Backlinks are crucial for search engine optimization as they boost rankings and also bring traffic to a website. These are also used by search engines as signals of credibility and trustworthiness. So, it is important to have high-quality backlinks. This post will tell you the ways to analyze bad backlinks so that they don’t harm the authority of your website.

With the number of tools available, it has become easier to discover and monitor bad backlinks. Analyzing bad backlinks is an important search engine optimization audit. This is because while ranking websites, search engines only consider those links which are credible and have a high domain authority. With Google penalizing websites with bad backlinks, it becomes extremely important to perform a backlink audit for SEO. You can check some of the MOST IMPORTANT AND EFFECTIVE ON-PAGE SEO TECHNIQUES FOR SEO SPECIALISTS to boost your SEO.

Factors which make backlinks risky

  • Trust factor/ spamminess: Trustworthiness or spamminess of a website depends upon certain site features. These features include keyword stuffing, spammy or low-quality content, duplicate content, etc.
  • Anchor text: Using anchor text can surely help in increasing the rankings but it can also bring penalties. Links with anchor text manipulation and over-optimization must be monitored and/ or removed.
  • Low authority: Low authority links are a setback to optimization. A website which has thin content or have a high difference in the DA and PA, it might mean that the website is spammy.

Steps to perform a backlink audit for SEO

Steps to perform a backlink audit for SEO

  • Use a tool to get backlinks data: In order to perform a backlink audit for SEO, tools like Ahrefs, majestic SEO, monitor backlinks, open site explorer, etc can help you gain backlink data. You can know about the PA and DA of the backlinks. Some tools might even give you a spam score in the report.
  • Check anchor text and value: Another step to perform a backlink audit for SEO is to check the anchor text and its value. You can do so by looking for anchor text which appears to be manipulated. Check the search volume of the keywords used in anchor texts as there is a huge chance that to manipulate search results, webmasters often use keywords for which they want to rank.
  • Build a list: The next step to analyze bad backlinks is to filter and sort them to build a list of backlinks that seem to be spammy or concerning. Read PARAMETERS OF OFF-PAGE SEO: KNOW HOW OFF PAGE SEO IS DONE and get familiar with the proper way of building backlinks.
  • Monitor and remove bad links: Last step in analyzing bad backlinks is to monitor them before removing. Once you have created a list of concerning backlinks you can use it to monitor and eventually remove bad links.

Best backlink analysis tools to analyze bad backlinks

  • Ahrefs: This is one of the most widely used tools by professionals to analyze bad backlinks. You can use this to track backlinks and keywords. The data which this backlink checker provides is up to date and accurate. You can examine the total number of backlinks and also gain insights on each one to ensure that they are quality backlinks.
  • Monitor backlinks: You not only use this tool to check the quality of the backlinks that you have, but can also know more about the kind of backlinks that competitor websites have.
  • Open Site Explorer: It is another great tool to perform a backlink audit for SEO. You can use it to research about backlinks, discover links that are harming your rankings, and search for best link building opportunities. The information which this tool gives includes PA, DA, spam score, and anchor text. 

Thus, analyzing bad backlinks is an important search engine optimization audit. You can do a backlink audit by just looking at the spam score, DA and PA, or also take into account anchor text. It is important to analyze bad backlinks and pinpoint those links which are harming your website. Keeping a healthy link profile is important for proper Search Engine Optimization. 

UNI SQUARE CONCEPTS

Uni Square Concepts is an advertising agency located in New Delhi, India. By initiating The Uni Square Blog, we aim to provide a comprehensive portal where readers can educate themselves about the various aspects of advertising and marketing. The articles and blogs are written by our professional team of content writers, under the guidance of senior leaders of Uni Square Concepts including its CEO, Uday Sonthalia.