How to Do Backlink Analysis Without Wasting Your Time

A diverse, high-quality link profile is one of the biggest drivers of organic traffic and domain authority. But a link-building strategy is only half the battle; if you want to see real results, you need to regularly analyse your backlink profile as well.

That means checking who’s linking to you, identifying low-quality links that could be holding you back and uncovering new opportunities to obtain valuable backlinks.

Why should you conduct backlink analysis? 

Backlinks are one of the strongest signals Google uses to determine your site’s authority, but not all links are created equal. To get the most out of your link-building efforts, you need to regularly review what works, what doesn’t and where new opportunities lie.

Here are some key reasons for why you should conduct a backlink analysis. 

✅ Make sure your backlink strategy is working: Backlink analysis gives you a clear picture of how many links you’ve built and where they’re from to determine whether they’re helping boost your rankings and traffic.

✅ See how you stack up against your competitors’ link-building strategies: Backlink analysis shows you how you compare to others in your space and enables you to spot gaps, strengths and opportunities.

✅ Identify low-quality links that could be holding you back: Not every backlink is a good one, and toxic or spammy links can hurt your SEO and even trigger manual penalties. Regular audits help you catch and deal with these links before they become a bigger problem.

✅ Make sure your links are still working: Backlinks aren’t permanent. Pages get deleted, domains expire, URLs change. Analysing your profile helps you spot broken links so you can update internal redirects or reach back out to fix the issue and reclaim lost link equity.

✅ Uncover new link-building opportunities: Analysing who’s linking to you (and to your competitors) reveals new outreach targets, high-performing content formats and industry sites that are already open to linking.

How to do a backlink analysis

Now that you know why backlink analysis matters, let’s walk through exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Get a high-level view of your website 

You need a snapshot of your current backlink profile before you can start diving into the details and finding ways to improve. 

The first step is to collect your backlink data. There are a few tools that can help you do so — some free and some paid — and each backlink analysis tool gives you a slightly different lens on your backlink profile. 

If you’re just getting started, Google Search Console and Moz are great entry points. If you’re ready for more detailed analysis, Ahrefs and Semrush give you the depth you’ll need to scale. Here’s a more detailed comparison of these four popular solutions.

Tool	Free version	Available metrics	Pros	Cons
Google Search Console	✅ Free	“Links” report: List of backlinks to your site	Free, data comes directly from Google	Manual work required, limited data compared to paid tools
Ahrefs	✅ Free Webmaster Tools provide limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit	Site Explorer: Backlink profile, referring domains, anchor text analysis, historical link data	Comprehensive backlink data, accurate and frequently updated	Full access to the platform requires paid subscription
Semrush	❌ No free version (limited access with free account)	Backlink Analytics: Referring domain’s authority score, IP address, toxicity score, lost and new backlinks	Detailed metrics, toxicity score helps identify harmful links	Paid tool, learning curve for beginners
Moz	✅ Free limited version	Link Explorer: Domain Authority, Page Authority, spam score, new and lost links	Offers key backlink metrics like DA and PA, spam score helps with link quality analysis	Free version has limited data, smaller link index than Ahrefs or Semrush

Now let’s explore the key link-building metrics to focus on and how to find them in Ahrefs.

See how many backlinks you have 

Check how many backlinks point to your site to get a high-level sense of your site’s authority and how much link equity you’ve built. 

But don’t get too caught up on the number of backlinks; more backlinks doesn’t always mean better SEO performance.

A handful of high-authority, relevant backlinks from reputable sites will do more for your search engine rankings than hundreds of low-quality ones. Still, tracking your total backlink count over time helps you see how your strategy is progressing. 

ℹ️ Here’s how to check this in Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. Look under the “Backlinks” tab for the total number of backlinks
4. Filter out nofollow or redirected links to get a better sense of which ones are helping your site rank.

Check the number of referring domains

Referring domains are the unique websites that link back to your site. If you have 1,000 backlinks but only 10 referring domains, that means most of your links are coming from the same few sources.

That’s not ideal because Google values diversity. A backlink profile built on a wide range of relevant, authoritative sites looks far more natural (and trustworthy) than one propped up by repeat links from a handful of domains.

Assess this by checking your backlinks-to-referring-domains ratio. If that ratio is heavily skewed, it could be a red flag — meaning either over-reliance on a few sources or a profile that looks unnatural.

ℹ️ How to check in Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. In the left-hand menu, go to “Backlink Profile” > “Referring Domains”
4. Review the total number of referring domains and their authority
5. Compare this to your total number of backlinks to assess diversity

Look at your follow / nofollow ratio

Not all backlinks pass SEO value. That’s where follow and nofollow links come in. Follow links (or “dofollow”) tell search engines to pass link authority, or equity, from the referring page to yours.

