How to Audit Your Backlink Profile: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Most website owners have no idea what their backlink profile looks like. They might check their domain authority occasionally, but they have never actually dug into the individual links pointing to their site.

That is a problem, because your backlink profile can be quietly sabotaging your rankings without you even knowing it.

I am going to walk you through a complete backlink audit, step by step. By the end, you will know exactly what your profile looks like, what needs to be cleaned up, and where the opportunities are.

Why You Need a Backlink Audit

Think of a backlink audit like a health checkup for your SEO. Here is what it helps you discover:

• Toxic links that could be triggering a Google penalty
• Lost links from sites that removed their link to you
• Anchor text issues that look manipulative to Google
• Competitor insights — what links they have that you do not
• Growth opportunities — patterns you can replicate

If you have never done an audit, or it has been more than 6 months since your last one, you are overdue.

Step 1: Gather Your Backlink Data

First, you need to actually see your links. Here are the best tools for this:

Free Options

• Google Search Console — Go to Links > External Links. This shows what Google sees, but it is not comprehensive.
• Bing Webmaster Tools — Similar data from Bing's perspective

Paid Tools (Free Trials Available)

• Ahrefs — The most comprehensive backlink database
• Moz Link Explorer — Good data with free limited access
• SEMrush — Strong backlink analytics

Export your full backlink list from at least one paid tool. You want as complete a picture as possible.

Step 2: Analyze Your Link Quality

Now comes the important part — evaluating each link. You do not need to manually check every single one (if you have thousands, that would take forever), but you should understand the overall patterns.

What to Look For

Step 3: Identify Toxic Links

This is the most critical part of the audit. Toxic links are backlinks from low-quality or spammy sources that can hurt your rankings. Here is how to spot them:

Red Flags for Toxic Links

• Links from known link farms or PBNs (Private Blog Networks)
• Links from sites with no real content — just pages full of links
• Links from sites in foreign languages unrelated to your business
• Links with over-optimized anchor text (exact match keywords repeated)
• Links from sites that have been penalized by Google
• Links from hacked sites or sites distributing malware
• Links from adult or gambling sites (unless that is your industry)

How to Evaluate at Scale

If you have hundreds or thousands of backlinks, use your SEO tool's toxicity score as a starting point:

• Ahrefs — Filter by DR 0-10 and check manually
• SEMrush — Use their Backlink Audit tool with toxicity scores
• Moz — Filter by Spam Score

Step 4: Check Your Anchor Text Distribution

Your anchor text profile is one of the first things Google looks at to determine if your links are natural or manipulated.

Here is what a healthy anchor text distribution looks like:

• Branded anchors (30-40%) — Your brand name, domain name, variations
• Natural/generic anchors (20-30%) — "click here," "this article," "learn more"
• URL anchors (15-20%) — The raw URL itself
• Topic-related anchors (10-15%) — Broad topic references
• Exact match keyword anchors (5% or less) — Your target keywords exactly

If your exact match percentage is above 10-15%, that is a warning sign. If it is above 25%, you likely have a problem.

Step 5: Review Your Referring Domains

The number and quality of unique referring domains matters more than total backlink count. Here is what to analyze:

• Total referring domains — How many unique sites link to you?
• Growth trend — Is the number growing steadily or stagnating?
• Domain quality distribution — What percentage are high authority vs. low?
• New vs. lost — Are you gaining links faster than losing them?

Step 6: Clean Up Your Profile

Now that you have identified the problems, here is how to fix them:

Option 1: Contact Webmasters

For links from real but low-quality sites, try reaching out to the webmaster and asking them to remove the link. Keep your email short and professional:

"Hi, I noticed a link to my site on [their page URL]. Would you be able to remove it? Thank you."

The response rate is typically low (maybe 10-20%), but it is worth trying for the most harmful links.

Option 2: Google's Disavow Tool

For links you cannot get removed, use Google's Disavow Tool. This tells Google to ignore specific links when evaluating your site.

Important caveats:

• Only disavow links that are clearly harmful — do not go overboard
• Use the domain-level disavow (domain:spammysite.com) for sites that are entirely spam
• Use page-level disavow for specific pages on otherwise legitimate sites
• Submit through Google Search Console

Option 3: Leave Them Alone

Not every low-quality link needs to be disavowed. Google is pretty good at ignoring links that are clearly not your fault. Focus your disavow efforts on:

• Links from clear link schemes you participated in
• Links from hacked or malware sites
• Links from PBNs

Step 7: Find Opportunities

An audit is not just about cleaning up problems — it is also about finding opportunities:

• Competitor comparison — What links do your competitors have that you do not?
• Lost links — Can you reach out and get them reinstated?
• Unlinked mentions — Is anyone mentioning your brand without linking?
• Relationship building — Which linking sites could you build deeper relationships with?

How Often Should You Audit?

I recommend a full audit every 6 months, with lighter monthly check-ins:

• Monthly: Check for new toxic links and review anchor text trends
• Quarterly: Compare your profile against competitors
• Bi-annually: Full comprehensive audit with cleanup

Your Audit Checklist

Here is a summary you can use as a reference:

• Export full backlink data from your SEO tool
• Analyze link quality distribution (DA, relevance, type)
• Identify and flag toxic links
• Review anchor text distribution
• Check referring domain trends
• Contact webmasters to remove harmful links
• Submit disavow file for remaining toxic links
• Identify opportunities from competitor comparison
• Document findings for future reference
• Set reminder for next audit in 6 months

A clean, healthy backlink profile is one of the best investments you can make in your SEO. Take the time to do this right, and your rankings will reflect it.