How to Manage Your Backlinks? : (2024 Updated Guide)

Gaining quality backlinks is just a part of your link building campaign; you need to learn how to manage your backlinks with tools and techniques so you can measure their performance in real time and upgrade your SEO strategy.

That means you need a backlink management guide that will allow you to track the progress and help level up your SEO. Without further ado, let’s get down to business!

What Is Backlink Management?

Backlink management is about dealing with issues that affect your backlink profile, such as broken links, low-quality links, spammy links, or unnatural links. All of these can hurt your reputation and rating.

It’s also about getting the most out of your links. This includes improving your connections by contacting linking sites for better anchors, updating your material to meet the context of the link, and developing more link-worthy content to attract more high-quality links.

What’s more, you can have a robust backlink profile that supports your entire SEO strategy by efficiently managing your backlinks.

Here is what to know about backlink management:

• Search engines use backlinks to decide if a site is good and relevant. Sites with more quality backlinks tend to rank higher.
• Getting new backlinks from reputable, high-quality sites in your industry helps your site rank better and be more visible.
• You want backlinks from sites about similar topics as yours. Backlinks from unrelated sites won’t help your SEO much.
• It’s important to monitor your backlinks over time for problems. Broken or low-quality backlinks can actually hurt your SEO. You need to maintain and remove bad backlinks.
• There are many tactics to build and manage backlinks well – emails, content, reclaiming links, etc. It takes effort and strategy.

In short, managing backlinks by building new good ones and monitoring current ones helps improve search visibility, authority, and traffic. It’s work but it pays off.

Why Manage Your Backlink Profile

Managing your backlink profile is essential for several reasons. It helps to increase website visibility, improve search engine results, and drive organic visitors.

Here are the key reasons why managing your backlink profile is important:

• Boost SEO and Rankings

More high-quality backlinks from authoritative external sources improve your domain authority in the eyes of Google and other search engines. This has the potential to directly enhance rankings and organic search traffic.

• Increase Brand Visibility

Backlinks make it easier for visitors to find and access your material, as well as expose your brand to new audiences. Managing them helps maximize your reach and awareness.

• Outrank Competitors

Proactive link building allows you to gain more quality backlinks than competitors in your space. Distinguishing your brand leads to more trust and site growth.

• Monitor Link Health

Backlink analysis allows you to detect and address any toxic, broken, or bad links that could impact your rankings or violate Google’s regulations. The importance of upkeep cannot be overstated.

• Build Trust and Authority

Backlinks from trustworthy sites signal legitimacy and pass authority to your own domain. This improves conversion rates.

• Future-Proof Strategy

If properly cultivated, inbound links can survive for years. Even as algorithms evolve, the work done now continues to reap benefits in the future.

In short, clever backlink profile management offers ongoing benefits in terms of reaching customers, surpassing competition, and sustaining long-term growth. It is a wise digital investment.

Metrics to Track Your Backlinks

Backlinks are still vital for search engine results now, just as they were in the beginning of the internet. Link metrics are measurements that assess the quality and authority of backlinks to a website. Understanding link metrics aids in determining the worth of backlinks.

Here are the key metrics to monitor in your link profile:

1. Total Backlink Count

This means the total number of links from other websites to your website. Have more backlinks from quality websites to help search engines see you as an authority. Get links slowly over time rather than too fast.

2. Referring Domains

This refers to the amount of distinct websites that connect to you. Links should come from a variety of reliable websites, not just one or two. Variety indicates credibility.

3. Domain Authority

This is the authority score of sites giving you links. A higher rating means the website has more credibility. If an authoritative site links to you, it helps your own site’s authority and rankings.

We have a detailed blog on “How to Increase Your Domain Authority” that you can check out here.

4. Anchor Text Mix

This is the actual text of links pointing to your site. You want a mix of anchor text with your brand, keywords, and URLs over time. Don’t over-optimize or it seems unnatural.

5. Link Location

Where links point on external pages matter. Links higher on the homepage are more powerful than deep interior pages. But aim for logical, editorial links rather than paid homepage spots.

6. Link Velocity

This tracks how fast you acquire new links. Steady, gradual growth in quality backlinks looks most real and natural. Be cautious of rapid spikes in link velocity.

7. Broken Backlinks

These links result in “Page not found” errors and should be redirected or removed. They frustrate users and make your site seem neglected. Fix errors and do link maintenance.

How to Manage Your Backlinks: Step-by-Step

Backlink management does not have to be a difficult or time-consuming activity. You might attempt the following simple steps and effective backlink management strategies:

Step 1: Audit Your Backlinks

A backlink audit is crucial for understanding the health and quality of the links pointing to your website. It involves analyzing, classifying, and identifying potentially harmful backlinks to maintain a strong online presence.