Nofollow links include a tag that signals to search engines not to pass link equity. While follow links are more valuable for SEO, nofollow links still play a role in driving referral traffic, building brand visibility and creating a backlink profile that looks natural to Google.

For SaaS companies, a healthy balance is around 60% follow and 40% nofollow. It shows that your links are being earned from a variety of sources.

ℹ️ Here’s how to check your follow / nofollow ratio in Ahrefs: 

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. Scroll down in the “Overview” tab
4. On the right-hand side, you’ll see two bar charts showing:

• Follow vs Nofollow Backlinks
• Follow vs Nofollow Referring Domains

Source: Ahrefs

Step 2: Analyse the domain authority (DA) of your backlinks 

As we mentioned above, not all backlinks carry the same weight. A single link from a high-authority site can do more for your rankings than dozens of links from low-quality sources. That’s why it’s important to analyse the DA of the websites that link to you.

DA is a score (from 1 to 100) that predicts how likely a domain is to rank in search results. It’s not a Google metric, but it’s widely used in SEO to estimate a site’s authority. In Ahrefs, you’ll see a similar metric called Domain Rating (DR).

So what does a “good” DA or DR score look like?

• DA 30+: Decent 
• DA 50+: Strong 
• DA 70+: Very strong 

A solid backlink profile should include links across this range, but the more high-authority domains you can earn links from, the better.

ℹ️ How to check in Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. Go to “Backlink Profile” > “Referring Domains”
4. You’ll see the Domain Rating (DR) listed next to each referring domain
5. Sort the list by DR to see how many high-authority sites link to you

For example, here is a list of referring domains from Asana, a popular SaaS company:

Source: Ahrefs

If you don’t have access to Ahrefs, there are a few free tools you can use to check the DA / DR of a linking domain:

• Moz Link Explorer
• Ahrefs Website Authority Checker
• Ubersuggest

Step 3: Check link relevance  

Relevance is central to the success of your backlinks. A link from a niche, topically aligned site will almost always be more valuable than one from a random, high-DR domain with no connection to your content.

Search engines don’t just look at who links to you; they look at why that link exists. If the linking page is contextually related to your content, it tells Google the link is likely earned, natural and useful to users as opposed to links that are artificially placed just to manipulate rankings.

Link relevance impacts both the value and the risk level of each backlink. As one of our link building experts explains:

“Relevant backlinks are closely related to the content of the article and they provide additional value or context. They help increase your website’s visibility and boost its search engine rankings. On the flip side, irrelevant or spammy backlinks can do more harm than good — and in some cases, get your site removed from Google’s index.”

So, how do you check if your backlinks are relevant? Here’s what to look for:

✅ Topical similarity: The linking page and your page should cover related topics. For example, if you run a SaaS tool for product teams, a backlink from a product management blog makes sense. One from a casino site? Not so much.

✅ Page context: Is the backlink placed naturally within the content and does it make sense for the reader? Links that feel forced or off-topic might be worth reviewing or removing.

✅ Organic traffic: If the linking site has no organic traffic, that’s a red flag. It could be a low-quality or spammy domain created solely for selling links.

✅ Domain authority: Authority still matters, but only in context. A DR 80 backlink from a totally unrelated site isn’t as valuable as a DR 40 link from a highly relevant source.

Step 4: Analyse anchor text 

Anchor text gives search engines context about the destination page and helps them understand what the page is about.

Source: Skale

Let’s go back to the Asana example. If all their backlinks used the same type of anchor text, repeating a term like “project management software” over and over, it wouldn’t look natural. A strong backlink profile includes a diverse mix of anchor types, such as:

• Branded (e.g. “Asana”)
• Exact-match (e.g. “project management software”)
• Partial-match (e.g. “best project management tools”)
• Generic (e.g. “click here” or “read more”)
• Naked URLs (e.g. “https://asana.com”)

Search engines expect natural variation. If your anchor texts are too repetitive, especially with exact-match keywords, your SEO performance can suffer.

ℹ️ How to check anchor text of your backlinks in Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain (e.g. asana.com)
3. Go to “Backlink Profile” > “Anchors”
4. Review the anchor text used in backlinks

As you can see below, Asana has a natural backlink profile: 

Source: Ahrefs

If you don’t have access to Ahrefs, you can also use Moz’s free Link Explorer tool to check the anchor text of your backlinks.

Step 5: Look for broken internal and external links 

Links break, pages get removed, URLs change and redirects get lost in the shuffle. But if left unchecked, broken links can hurt your SEO by wasting crawl budget, disrupting user experience and depleting valuable link equity.

That’s why part of every backlink audit should include finding and fixing broken internal and external links.

