Your content might be great, but that doesn’t mean it will rank high on Google. You can follow all the SEO tips, write valuable content, and still struggle to get traffic.

That’s because content alone isn’t enough—your website needs backlinks. Backlinks act like signals telling search engines that your content is worth trusting. But not all links are helpful. Some can push your rankings up, while others can drag them down.

So, how do you know which links help and which ones don’t? That’s where backlink analysis comes in. It helps you check your website’s backlinks, spot bad links, and find new ways to build stronger ones.

In this article, we’ll break everything down in a way that’s easy to follow so you can analyze and improve your backlink profile the right way.

What is Backlink Analysis?

Backlink analysis is the process of checking the links pointing to your website and understanding how they impact your SEO. Some links help improve rankings, while others can harm them.

By analyzing backlinks, you can find strong links that add value and remove harmful ones that might hurt your site. Backlink profile analysis also helps uncover gaps in your link-building strategy and find new opportunities.

Why is Backlink Analysis Important?

Here’s why analyzing backlinks is important:

1️⃣ Boosts Your SEO Rankings

Not all backlinks are good for SEO. Some help search engines see your site as trustworthy, while others might hurt your rankings. A backlink profile analysis helps you:

✅ Find high-quality links that improve rankings.
✅ Spot spammy or low-quality links that could harm your site.
✅ Keep your link-building strategy focused on the right links.

2️⃣ Protects Your Website from Bad Links

If your website has too many bad links, Google might think you’re trying to cheat the system. A backlink quality analysis helps you:

✅ Check website backlinks to find risky ones.
✅ Use a backlink analysis tool to keep track of harmful links.
✅ Remove or disavow spammy links before they hurt your rankings.

3️⃣ Helps You Learn from Competitors

Your competitors might already be using strong backlinks to rank higher. Competitor backlink analysis helps you:

✅ See where competitors get their links from.
✅ Find new websites that might link to you.
✅ Use a competitor backlink analysis tool to check what’s working for them.

4️⃣ Improves Your Link-Building Strategy

Without SEO backlink analysis, you might waste time building the wrong links. A link profile analysis helps you:

✅ Focus on getting high-quality, relevant links.
✅ Keep a balance between dofollow and nofollow links.
✅ Track your progress using free backlink analysis tools.

5️⃣ Prevents Google Penalties

Google regularly updates its algorithm, and websites with too many spammy links often lose rankings. Regular SEO link analysis helps you:

✅ Stay within Google’s rules and avoid penalties.
✅ Remove harmful links before they become a problem.
✅ Keep your website’s backlink profile strong and natural.

Backlink analysis is not a one-time thing. If you wish to see your site develop, you must monitor your backlinks periodically and adjust your strategy based on what is succeeding.

How to Do a Backlink Analysis?

In this section, we’ll walk you through the steps to analyze your backlinks properly. 

1️⃣ Choose Which Websites to Analyze

The first step in backlink analysis is deciding which websites to check. Start with your own website, then look at your competitors.

Why Check Your Own Website?

Your backlinks affect your SEO. Checking them helps you:

• See which websites are linking to you.
• Find bad links that could harm your rankings.
• Identify strong links that improve your SEO.

Why Check Competitor Websites?

Your competitors’ backlinks can give you ideas for your own website. You can:

• Find good links – See where they are getting backlinks from and try to get similar ones.
• Spot missing links – If they have links from places you don’t, you might be missing opportunities.
• Discover new strategies – Learn how they are building links and apply what works.

How to Find Competitor Websites

Not sure who your competitors are? Try this:

1. Google search – Type in your keyword term and notice which websites rank in the top positions.
2. Use SEO tools – Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz can show which sites compete with you.

By analyzing your own website and your competitors, you can build a stronger backlink strategy and improve your rankings.

2️⃣ Use a Backlink Analysis Tool

After selecting which websites to check, the next step is picking a tool to analyze backlinks. These tools help you see which sites link to you, check link quality, and find areas for improvement.