• Analyze Link Profile

This involves using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to obtain a comprehensive view of your website’s backlink profile. Let’s say you’re using Ahrefs:

• Access Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and enter your website’s URL.
• Review the total number of backlinks, referring domains, anchor text distribution, and link types (such as do-follow, no-follow).
• Look for patterns in link acquisition over time. Sudden spikes might indicate a questionable link-building practice or spam.

For instance, if your website gained a sudden influx of low-quality links from unrelated websites, it might be a red flag.

• Classify Backlinks

Categorize your backlinks into different groups to better understand their nature and impact on your website’s SEO:

• Natural/High-Quality Backlinks: These are links from authoritative, relevant websites that genuinely endorse your content. They often come from reputable sources in your industry.
• Toxic/Low-Quality Backlinks: These are links from spammy or irrelevant websites. They can harm your SEO and should be dealt with promptly.
• No-Follow vs. Do-Follow Links: Distinguish between links that have the “nofollow” attribute (which doesn’t pass link equity) and “dofollow” links (which can affect your site’s ranking).

For example, a backlink from a reputable industry blog related to your niche would be classified as a natural/high-quality backlink. In contrast, links from link farms or unrelated forums might be considered toxic.

• Identify Bad Backlinks

This step involves scrutinizing and identifying potentially harmful backlinks that could negatively impact your website’s SEO performance.

• Look for links from spammy, penalized, or irrelevant websites.
• Consider the anchor text diversity. If there’s an unnatural concentration of exact-match anchor texts, it could be seen as manipulative.
• Check for links from directories, forums, or websites unrelated to your niche.

For instance, a backlink from a website flagged for malware or suspicious activities would be identified as a bad backlink. Similarly, an excessive number of links with the same anchor text from low-quality sources could raise concerns.

Step 2: Manage Your Backlinks

Here are some useful tips and techniques for effectively managing your website’s backlink profile:

• Disavowing Harmful Links

Sometimes bad links from spammy or low-quality websites point to your site. These are called toxic backlinks. Toxic links can hurt your rankings and reputation.

Google has a Disavow Tool you can use. This tool tells Google: “These bad links are not my fault.” It asks Google not to count these links against your site.

How to use it:

To disavow bad links using the Google Disavow Tool, start by accessing your Google Search Console account and navigating to the “Disavow Links” section under the “Links” menu.

Make sure you’ve selected the correct property for your website. Prepare a text file containing the URLs or domains you want to disavow, using the proper syntax.

Now upload the file through the Disavow Tool, review its contents, and confirm your submission. Monitor the status of your disavowal request over time, regularly checking for updates.

Don’t forget to exercise caution and use the tool only after attempting manual removal or outreach for link removal. Additionally, document reasons for disavowing each link and avoid disavowing links that might be beneficial.

This process helps maintain a healthy backlink profile and contributes to your site’s overall SEO integrity.

We have a detailed blog on “How to Remove Spam Backlinks” that you can check out here.

• Fix Broken Backlinks

Broken links on a page appear when a URL no longer works, often leading to “Page Not Found” errors. Visitors dislike clicking broken links and they can negatively affect SEO if not fixed.

Tips to fix broken backlinks:

• Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console to pinpoint broken backlinks leading to your site.
• Contact the webmasters of sites with broken backlinks to your content, requesting an update or correction.
• Offer alternative URLs or suggest related content to maintain a valuable connection for users and search engines.
• If a page has permanently moved, use 301 redirects to seamlessly guide users and retain SEO value.
• Design a custom 404 page with helpful information and navigation options for users who encounter broken backlinks.

Check your profile each month to find incoming broken links as well. Regular broken link maintenance keeps a clean, credible site visitors trust and return to.

• Regularly Monitor Your Backlinks

Ongoing backlink monitoring provides awareness of new links, lost links, and link issues. This helps swiftly address problems and pursue opportunities.

Consistently check backlinks using available tools:

• Google Search Console shows links indexed by Google for free but lacks full capabilities.
• Ahrefs and Moz have paid subscriptions offering detailed backlink data like anchor text and referring domains.
• Other software like SEMrush, Majestic, and Cognitive SEO also enable backlink analysis.

Review backlink reports to identify:

• New quality links to gauge outreach efforts and assess root domain authority levels.
• Lost or broken links pointing to 404s to consider reaching out for fixes or redirects.
• Risky patterns like rapidly accelerating link velocity or bombardments of commercial anchor text.

Set calendar reminders to analyze backlinks every 1-2 months. Maintain an updated tracking spreadsheet of link numbers over time.

Regular backlink check-ins provide early warnings of issues and keep success metrics climbing through proactive link management.

• Set Alerts for Broken or Lost Links

You have to use backlink monitoring tools with alert systems that notify you when a backlink becomes broken or is removed.