How to find broken internal links

ℹ️ In Google Search Console:

1. Navigate to the “Pages” report
2. Examine the “Why pages aren’t indexed” section
3. Look for “Not Found (404)” errors, which indicate broken links

Source: GSC

ℹ️ In Ahrefs:

1. Run a crawl of your site using Site Audit
2. Go to the “Internal Pages” report
3. Filter for “404” to see which internal pages have broken links

Source: Ahrefs

How to find broken external backlinks

These are links from other websites pointing to URLs on your site that no longer exist. Left unresolved, they’re missed opportunities because you’re not benefiting from the link equity being sent your way.

ℹ️ In Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. Go to “Backlink Profile” > “Broken Backlinks”
4. You’ll see a list of backlinks pointing to broken or removed pages on your site

As you can see below, Asana has no broken links:

Source: Ahrefs

If you do have broken links, you should do one of the following:

➡️ Reinstate the original page if it was removed accidentally

➡️ Redirect the broken URL to a relevant live page

➡️ Reach out to the referring site to update the link (if it makes sense to do so)

Step 6: Check your spam score and disavow toxic links

Spammy or low-quality links can drag down your authority, and in extreme cases, even trigger a manual penalty from Google.

Checking your Spam Score regularly helps you spot risky backlinks before they become a problem. You can do this easily with Moz’s free Link Explorer tool. 

1. Head to Moz Link Explorer
2. Enter your domain into the search bar and click “Analyse”
3. In the left-hand navigation menu, select “Spam Score” to see an overview of your site’s Spam Score, along with a breakdown of how many linking domains fall into low, medium or high-risk zones 

Source: Moz

The score is based on common spam signals (like low-quality content, thin link profiles or suspicious linking patterns). If you see lots of high-risk domains in your backlink profile, it’s worth investigating further.

You can also check individual backlinks within Moz’s tool to see any links that may be causing trouble.

Source: Moz

So what do you do if you spot spammy backlinks? This is where the question of disavowing links comes in — and it’s a hot topic in SEO. As one of our link building experts puts it:

“Disavowing backlinks without actually being hit with a manual penalty from Google is a waste of time. Google is now capable of ignoring spammy links, and by disavowing backlinks you might actually do more harm than good to your website’s rankings.”

This reflects a growing consensus in the SEO community. Disavowing links isn’t as critical as it once was, and in most cases, Google will simply ignore low-quality backlinks on its own.

But if you’ve been hit with a manual action or you’re dealing with an unusually high number of clearly toxic links (e.g. from link farms or spam networks), disavowing might still make sense. Just proceed with caution.

Step 7: Find your top linked pages 

Some pages on your site naturally attract more backlinks than others, and those pages are your most valuable in terms of link building. They tell you what’s working, what people find valuable and where your content already has momentum.

ℹ️ How to find your top linked pages in Ahrefs:

1. Open Site Explorer
2. Enter your domain
3. Go to “Backlink Profile” > “Backlinks”
4. Explore the pages on your site that attract the strongest, most valuable links

Identifying your most-linked pages gives you a clear roadmap for how to optimise your strategy, which can include: 

✔️ Earning more backlinks to your high performers: If people are already linking to a page, it’s a strong candidate for further outreach.

✔️ Creating similar content: Use top performers as templates for future content that’s likely to attract links.

✔️ Boosting key pages internally: Leverage internal linking to pass authority from these pages to high-priority or conversion-focused pages.

Step 8: Monitor competitor performance

Once you’ve got a handle on your own backlink profile, the next step is to see how you stack up against your competitors.

Analysing their backlinks can help you:

➡️ uncover new link-building opportunities

➡️ spot content formats that consistently earn links

➡️ identify gaps in your strategy

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Just go back to the steps you’ve already followed and apply them to your top competitors.

That means analysing their:

• total number of backlinks
• follow vs nofollow ratio
• DA of referring domains
• link relevance
• anchor text diversity
• top linked pages
• broken backlinks (so you can offer yours as a replacement)

We’ve covered exactly how to do this in our guide to competitor backlink analysis — including how to find, filter and prioritise the right backlink opportunities for your site.

Take control of your backlink strategy with Skale

Backlink analysis requires more than a one-off audit; it’s an ongoing part of building a site that ranks high in SERPs, earns trust and drives revenue.

But staying on top of your backlink profile isn’t easy. That’s where we come in. At Skale we help SaaS brands build high-quality backlinks that actually move the needle and lead to measurable SEO results. 

Our team handles everything — from backlink audits to content strategy and outreach — so you can focus on growing your business. And we’ve helped dozens of SaaS brands turn SEO results into revenue growth — like Happyscribe, who gained 70,000 organic signups after starting with us, and Piktochart, who saw an 860% increase in signups and 995% more organic clicks in just 3 months.Want results like these? Book a strategy call to learn how we can turn your backlink profile into a growth engine.