The essentials
- The free source: Search Console (the Links report) gives you the domains, the most-linked pages and the anchors; a paid tool adds authority, traffic and history.
- Five questions: how many referring domains, of what quality, to which pages, with which anchors, and which links have disappeared.
- The alert thresholds: more than 30% of links from directories or sites with no traffic, over-optimised anchors, a sudden fall in referring domains.
- Disavowal: reserved for cases of manual action or mass spam; unnecessary for an ordinary profile.
A backlinks audit answers a simple question: are the links pointing to your site helping your ranking, and which ones are missing? It takes half a day with Search Console and, if possible, a backlink tool. Here is the method, the metrics to calculate and the decisions that follow.
Step 1: export the data
| Source | Data | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Search Console, the Links report | Referring sites, most-linked pages, anchor text, internal links; an export of the first 1,000 rows | No authority or traffic, no history, a sample |
| Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic | Every link detected, domain authority, estimated traffic, dofollow/nofollow, date, lost links | Paid; Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for your own verified site |
| GA4 | The real traffic each referring site sends (Acquisition report, "referral" source) | Only shows the links that bring visits |
Bring together in a spreadsheet: domain, target page, anchor, dofollow, authority, the domain's estimated traffic, date detected, status (active or lost). The Search Console reports are covered in Google Search Console.
Step 2: measure the profile
- Referring domains: the number of distinct sites, more meaningful than the number of links (one site can make 500 links from its footer). Compare it with the competitors ranking ahead of you.
- Authority spread: the share of domains with low, medium and high authority. A healthy profile has a majority of medium links, a few strong ones, and few very weak ones.
- Spread by type: editorial (within content), directories and citations, partners, sponsored, forums and comments, social media. More than 30% from directories or comments is a sign of weakness.
- Dofollow / nofollow: 60 to 80% dofollow is common; 100% is suspicious.
- Target pages: if 90% of the links point at the home page, the deeper pages lack authority; that is frequent and fixable through internal linking.
- Anchors: a majority of brand and URL anchors, with a few descriptive ones; a high share of exact-match anchors ("cheap plumber Lyon") betrays over-optimisation, penalised by Google Penguin.
Step 3: spot the losses and the risks
Lost links. The tools list the links that have disappeared in the last 90 days. The usual causes: a page deleted at the referring site, a redesign, a link removed, or a target page returning 404 on your side. That last case is the easiest to fix: a 301 redirect from the old URL to the equivalent page recovers the link; see HTTP response codes.
Risky links. Sites with no traffic and hundreds of outbound links, revived expired domains, site networks with generated content, off-topic casino or pharmacy pages, repeated exact-match anchors. An ordinary profile always contains a few, which Google ignores. The problem starts when they form the majority, often the legacy of a past buying campaign.
Step 4: decide
| Finding | Action |
|---|---|
| Fewer referring domains than your competitors | An acquisition plan; the method is in 12 strategies for earning backlinks |
| Links to pages returning 404 | Immediate 301 redirects |
| Links concentrated on the home page | Internal linking from the home page to your strategic pages; earn links to the deeper pages |
| Over-optimised anchors | Diversify the next links (brand, URL, natural anchors); don't remove the existing ones unless there is a manual action |
| A majority of toxic links, a manual action in Search Console | Request removal, then a disavow file, then a reconsideration request |
| A few dubious links, no manual action | Do nothing; Google ignores them |
| Quality links that send no traffic | Normal; the link counts for ranking even with no visits |
Tracking over time
A one-off audit isn't enough: add to your monthly dashboard the number of referring domains (Search Console or a tool), the new and lost ones, and the rankings of the pages the links target. A link earned is measured by the position of the page it points to, not by itself. To complete the audit with competitor analysis, see analysing competitors' backlinks, and to fold it into a full review of the site, running a full SEO audit.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's SEO module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Search Console enough for auditing your backlinks?
For a first pass, yes: it gives you the referring domains, the most-linked pages and the anchors. It supplies neither the authority nor the traffic of the referring sites, nor the lost links. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, free for a verified site, fills part of those gaps.
Should you use Google's disavow tool?
Only in the case of a manual action for artificial links, or if you know the site has been through mass buying of poor-quality links. For an ordinary profile, Google says it ignores low-quality links and disavowal can do more harm than good.
How many referring domains is "good"?
It depends entirely on your sector and your competitors. A local brochure site can rank with 30 quality domains; a national site in a competitive sector needs several hundred. Compare yourself with the three sites ranking ahead of you.
Is a link from a high-authority but off-topic site worth anything?
Less than a topical link of medium authority. Google weighs the relevance of the site and the link's context. An off-topic link isn't harmful if it is natural, but don't build your strategy on it.