Here are the steps to set up the alerts:

With Ahrefs:

• Enter your domain or URL in the “Domain or URL” field.
• Choose “Lost backlinks” for the “Scope.”
• Choose an interval for the alert.
• Click “Add” to set up the alert.
• You will receive email alerts showing lost backlinks to the specified domain or URL

With Semrush:

• Use Semrush’s Link Building Tool to find and recover lost backlinks, including broken and removed backlinks.

• Conduct a backlink audit and go to the “Audit” tab.
• Check the box next to “Target URL error” to filter for backlinks that point to 4xx (Client Error) or 5xx (Server Error) pages on your site.
• Export the results using the “Export to CSV” button.

With Hexowatch:

• Log in to your Hexowatch account and click on the ‘Add URL’ option.
• Scroll down to the bottom and select the “Backlink monitoring” option.
• Set up the monitoring feature to receive notifications for broken links and when their properties change, such as from dofollow to nofollow or sponsored.

By setting up these alerts, you get to enjoy a healthy link profile by being promptly notified of any lost or broken backlinks, allowing you to take immediate action to address the issues and maintain the quality of your backlink profile.

• Check the Authority of New Backlinks

To check the authority of new backlinks, you can use tools such as Ahrefs’ Website Authority Checker, which provides a free tool to check the “authority” of any website based on the quality and quantity of its external backlinks.

The authority of a website is determined by factors such as the number of unique websites (referring domains) linking to it and the quality of these external backlinks. A higher number of referring domains and the quality of these domains can contribute to a website’s overall authority.

Additionally, Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) is a good proxy by which to judge the relative quality of link prospects, as it looks at the quantity and quality of external backlinks to a website.

With tools like Ahrefs, you can assess the authority of new backlinks and make informed decisions about their impact on your overall link profile and authority.

• Track Dofollow vs Nofollow Ratio

The concept of a dofollow to nofollow backlink ratio has been a topic of discussion in the SEO community. However, it’s important to note that there is no universally agreed-upon optimal ratio of dofollow to nofollow links. Here are some insights from the search results:

No Optimal Ratio:

• According to the search results, there is no consensus on an optimal ratio of follow (dofollow) to nofollow links. The focus should be on acquiring good, natural, and relevant links, rather than obsessing over a specific ratio

Natural Link Profile:

• It’s recommended that a natural link profile will typically consist of both dofollow and nofollow backlinks because this contributes to a more organic and diverse profile.

Rule of Thumb:

• While there is no universally agreed-upon ratio, a rule of thumb mentioned in one of the sources is to aim for a link profile with 60% dofollow and 40% nofollow links. However, it’s emphasized that this should be achieved naturally, and the focus should be on building a natural link profile

In summary, while there is no specific recommended ratio of dofollow to nofollow links, it’s important to focus on building a natural and diverse link profile with a mix of both types of links. The emphasis should be on acquiring good, relevant, and natural links rather than fixating on a specific ratio.

• Create High-Quality, Shareable Content

The best way to earn backlinks long-term is to make genuinely useful content that sites want to reference. Focus on value, not link counts. Start with audience needs.

Do in-depth research to uncover meaningful problems people face. Turn findings into help guides, data studies, how-to videos, etc.

Characteristics of engaging, linkable content:

• Answers common questions searchers have
• Presents little-known but interesting information
• Well-organized and easy to scan value upfront
• Visually appealing with images, charts, and graphics
• Formatted for easy consumption like list posts

Promote your content through your own social channels to build initial interest. Reach out to relevant sites that could benefit their audience by linking to your asset.

Quality content marketers and journalists may organically feature without pitching if they discover your content searching for reporting or citations.

Focus efforts on continually producing new “linkbait” – things so inherently useful, sites link without you requesting. Building long-lasting resources earns sustainable links for years.

• Optimize Anchor Text

Anchor text refers to the clickable words in a link. For example, “click here” can link to your website. Optimizing anchor text helps search engines understand what each link is about.

You want a natural mix of anchor text in links to your site. These include:

• Branded anchors using your website or company name. Example: “LinkBuilderPros”
• Generic anchors like “click here,” “visit this site,” or ” visit their website.”
• Keyword anchors relevant to your content pages using important words or phrases.
• Having a variety of anchor text can help you avoid over-optimization penalties. A large number of links with the same anchor text appear artificial or manipulative.

When getting sites to link to you, aim for variety:

• Encourage links with your brand name from partners and guest posts.
• Accept generic links from roundups or press coverage.
• Build keyword links through expert outreach for specific pages.

The goal is a balance of branded, generic, and keyword-rich anchor text across all your backlinks. This looks credible and helps search bots better categorize and index your website.

• Track the Impact of Backlinks

It’s crucial to regularly review the quality and relevance of your backlinks to understand how they impact your site’s performance in search results. After doing backlinks regularly monitor your ranks, and check the pages on which you did backlinks is their ranking improving or decreasing?

