How to Do a Basic Backlink Audit By Ahrefs
Introduction:
Backlink auditing is a crucial part of SEO work, helping us check the status of a website before starting work to ensure there are no spammy backlinks that could hinder future SEO efforts or trigger a Google penalty. This article provides a simple and insightful step-by-step guide to backlink auditing that most websites can complete in about 30 minutes.
Review:
The article details the necessity of backlink auditing, the steps involved, and the techniques used. It begins by explaining why backlink auditing is needed, then guides readers through using the Ahrefs tool to get a high-level overview of a site’s backlink profile, identify negative SEO attacks, find wasted backlinks, discover the best and worst referring sites, and check the full “Anchors” report. The article also provides advanced tips, such as checking backlinks from the same C-class IPs, which may indicate issues with private blog networks (PBNs). Finally, the author suggests that readers perform the same audit on their competitors to understand their link-building strategies.
