Backlinks Audit
Toxic links, weird anchor distributions, competitors outranking you because their backlink profile is built differently. This audit looks at all of it and tells you what's worth acting on.
Why this matters
Backlinks still matter. Not as much as in 2015, but enough that a poisoned profile or a missed gap with competitors costs you rankings you should be winning. Most sites have at least one of three issues: a small set of bad links someone bought five years ago and forgot about, an anchor distribution that looks unnatural to Google, or competitors with link sources you've never heard of.
And then there's the internal side, which almost nobody looks at: where your own link power flows once it lands on the site.
What's included
External links, internal links, and what to do with both
Full link inventory
Pulled from Ahrefs, Majestic, and GSC link data, deduplicated and scored. Domains, URLs, anchors, follow vs nofollow, link velocity over time.
Toxic link review
Spam farms, paid networks, irrelevant sitewide footer links, anything that looks like negative SEO. Manually reviewed, not just whatever Ahrefs flags as "toxic" by default. Most of those flags are wrong.
Anchor text distribution
Over-optimised exact-match anchors trip Google's filters. We map your distribution against industry baselines and find the anchors that need diluting (or pruning).
Competitor gap analysis
Who links to two or three of your competitors but not you? Those are the realistic targets. Sites that already link out to your space are far easier to convert than cold outreach to anyone else.
Internal link equity flow
Where the power lands once it's on your site. Pages getting too much, pages getting nothing, redirect chains burning equity, and orphan templates nobody's linking to.
Disavow file (if needed)
Most sites don't need an aggressive disavow. If yours does, you'll get a ready-to-upload file with notes on why each entry is there.
What you get
A spreadsheet with every link in your profile, sorted by risk and opportunity. A written summary of what to fix first and why. The disavow file if it's needed, plus a list of competitor link sources worth pursuing.
A 30-minute call to talk through it. I'm not going to upsell you on link building inside an audit, but I'll tell you honestly whether you need to invest more in that work or whether your time is better spent elsewhere.
Common questions
Should I disavow links?
Probably less than you think. Google's gotten much better at ignoring bad links on its own. I only recommend disavow when there's clear evidence of manipulation or a manual action risk. Otherwise it's mostly busywork.
Do you do link building?
Not as part of the audit. The audit identifies the opportunities. The actual outreach and acquisition is a separate engagement, and honestly there are people who specialise in that more than I do. I can refer you if needed.
How recent is the link data?
Whatever the latest Ahrefs, Majestic, and GSC data shows when I run the audit, usually within the last week. Backlink data is always slightly behind reality, but it's close enough for the kind of decisions we're making.
Do you need access to my Ahrefs account?
No, I run my own. GSC access is helpful for the link data Google reports directly, but not strictly required.
Think your link profile needs a look?
Send me the domain and what's prompted you to ask. I'll have a quick scan and let you know whether an audit makes sense.