Best Tools for Backlink Analysis

Here are some popular tools that can help:

• Google Search Console – A free tool that shows which websites link to yours.
• Ahrefs – Gives a detailed view of backlinks, showing which ones are strong or weak.
• SEMrush – Helps track backlinks, find link-building chances, and remove bad links.
• Moz Link Explorer – Checks link quality and domain authority.
• Majestic SEO – Measures trust flow and citation flow to evaluate backlinks.

Most of these tools have free trials, so you can test them out before choosing one.

What These Tools Do

• Check total backlinks – See how many websites link to you.
• Find weak or spammy links – Identify links that could hurt rankings.
• Study competitor backlinks – Learn where competitors get links and find similar opportunities.
• Monitor link changes – Keep track of new and lost backlinks over time.

At Outreach Monks, we utilize SEMrush and Ahrefs for backlink research. They help us and our clients track backlinks, improve rankings, and develop successful SEO strategies. If you want better links, these are some good ones to start with!

3️⃣ Check the Total Backlinks & Domains

After picking a backlink analysis tool, the next step is to check how many backlinks your website has and which websites are linking to you.

Why Does This Matter?

• More backlinks don’t always mean better rankings – It’s about quality, not just numbers.
• Checking backlinks helps you see how many links are pointing to your website.
• Checking unique domains tells you how many different websites are linking to you.

Backlinks vs. Referring Domains

• Backlinks – The total number of links leading to your website. A single site can link to you multiple times.
• Referring Domains – The number of different websites linking to your site. A higher number of unique domains is usually better for SEO.

Click here to learn more about Referring Domains vs. Backlinks 

How to Check Backlinks & Referring Domains

1️⃣ Open a backlink analysis tool like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz.
2️⃣ Enter your website URL.
3️⃣ Look at the total number of backlinks and referring domains.
4️⃣ Check which websites are linking to you the most.

What to Focus On

✅ A diverse backlink profile – It’s better to have links from many different websites rather than too many from the same site.
✅ Relevance – Links from websites in your industry or niche are more useful.
✅ Authority – Links from strong, well-known websites have more impact than links from small, low-quality sites.

Verifying your backlinks and referring domains provides you with a clear picture of how your site is doing. It also informs you of how you can enhance your SEO and obtain better links.

4️⃣ Check Link Quality & Spot Harmful Links

Not all backlinks are good for your website. Some can improve your rankings, while others can hurt them. In this step, you need to check which links are helpful and which ones might be a problem.

How to Check if a Link is Good

✔ Look at the website’s authority – Links from well-known, trustworthy sites are more valuable.
✔ Check if the website is relevant – If the site is related to your industry, the link is more useful.
✔ See if the page has real content – A link from a page with informative content is better than one from a page full of random links.
✔ Check if the link is dofollow or nofollow – Dofollow links pass SEO value, while nofollow links do not.

How to Spot Bad Links

❌ Links from spammy websites – If a website looks low-quality or has too many ads, the link might hurt your SEO.
❌ Too many links with the same anchor text – If all links use the same keyword, search engines might think it’s unnatural.
❌ Links from unrelated websites – A backlink from a completely different industry is often not helpful.
❌ Links from suspicious or hacked sites – These can damage your website’s reputation.

Once you check your backlinks, you’ll have a clear idea of which ones are helping and which ones could be risky. The next step is reviewing the anchor text distribution.

5️⃣ Review Anchor Text Distribution

Anchor text is the clickable text in a link. It helps search engines understand what the linked page is about. If it’s not used properly, it can hurt your rankings. That’s why checking your anchor text is important.

Why Does Anchor Text Matter?

✔ Helps Google understand your page – Good anchor text can improve your ranking.
✔ Keeps your links natural – A mix of different anchor texts looks organic.
✔ Avoids SEO penalties – Using the same keyword too much can look suspicious.

