What is backlink profile analysis 

backlink profile analysis, or the links pointing to your website from other websites, are among the most crucial components. These links are seen by search engines like Google as an indicator of the authority and quality of your website; the more links you have from other respectable websites, the better you will rank. In other words, link building is crucial for SEO, and it takes knowledge about your competitors’ links as well as a thorough grasp of your own links to be done well.

A backlink analysis: what is it?

An assessment of the quantity and caliber of links referring to your website from other websites is called a backlink analysis. You can learn how backlinks affect your search engine rankings and how to build your backlink profile by analyzing the backlinks pointing to your website.

What makes a backlink analysis necessary?

Because links are considered by search engines to be indicators of a site’s authority, backlinks are crucial to SEO. A backlink analysis helps you understand your site’s potential to rank highly in search engine results by displaying all the links that search engines are considering.

You can also find problematic links with the aid of backlink analysis. Unnatural or spammy links may result in a Google penalty, but identifying and removing them maintains the credibility of your website.

You should examine other websites in addition to your own, though. On the websites of your primary rivals, you should also carry out a backlink analysis.

You may determine how challenging it will be to outrank your competition by looking at their websites. It can also provide you with suggestions for your own link-building approach and highlight any possible links that you might be overlooking.

What is involved in backlink analysis?

In the event that you have never conducted high quality backlink analysis on your website or those of your competitors, you can begin by following these simple steps:

1. Decide which websites to examine.

Choosing the websites you wish to examine is the first stage in the backlink analysis process. Your first focus should be on your own website, but after that, you might need to conduct some research.

Most likely, you are already aware of your primary rivals. These are the other local companies in your community that provide comparable services, if you are a local firm. If you operate an online store, other websites sell the identical goods. These websites ought to be at the top of your list.

From there, a few fast Google searches can help you find potential rivals. Enter your primary goal keywords into the search field and examine the websites that appear in the results. In the end, you want to outrank these websites, and examining their backlink profiles can help you figure out where and how to do better.

You might also be able to view a list of websites that are in competition for the same organic keywords, depending on the tool you choose.

For instance, SEMrush lists the top organic rivals according to the quantity of organic keywords that any two websites rank for.

2. Pick a tool for backlink analysis

Select the research tools you want to utilize after deciding which websites to visit. Although this is mostly a personal choice, some of the most well-liked choices are:

•       Heyrefs
•       SMrush
•       Open Site Explorer for Moz

Although some of these tools have a free trial period, we nevertheless advise testing all of them for your initial backlink analysis to determine which one best suits your requirements.

At WebFX, we employ all three to carry out thorough analyses for our clients’ websites as well as our own. Any one of these tools, though, will be able to give you enough information if you’re just getting started so you can make an informed choice.

3. 3. Navigate to each domain and gather the desired data.

Enter each domain into the research tool of your choice once you’ve decided which sites to use and begin gathering data. In the following part, we’ll go into the precise metrics you should be using for each site, but for now, make sure you have a plan in place for documenting everything as you go.

It takes a lot of data to conduct backlink analysis, and if you don’t keep track of it, you won’t be able to utilize it to inform your Internet marketing plan.

Having said that, your tracking strategy doesn’t need to be intricate. It will enough to use a Google Sheet or an Excel spreadsheet.

What aspects of a backlink analysis ought to be considered?

Backlink analysis gives you a ton of information, much like many other online analytics tools. Even while there are benefits to all of this information, looking through it all would be intimidating and time-consuming.

This implies that for every website you examine, you should select a small number of critical data points to monitor. It’s up to you which ones you select, but these three are our top picks:

1. The total quantity of unique domains and linkages

The total number of backlinks connecting to a website is one of the most fundamental indicators. You may get a broad notion of how your sites fare in terms of authority by comparing this figure to that of a rival.

Additionally, you want to check the quantity of referring domains. The figure indicates how many distinct websites link to a specific website. For instance, 400 of a website’s backlinks come from other websites that already link to it, if it has 1000 total backlinks and 600 referring domains.

It is common and not a bad indication to have less referring domains than total backlinks. gaining connections from websites that already link to yours isn’t as beneficial as gaining links from new websites, though, as your objective should be to have a diverse link profile with many domains.

2. Domains that link

You ought to take a closer look at such domains in addition to counting the number of referring domains.

This might help you determine which material on your own website is linked to by your most valuable links and where they are located on your site.

This knowledge is even more useful when examining your rivals. You can find link opportunities for your own website by looking at these domains; if they link to one of your rivals, there’s a good possibility they’ll link to you as well.

We advise you to arrange these domains according to their authority, or “domain score” as SEMrush refers to it, and create a list of reputable websites that have links pointing to your rivals. This is a list that you can refer to later on when you’re producing fresh material and looking for outreach opportunities.

3. Main tabs

Lastly, examine which pages on your website—as well as those of your rivals—have the greatest number of links pointing to them.

Your home page will often always be on the top page. This is usually where the link will go if your business is ever featured in a news story or referenced as a source.

In addition, you can view the pages with the highest number of links. They will be close to the top of your list if you have ever conducted outreach for any of your individual pages.

From there, you may browse through popular pages to see what kind of content is most effective at attracting connections to your website. For example, if you produce original research and observe that your page has a lot of links referring to it, releasing additional original research would be a smart move in terms of your link development strategy.

It’s probably a good idea to keep researching and writing on a particular topic if you notice that those pages have attracted the most links.

It is frequently more enlightening to examine the top pages of your rivals than your own. Examine the pages on each competitor’s website to determine the most valuable content kinds for their link-building plan.

Let’s take an example where one of your main rivals has included multiple links to a case study on their website. It would be wise for you to take the time to create and publish a case study if you haven’t already done so.

Rather than offering specific topic ideas, these top pages function as broad concepts for your link-building strategy. After all, your chances of success are slim if you create an essay on the same subject as one of your rivals.

Bloggers and news sites don’t link to other websites merely to exchange links; instead, you should provide something distinct and engaging. This means that if you adopt a different approach or conduct your own original research and use the sites of your competitors as inspiration for content, you will have far greater success.

Are you prepared to begin investigating your rivals?

Any SEO strategy must include backlink profile analysis, which, when done correctly, provides insightful information about your website as well as that of your competitors. WebFX can assist if you would prefer to deal with a professional.

For every customer we work with, we perform in-depth backlink analysis in order to assist them in developing a successful link-building plan. We will do the same for you.