Launching a link building campaign without a prior audit is like building a house without checking the ground. Too many companies invest in backlinks without knowing the real state of their existing link profile or having a suitable strategy in place. The result: wasted budget, stagnant rankings, and sometimes worse — penalties from Google.
A backlink audit is a fundamental step. It not only secures your site’s SEO foundations but also directs your campaign towards high-impact actions. Here’s why this initial diagnosis should never be overlooked.
What we analyse in a link profile audit
The link profile audit is a core part of our SEO methodology. It’s not just a snapshot of links pointing to your site, but a strategic analysis to identify the most effective levers to improve your visibility.
At Stiv Media, this audit is a real decision-making tool that helps to:
- identify risks from toxic or unbalanced backlinks,
- reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your current link profile,
- compare your strategy with competitors,
- define actionable, high-priority recommendations for future campaigns.
Here are the key elements we always analyse in any link profile audit:
Backlink quality & structure
Analysis of authority, traffic, and thematic relevance of linking domains.
Detection of artificial, spammy links or links from penalised domains and PBNs.
Ensuring links are accessible on mobile to avoid losing mobile SEO value.
Identifying links hidden from crawlers via JavaScript, cloaking, or client-side rendering.
Detecting backlinks hidden in non-crawled areas like forms or comment sections.
Link distribution & profile
Evaluating the mix of exact match, generic, branded, and URL anchors.
Analysing the balance of SEO-valuable links vs ignored links.
Studying the link acquisition timeline to detect unnatural spikes.
Analysing link targeting: homepage vs deep pages or strategic categories.
Detecting overused anchors that may trigger over-optimisation flags.
Spotting links appearing across an entire site (footers, sidebars, etc.).
Checking link stability over time to avoid a weak or volatile profile.
Relevance & linking context
Finding strategic pages that lack inbound external links despite SEO value.
Identifying links that point to competing or toxic sites.
Comparing your link profile to key competitors.
Assessing the surrounding semantic context to ensure relevance.
Identifying site type: blog, media outlet, directory, forum, product page, etc.
Evaluating language and geographical match with your target market.
Checking link placement within the body of the referring content.
Why audit your link profile before building new links?
Before investing in a new link building campaign, it’s essential to evaluate the current state of your backlink profile. A thorough audit not only secures existing foundations but also helps prioritise the right levers to boost your visibility. Here are the main reasons to carry out a preliminary audit:
Identify structural weaknesses in your link profile
Some mistakes or imbalances can hinder your SEO without you even realising:
- Detecting unnecessary or risky links: spam, risky semantic environments (casino, adult, betting) or penalised networks.
- Referring domain quality: low authority, lack of thematic relevance, or no traffic.
- Broken pages: backlinks pointing to 404 errors or misdirected URLs, diluting link equity.
- Outbound links to competitors: identifying links pointing to low-value or competing sites.
- Imbalanced follow/nofollow ratio: too many nofollow links or poor link juice distribution.
These issues should be corrected before adding new links — otherwise, you risk amplifying negative signals sent to Google.
Measure the real SEO impact of existing links
Not all backlinks are created equal. The goal is to distinguish the ones that improve your visibility from those that are ignored — or worse, harmful.
- Landing page analysis: which pages receive links? Are they key conversion steps?
- Anchor diversity: is there a healthy mix of optimised, generic, branded, and URL anchors?
- Temporal distribution: is link growth natural or do we see red flags of artificial patterns?
- Link depth: are links pointing only to the homepage, or also to well-targeted deeper pages?
- Internal and external links on the source page: is SEO juice diluted due to too many outgoing links?
The audit helps avoid adding links where authority is already sufficient or where they would have no effect.
Make a strategic and competitive diagnosis
A good audit doesn’t stop at your own site. It also compares your profile to the competitive landscape.
- Domain authority vs page authority: what’s your realistic margin for improvement?
- Competitive benchmarking: how many and what quality of links do your competitors have?
- Referring domain types: are you present on the right blogs, directories, or media in your niche?
- Estimated click-through rate (CTR): do your backlinks drive real traffic or just pass PageRank?
- SEO vs influence balance: are your links SEO-only, or also supporting brand authority?
This diagnosis is essential for adjusting your short- and medium-term link building goals.
An effective link building strategy starts with analysis
Once your backlink profile has been audited, it becomes possible to:
- target the strategic pages to boost,
- balance your anchor text profile between branding, keywords and neutrality,
- scale the campaign (quantity, link type, schedule),
- identify the most relevant types of backlinks based on your goals (quality, authority, power…).
This foundation allows you to maximise the impact of newly acquired links and secure the SEO progression of your site. Once the audit is complete, it’s essential to control the budget – see our link building pricing guide for more information.
What are the risks of launching a campaign without an audit?
Skipping this analysis stage puts you at risk of:
- building links to non-strategic pages,
- over-optimising certain anchor texts,
- degrading your overall link profile quality,
- wasting your link building budget.
In some cases, a poorly prepared campaign can even lead to page deindexation. That’s why it’s critical to monitor the indexation status of your backlinks. Learn more in our article on forced backlink indexation.
When should you run a backlink audit?
A link audit is essential at several key moments in a website’s lifecycle. Here are the most common scenarios where a backlink diagnosis is crucial to protect or reboot your SEO performance.
Before a campaign
An audit provides a clean foundation before launching any link building strategy. It identifies existing risks and steers the campaign towards the right pages and anchors to prioritise.
After a traffic drop
A sudden loss in rankings can signal toxic links or a Google algorithm update. An audit helps identify the causes and correct the issues.
After a manual penalty
If Google has applied a manual penalty due to unnatural linking, an audit is essential to clean up the profile and file a successful reconsideration request.
When changing SEO agencies
Switching SEO partners? Take the opportunity to run a complete link audit. It helps reset your strategy with solid, verifiable foundations.
What does Stiv Media offer: ROI-driven audits
At Stiv Media, we don’t sell backlinks by the kilo. Every campaign starts with a strategic audit carried out in-house by our experts, ensuring:
- manual and contextualised analysis,
- clear and prioritised recommendations,
- linking aligned with your site structure and SEO objectives.
We also incorporate hybrid strategies like SEO-oriented digital PR to boost brand awareness and media exposure in high-value editorial contexts.
To understand our approach and how we work, explore our page on tailored backlink acquisition.
Effective link building starts with informed strategy
A backlink audit is the cornerstone of every high-performing campaign. It prevents costly errors, uncovers new opportunities, secures your SEO foundation and maximises your return on investment.
Planning a link building campaign? Don’t skip the diagnosis.
SEO glossary: understanding backlink audit terminology
Anchor text
The anchor is the clickable text of a hyperlink. It influences how Google understands the semantic relevance of the linked content. Anchor types include optimised, generic, branded, and URL-based.
Backlink
A backlink is a hyperlink from an external website that points to your own. It acts as a vote of confidence and boosts your authority in search engine rankings.
Trust Flow / Citation Flow
These two metrics from Majestic SEO measure the quality (TF) and quantity (CF) of inbound links. A healthy TF/CF ratio indicates a balanced and trustworthy link profile.
PBN (Private Blog Network)
A PBN is a network of websites created solely to artificially generate backlinks. While potentially powerful, these links are risky and can be penalised by Google.
Nofollow / Dofollow
A nofollow link does not pass SEO value, while a dofollow link transmits PageRank. Nofollow links are often acquired more naturally without deliberate link-building action.
Orphan page
An orphan page has no internal or external links pointing to it. It is difficult for search engines to find and index, which can harm your overall SEO performance.
