In today’s competitive marketing world, businesses of all sizes and industries need an SEO and backlink strategy. Believe it or not, 27% of businesses still don’t even have a website, let alone an organic marketing strategy.
Fortunately, that means you have a headstart. Let’s talk about how to conduct a backlink audit to get the most out of your SEO strategy!
What Is a Backlink Audit?
A backlink audit is how websites determine their amount of backlinks, where they’re coming from, and how they play into their SEO strategy.
So, what are backlinks? If you don’t already know, backlinks are links from other websites to your website. These play a key role in your overall SEO strategy.
Backlinks are essential to an SEO strategy, as they can help drive more traffic to your website and establish your credibility in the eyes of search engines. Google’s algorithm is powerful, but it can’t fact-check everything and know who’s telling the truth when presented with conflicting information. Therefore, they rely on other websites to vouch for your credibility and authority.
Moreover, backlink audits are reports that tell you where your links are coming from, how old they are, which pages on your website have the most links, and more. However, the number of backlinks is not nearly as important as the health of your backlinks.
For example, if you have thousands of “black hat” links from low-quality sites, Google may assume that you bought links. This can hurt your strategy in the long run. Conversely, having a few high-quality referring domains can build your SEO strategy from the ground up.
Why Are Backlink Audits So Important?
Backlinks are a critical part of small business SEO. Without them, Google has a hard time trusting your content. That’s why your neighbor could be an expert on flashlights, but still rank lower than Amazon for the keyword “flashlights”.
Websites like Amazon, The New York Times, and others receive thousands of links from their respective industries day after day. In the eyes of Google’s algorithm, this makes them an authority in their industries, allowing them to rank higher!
However, it isn’t just industry giants that can benefit from this. Small, local businesses can use backlinks to their advantage at any time.
Even a couple of high-quality links can make a world of difference. A link from an affiliate in town can certainly help, but a feature from a well-known news outlet or industry leader could set you apart from your competitors. For that, you’ll need a backlink strategy.
Still, to know where to go from here, you have to know where you stand. For that, you need a backlink audit. Let’s talk about conducting one!
How to Conduct a Backlink Audit
A backlink audit starts with the right tools. There are plenty of backlink checkers you can use online, and all you have to do is enter your URL. Some are free for a certain number of times, and some are free for one page.
Either way, use a backlink checker and see where your links are coming from. You should pay attention to referring domains, which may have multiple links to your site. You may also see “no-follow” links, which can still help your domain authority, although not as much.
If you don’t have any backlinks, or if you have too few, it’s essential to develop a strategy. You can use the information on your backlink checker to help.
For example, if you see a lot of no-follow links, broken links, or anything else, consider reaching out to those domains and asking them to change them. If the broken link is an error on your website, make sure to fix it right away!
Another idea is to conduct a backlink audit of your competitors the same way you did your own. Find the content of theirs that has the most backlinks, create something better, and reach out to those domains and prompt them to link to your superior content instead. This kills two birds with one stone!
Beyond that, there are plenty of other ideas for building quality backlinks to your site. The right local SEO services can help you develop and implement a strategy in no time!
How Often Should I Do a Backlink Audit?
While this may sound too frequent at first, we recommend doing a backlink audit once every month. At the very least, aim for once every two months. Still, every 4-6 weeks is ideal for most businesses.
The reason we recommend doing it so frequently is the speed at which backlinks can change. Links can break, errors can occur, backlinks can be lost, and you can see major successes in that time. Regardless, it’s worth checking.
Also, backlink audits aren’t difficult or time-consuming! Reviewing a report will only take five to ten minutes of your time, so it’s worth a checkup once every month or so. This will only help you adapt your SEO strategy better over time and see results as soon as possible.
Conduct a Backlink Audit Today
Now that you know how often to conduct a backlink audit and how to get started, put these tips to use right away. The sooner you do, the sooner you can start making improvements to your SEO strategy. Over time, you can see major improvements to your organic traffic as a result!
Stay up to date with our latest digital marketing tips, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions!