Types of Anchor Text to Check

1️⃣ Branded Anchors – Uses your brand name (e.g., “Outreach Monks”). These are safe and should be the most common.
2️⃣ Exact Match Anchors – Matches your main keyword exactly (e.g., “backlink analysis”). Too many can look unnatural.
3️⃣ Partial Match Anchors – Mixes your keyword with other words (e.g., “best backlink analysis tools”). Helps balance your profile.
4️⃣ Generic Anchors – Common words like “click here” or “read more”. These don’t help SEO but add variety.
5️⃣ Naked URLs – Just the website link (e.g., “https://outreachmonks.com”). A few are fine for diversity.

What to Check in Your Anchor Text?

✔ Good Mix – A balance of branded, generic, and keyword-based anchors.
✔ No Spam – Avoid stuffing too many exact match keywords.
✔ Variety – Different anchor texts across your backlinks.

6️⃣ Analyze Competitor Backlinks

Checking your competitor’s backlinks can help you discover new places to get links for your website. If a site is linking to your competitor, there’s a chance they might link to you, too.

How to Find Competitor Backlinks Using SEMrush

1️⃣ Enter Your Competitor’s Website

• Open SEMrush Backlink Analytics tool.
• Type in your competitor’s website.
• Click “Analyze” to see their backlinks.

2️⃣ Look at Their Backlinks

• Check how many websites are linking to them.
• Find their most linked pages (these are their strongest assets).
• Identify high-authority sites linking to them.

3️⃣ Find Patterns

• Are they getting links from blogs, directories, guest posts, or news sites?
• Do they have multiple backlinks from the same domains?

4️⃣ See Where They Have Links, But You Don’t

• Use SEMrush’s Backlink Gap tool.
• Compare your site with your competitors.
• Find sites linking to them but not to you—these could be good opportunities.

7️⃣ Fix & Improve Your Backlink Profile

Now that you’ve checked your backlinks, it’s time to clean up and improve them. Good links help your site rank higher, while bad ones can pull it down. Here’s what you need to do:

1️⃣ Get Rid of Bad Links

Not all backlinks are helpful. Some come from spammy or irrelevant sites and can do more harm than good.

• Find Problematic Links – Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to spot low-quality links.
• Reach Out for Removal – If a suspicious site links to you, try contacting the site owner and ask for removal.
• Disavow If Necessary – If removal isn’t possible, use Google’s Disavow Tool to tell search engines to ignore those links.

2️⃣ Improve Your Good Links

You already have some strong backlinks—make sure they are working for you.

• Check if they still work – Ensure that the links point to active and relevant pages.
• Reconnect with sites that link to you – Send a thank-you email and keep the relationship open for more links in the future.
• Suggest a better link – If a website links to an outdated page, ask them to update it with a better, more relevant link.

3️⃣ Get More High-Quality Backlinks

Focus on getting links from trusted and relevant websites.

• Find authority sites – Look for respected blogs, news sites, and industry platforms to get links from.
• Use broken link building – Find broken links on other sites and suggest your content as a replacement.
• Claim unlinked mentions – If someone mentions your brand but doesn’t add a link, reach out and ask them to link to your site.

Stay Consistent

✔ Monitor Your Links Regularly – Backlinks change over time, so check them often.
✔ Focus on Quality, Not Quantity – A few strong backlinks are more valuable than hundreds of weak ones.
✔ Build Relationships – Connect with bloggers, journalists, and website owners to get more link opportunities.

Fixing and improving your backlinks is an ongoing process, but it helps your website stay strong in search rankings. Keep refining your backlink profile, and you’ll see better SEO results over time.

Top 5 Tools for Backlink Analysis

In this section, we’ll look at the top tools that help check and improve backlinks. These tools show which websites link to you, highlight good and bad links, and help plan better link-building strategies.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular tool for improving your website’s search engine ranking. It offers features like:

• Site Explorer: See which websites link to you and what keywords bring traffic.
• Keywords Explorer: Find out what words people use to search for topics in your industry.
• Site Audit: Check your website for issues that might hurt its performance.

