A backlink analysis is the process of measuring the quantity and quality of links pointing to your website and/or your competitors’ websites.
It involves using backlink checking tools to see:
- Who links to your website?
- The quality of the linking domains
- The anchor text (the clickable text that indicates a link) used for backlinks
- Whether the links are “follow” (meaning they can pass ranking strength) or nofollow (meaning they don’t pass ranking strength)
Think of backlink analysis as a digital mobile phone numbers detective task. It involves digging into backlinks to uncover clues about your site’s link profile.
Why is backlink analysis important for SEO?
Backlink analysis is crucial for SEO because it helps you build an impressive backlink profile that can help you rank high in Google’s organic (i.e. non-paid) search results.
By analyzing the links that point to your own site (and to your competitors’ sites), you uncover new backlink opportunities. You can replicate what works and focus on building more high-quality links.
For example, if you see that a large number of creating a sales coaching plan checklist your backlinks point to case studies you’ve created, that likely means that case studies are a valuable and link-worthy type of content in your niche.
You can use this information to create more case studies.
Essentially, a backlink analysis provides the intelligence you need to build tons of valuable backlinks.
That’s why every serious SEO should systematically analyze backlinks: it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to increase organic search traffic.
How to find backlinks pointing to any website
There are several techniques you can use to find backlinks to a site.
Below, we will explore two of the most effective ones.
Use our Backlink Analytics tool
Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool is one of the most powerful backlink checking tools.
In a matter of seconds, you can find your own backlinks. And those of your competitors.
Open the tool, enter a domain and click ” Analyze “.
You’ll first see a high-level summary of that domain’s backlink profile. To see each backlink in detail, go to the ” Backlinks ” tab.
There you can see the specific backlinks, their authority scores (a measure of overall quality on a scale of 0 to 100), and the anchor text that was used for those links. Among other things.
You can use this report to evaluate the relevance and quality of links pointing to a site.
Not all links are created equal. Some are better than others.
For example, if you are in a health and fitness niche, having links from authoritative and relevant sites like WebMD, Healthline, or Men’s Health would be more valuable than having links from random or unrelated sites.
This is because Google takes into account the quality and relevance of the linking domains when evaluating your backlinks.
The more relevant and high-quality links you have, the more your website will be considered when ranking.
You can also filter and sort these links by several criteria, such as authority score , current link status (active, new, and lost), the time period over which the links were acquired, and the type of link (“follow,” nofollow, etc.).
For example, if you want to check the new backlinks you’ve acquired in the last seven days, you’ll apply filters like these:
You can further filter the report to find specific data.
For example, you might want to share:
- Links that are “follow,” meaning singapore number they can pass ranking power to your site
- Links that are naturally incorporated within the content of the linking page
- Links that come from pages that are written in English
- Only one link per unique domain
Therefore, you can apply these additional filters to see only the backlinks that meet all of those criteria.
