When you delve into search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll inevitably come across the term ‘link analysis.’ But what does it actually mean? And how do you perform such an analysis?
What is a link analysis?
Link analysis is a process that systematically evaluates the quality and relevance of links associated with a website. It typically involves reviewing a website’s existing links at various levels.
In this context, you can work with link analysis in 3 different ways.
- Inbound links: All backlinks that point from other websites to yours. These signal authority and relevance to search engines.
- The internal link structure: Navigation between pages and content on your website. They help structure information and improve the user experience.
- Outbound links: These are links that point from your URL to other relevant websites. This type of link can help provide more context and value to your content.
Why do link analysis?
Link analysis can focus on different areas and be performed in several ways. Most often, “link analysis” refers to an examination of a website’s link profile, where both inbound and outbound links are examined.
The purpose of this analysis is to ensure a natural link profile on the website. This means that it complies with Google’s guidelines. Google’s Penguin Update from 2012 had a special focus on combating unnatural link profiles.
Websites with an unnatural link profile, characterized by an excessive use of spam links from e.g. “splogs” (spam blogs) or links from Private Blog Networks (PBNs). These penalties can lead to a significant decrease in the website’s ranking in search results. Or be excluded from the search index altogether.
The purpose of a link analysis is to remove or reduce the amount of harmful links..
How to do a link analysis
There are different ways to approach a link analysis. You can use the following approach to quickly get started yourself.
- Begin your link analysis by mapping your links:
- Backlinks: Identify all links pointing to your website from other sites. Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to get an overview.
- Outbound links: Examine which websites you link to. Assess their relevance and authority.
- Nofollow links: Identify nofollow links on your website. These links do not transfer link value, but can still have value for user experience and branding.
- Evaluate link quality:
- Domain Authority (DA) or Domain rating (DR): Check the DA/DR of the websites that link to you. The higher the DA/DR, the more valuable the link is indicated to be (!NB DA/DR is not 100% correct. Therefore, take them as a guide).
- Relevance: Assess how relevant the link is to your page. Links from websites within the same industry or niche generally have more value.
- Anchor text: Examine the anchor text used in the link. The anchor text should be relevant and descriptive of the page being linked to.
- Link placement: Check where on the page the link is placed. Links in the body of the page often have more value than links in the footer or sidebar.
- Identify potential problems:
- Low-quality links: Are there many links from spam sites, link directories, or other low-authority websites?
- Broken Links: Are any of your links leading to 404 errors?
- Orphaned pages: Are there pages on your website that don’t have any internal links?
- Unnatural link profile: Does your link profile seem unnatural or manipulated?
By following this checklist, you can get an in-depth look at your link profile and identify areas for improvement. You can use this guide from Google to report and remove unwanted links from your site.
💡 Remember variety: While it’s important to avoid low-quality links, it’s equally important to have a varied link profile. A link profile that consists entirely of do-follow links from highly authoritative sites can appear unnatural and suspicious in Google’s eyes.
👉 This also applies to do-follow and no-follow links.
Why do an internal link analysis?
In addition to focusing on external links, it is equally important to remember the internal ones. This form of link building is called “internal link building“. It involves examining and optimizing the website’s navigation structure.
There are several reasons why it might be a good idea to work with the website’s internal link structure.
- Easier navigation: A good internal link structure makes it easier for visitors to navigate around your website and find the content they are looking for.
- Stronger link value: Internal links help distribute link value (also known as “link juice“) between pages on your website. This can strengthen the authority of important pages and improve their ranking in search results.
- Improved indexing: A clear internal link structure makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index the pages on your website. This improves your crawl budget and future Google indexing.
- Relevance signals: Internal links with relevant anchor text can give search engines a better understanding of your content and its relevance to specific keywords.
Link analysis of competitors
Much of the work with link building typically falls on the internal aspects of your own website. But it can also be a good idea to do a link analysis of your competitors. Backlinks play a crucial role in your website’s ranking in search results.
Think of backlinks as “votes” from other websites recommending your content to search engines. The more authoritative and relevant backlinks you have, the more trustworthy and valuable Google perceives your website to be.
Quality links from high-authority pages within your industry therefore contribute to better rankings. They signal to Google that your content is relevant and worth showing to users.
How do you behave?
To optimize your own link building strategy, it can be valuable to analyze your competitors’ backlinks. Focus especially on those competitors who rank higher than you for the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your business.
By examining the types, quality, distribution, and quantity of their backlinks, you can gain insight into how you should build links in your future link building.