Special Feature

Ahrefs is known for its large and frequently updated database of backlinks. This provides you with detailed and actionable data about who’s linking to your site so you can develop a strong backlink strategy.

Who Might Not Benefit

If you’re new to SEO or have a limited budget, Ahrefs’ advanced features and pricing might be overwhelming. In such cases, starting with more affordable or beginner-friendly tools could be better.

Pricing

Ahrefs offers several plans:

• Lite: $99 per month, suitable for small businesses and individuals.
• Standard: $199 per month, ideal for freelancers and marketing consultants.
• Advanced: $399 per month, designed for in-house marketing teams.
• Enterprise: $999 per month, best for large agencies and enterprises.

They also have a Starter plan at $29 per month for beginners, offering basic features.

For website owners, Ahrefs provides free limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit through Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.

At Outreach Monks, we prefer using Ahrefs and Semrush for our clients due to their comprehensive features and reliable data.

2. SEMrush

Semrush is a comprehensive tool that helps website owners enhance their online presence. It offers insights into website traffic, keyword rankings, and competitor strategies.

Why People Love Semrush

Users appreciate Semrush for its extensive features, including:

• Keyword Research: Discovering effective keywords to target.
• Site Audits: Identifying and fixing website issues.
• Competitor Analysis: Understanding competitors’ strategies.

Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible for both beginners and experts.

Who Might Not Find It Useful

If you’re on a tight budget or require only basic SEO tools, Semrush’s advanced features and pricing might be more than you need.

Pricing

Semrush offers several plans:

• Pro: $139.95 per month – suitable for small teams and beginners.
• Guru: $249.95 per month – includes additional features like content marketing tools.
• Business: $499.95 per month – designed for larger businesses with extensive needs.

Annual subscriptions offer discounted rates. 

3. Majestic

Majestic is a backlink analysis tool that focuses on link quality and trust. It helps users understand where their backlinks come from and how they impact rankings.

Why People Love Majestic

• Trust Flow & Citation Flow – These two unique metrics help measure backlink quality (Trust Flow) and quantity (Citation Flow).
• Topical Trust Flow – This feature shows how relevant a website’s backlinks are to a specific niche or industry.
• Large Historical Data – Majestic keeps an extensive record of backlinks, making it useful for tracking link-building efforts over time.
• Bulk Backlink Analysis – You can check multiple websites at once, which is great for competitor research.

Who Should Avoid Majestic?

• If you need a complete SEO suite with keyword research, content analysis, and technical SEO tools, Majestic alone may not be enough.
• Beginners who need a more user-friendly interface might find it difficult to navigate compared to tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush.

Pricing

• Lite Plan – $49.99/month (Basic backlink analysis).
• Pro Plan – $99.99/month (Advanced tools, historic data, and deeper analysis).
• API Plan – $399.99/month (For agencies and large-scale users who need bulk data access).

Majestic is perfect for those who want deep insights into backlinks, especially for competitor research and historical link tracking. However, if you need more than backlink data, a broader SEO tool may be a better fit.

4. Moz Link Explorer

Moz Link Explorer is a simple tool for checking backlinks and understanding your website’s authority.

Why People Love It

• Spam Score Detection – Helps identify harmful backlinks.
• Anchor Text Analysis – Shows how other sites link to you.
• Competitor Link Tracking – Lets you see where competitors get their backlinks.

Who Should Avoid It?

• Those on a tight budget (it’s part of Moz Pro, starting at $99/month).
• Users looking for advanced SEO tools beyond backlinks.

Pricing

• $99/month (Basic Plan)
• $179/month (More features)
• $299–$599/month (For businesses needing full SEO tools)
• 30-day free trial available

Moz Link Explorer is great for tracking backlinks but may not be enough if you need a complete SEO toolset.

5. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is an easy-to-use SEO tool that helps with keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink tracking. It’s budget-friendly and great for beginners.