You can measure their impact by tracking metrics such as the number of backlinks, domain authority, and anchor text diversity. Tools like Aherfs, Moz, and Google Analytics can help monitor changes in organic traffic, keyword rankings, and domain authority, which provides valuable insights into the quality and impact of your backlinks.

By analyzing these metrics on a daily basis, you can make informed adjustments to your backlink strategy, leading to sustained positive impacts on your site’s overall performance.

• Check the Referral Traffic Getting From Backlinks

Referral traffic, which usually comes from backlinks, is an important metric to monitor for inbound marketers. It describes the visitors who come to your website from other sites, without searching for you on Google.

When someone visits a link from a social network or website and ends up on another site, it’s recognized as referral traffic. By tracking referral traffic, you can gain insights into the valuable visitors being sent to your website from trusted domains.

This can also be relevant for SEO, as it contributes to improved brand exposure and recognition, better SEO through consistent backlinks, and the development of networking opportunities and future leads. Social media sites are some of the most valuable sources of referral traffic.

Therefore, it’s important to monitor and set alerts for lost or broken backlinks to ensure that your website maintains a healthy link profile, maximizing the potential for overall SEO success.

• Request Better Anchors and Update Content

To request better anchors and update content, consider the following best practices:

• Communicate your request to the webmaster clearly, expressing the need for improved anchor text and content updates.
• Emphasize how a more relevant anchor text or updated content can benefit both their audience and yours.
• Offer specific anchor text alternatives or propose content updates, making it easier for the webmaster to implement changes.
• Outline the potential SEO advantages of using more targeted anchor text, showcasing how it aligns with both websites’ goals.
• Highlight how the proposed changes can enhance the overall quality and relevance of the linked content for both websites.
• Refer to current industry trends in SEO and backlink best practices, showing that the request aligns with evolving standards.

By following these tips, you can effectively communicate with webmasters, request better anchors, and collaborate on content updates, fostering a positive and mutually beneficial relationship for backlink management.

• Stay Informed About Algorithm Changes

Search engines like Google frequently update their ranking algorithms. These changes impact how links get valued for search visibility. Staying updated on algorithms helps create better link building strategies.

There are a few ways to stay informed:

• Subscribe to search engine webmaster blog posts and newsletter emails informing you directly of significant updates.
• Check SEO forums and news sites reporting on recent algorithm changes, interpretations, and best practices.
• Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, Mixpanel, etc. to monitor your own website’s search performance for unusual changes possibly caused by an update.
• Connect with SEO experts and agencies actively working with the latest ranking factors.

As you learn about new algorithms, measure the possible effects on link signals:

• Does your anchor text optimization need adjustments?
• Should low-quality links get more scrutiny?
• Do certain placements or link sources now carry more weight?

Adapt your link building approach accordingly over time. Experiment to see impact. Staying up-to-date on changes allows proactive strategies aligned with current SEO standards. This helps search bots continue trusting your backlinks.

Essential Tools for Backlink Management

Here are some popular backlink management tools –

• Ahrefs: A comprehensive tool for backlink analysis and competitor research.
• SEMRush: Offers backlink analytics, link building, and keyword research tools.
• Moz Link Explorer: Provides valuable insights for backlink analysis and tracking.
• Monitor Backlinks: A powerful tool for backlink tracking and analysis. It also includes competitor backlink monitoring.
• Linkody: A dedicated backlink monitoring tool with features for tracking campaigns and link analysis.
• LinkResearchTools: Offers a wide range of backlink analysis and link building tools.
• Majestic: Provides backlink analysis and domain comparison features.
• LinkMiner: A backlink checker tool for analyzing backlinks and visualizing link profile data.
• Pitchbox: An all-in-one backlink tool for prospecting and outreach.
• BuzzSumo: Offers features for content research, influencer marketing, and backlink analysis.

These tools offer various features such as backlink analysis, competitor monitoring, and link building, and they can be used to effectively manage and optimize backlink profiles.

Final Thoughts

Backlink management is a regular process that necessitates awareness, planning, and some SEO knowledge. Maintaining a clean and quality backlink profile may open the road for higher search engine results and a stronger online presence. Remember that in the fast-paced world of the internet, it’s not just about who you know, but also about who links to you.

Now that you know how to manage your backlinks, it’s time to dominate the SERPs!

mothasim

SEO & Growth Manager

A distinguished SEO and Business Development Consultant with a proven track record of helping businesses achieve outstanding results in the digital landscape. Throughout his career, Mothasim has worked with a diverse range of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

His strategies are characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, data-driven decision-making, and a deep understanding of search engine algorithms. In his personal life, Mothasim enjoys hiking, photography, and volunteering in his community. He believes in giving back and is actively involved in mentoring aspiring SEO professionals. LinkedIn .