all of this information is useful in one way or another, it would be overwhelming, not to mention time-consuming, to look at it all.
That means you need to select a few key pieces of information to track on each site you analyze. Which ones you choose is up to you, but at a minimum, we recommend these three:
What-to-look-for-in-a-backlink-analysis
1. Total number of unique links and domains
One of the most basic metrics is the total number of backlinks pointing to a site. Comparing your site's numbers to a competitor's gives you a general idea of how the pages compare in terms of authority.
You should also look at the number of referring domains. This number tells you how many unique sites link to a given site. Your goal should be to have a diverse link profile with many domains, so getting links from sites that already link to yours isn't as valuable as getting links from new sites.
2. Referring domains
This can give you an idea of where your most valuable links are and what content on your site they point to.
When looking at competitors, this information is even more valuable. Looking at these domains allows you to identify link opportunities for your own page – after all, if they linked to one of your competitors, there's a chance they'll link to you, too.
Sort these domains by their authority, or “domain score” as they call it at SEMrush, and compile a list of authoritative sites that link to your competitors. You can keep this list as a reference when you later create new content and look for outreach opportunities.
3. Main links