Why People Love It

• Affordable – Lower-cost plans make it accessible for small businesses and solo users.
• Simple Interface – Easy to navigate, even if you’re new to SEO.
• Multiple Features – Offers keyword suggestions, backlink reports, and competitor analysis in one place.

Who Should Avoid It?

• Advanced SEOs – If you need deep technical insights, Ubersuggest may feel limited.
• Large Agencies – It lacks advanced reporting and automation features found in high-end tools.

Pricing

• Individual Plan – $29/month (for up to 3 websites)
• Business Plan – $49/month (for 4–7 websites)
• Enterprise Plan – $99/month (for 8+ websites)
• Lifetime Access – One-time payment option available

Ubersuggest is a good choice for beginners and small businesses but may not be enough for advanced users.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Backlink Analysis

Many people make backlink analysis more complicated than it needs to be. The goal is simple—understand which links help your site and which ones might harm it. But if you’re not careful, you can end up making mistakes that waste time and hurt your SEO. Here’s what to avoid:

1️⃣ Not Setting a Clear Goal Before Analyzing

Jumping into backlink analysis without knowing what you want to achieve is a mistake. Some check backlinks just to see numbers, while others track competitors without a plan.

💡 What to do instead?
Decide if you’re checking backlinks to remove bad links, find new link-building ideas, or track SEO progress. Focus only on data that helps your goal.

2️⃣ Ignoring Link Placement

Not all backlinks have the same impact. A link buried in a website’s footer or sidebar is far less valuable than one placed naturally within content.

💡 What to do instead?
Pay attention to where your links are placed. Backlinks within the main content of an article usually hold more SEO value.

3️⃣ Assuming All Competitor Links Are Worth Copying

Just because a competitor has a backlink doesn’t mean it’s good. Some sites get links from spammy directories, low-quality blogs, or paid sources that might lead to penalties.

💡 What to do instead?
Focus on high-quality links from relevant sites. If a competitor has a strong backlink, see if you can get a similar one through guest posting or collaborations.

4️⃣ Overanalyzing and Taking No Action

Many SEO professionals spend hours analyzing backlinks but never act on the data. They collect reports but fail to build new links or fix existing issues.

💡 What to do instead?
After checking your backlinks, take immediate action. Disavow harmful links, reach out for guest posting, or strengthen your internal linking strategy.

5️⃣ Checking Once and Forgetting

SEO changes constantly. A backlink profile that looks great today may change in a few months if links are removed or new spam links appear.

💡 What to do instead?
Make backlink analysis a routine task. Set reminders to check your backlinks every few months to ensure your link profile remains strong and clean.

Backlink analysis is only useful if you take action. Avoid these mistakes, focus on real opportunities, and use your findings to build a stronger, more trustworthy website.

Get Quality Backlinks With Outreach Monks

Getting strong backlinks doesn’t have to be hard. At Outreach Monks, we help businesses in every niche—from tech and finance to healthcare and eCommerce—get safe, high-quality links that improve rankings.

How We Help You

✅ Guest Posting – Get your brand featured on real, trusted websites.
✅ Blogger Outreach – We reach out to top bloggers for valuable link placements.
✅ Niche Edits – Add links to already-ranking content for quick SEO results.
✅ White-Label Link Building – Perfect for agencies needing expert link-building under their brand.
✅ Custom Strategies – We tailor our link-building to your business goals.

We never use spammy tactics—just genuine, high-quality links that bring real SEO value.

💡 Want to grow your rankings with strong backlinks? Get in touch today! 🚀

Conclusion

Backlink analysis isn’t optional if you want to build a strong online presence. It helps you identify valuable links, remove harmful ones, and uncover new opportunities to improve your rankings.

SEO is always changing, and search engines favor websites with a natural, high-quality link profile. Regularly monitoring your backlinks ensures that your site remains credible and competitive.

Stay proactive, keep refining your strategy, and use reliable tools to track your progress. The better your backlink profile, the stronger your SEO foundation will be.

FAQs on Backlink Analysis