How to Audit Your Backlinks Properly: A Step by Step Guide
A backlink audit sounds technical, yet the process is straightforward once you break it into steps. The goal is simple: get a complete picture of who links to you, spot anything genuinely harmful and decide what, if anything, to do about it. Here is how to audit your backlinks properly, step by step.
A proper backlink audit runs in a few clear steps. First, export your full link profile from several sources, since no single tool sees everything. Second, review the data: referring domains, anchor text, dofollow and nofollow mix and relevance. Third, flag anything that looks genuinely toxic, then check those manually rather than trusting a tool's score. Fourth, decide what to do, which for most links is nothing, because Google ignores them anyway. Finally, only if a link is truly harmful, try to get it removed, then disavow as a last resort. Most audits end with a clean bill of health, not a mass clean-up.
Five clear steps
Step one
Pull your links from several sources, not just one.
Step two
Check domains, anchors and relevance for patterns.
Last step
Usually nothing. Remove or disavow only if truly harmful.
How to audit your backlinks, step by step
A backlink audit does not need to be daunting. With the right sources and a calm, methodical approach, anyone can work through it. Here are the steps we follow and the order to do them in.
Step one: export your full profile
Start by gathering every link pointing to your site. No single tool catches them all, so pull data from a few. Google Search Console, under External links, shows what Google itself has found, which makes it your most authoritative source. Add data from a tool like Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz to fill the gaps, then merge it all into one spreadsheet. Now you have the full picture to work from.
Step two: review the data
With everything in one place, look for patterns rather than judging single links. Check your referring domains for relevance and quality, your anchor text for any unnatural over-optimisation, then your mix of dofollow and nofollow. A healthy profile has varied anchors, relevant sources and a natural blend. Anything that stands out sharply from that is worth a closer look.
Step three: flag and check toxic links
Now identify anything that looks genuinely harmful. Warning signs include irrelevant or spammy domains, sites with no real traffic, thin or auto-generated content, unnatural anchor text and obvious link networks. Tools will hand you a toxicity or spam score, yet treat it as a starting point, not a verdict. Always review flagged links by eye, because tools regularly mislabel perfectly good ones. We cover the warning signs in Toxic Backlinks.
Step four: decide what to do
Here is the step most people get wrong. For the large majority of links, the right action is nothing at all. Google ignores low-quality links automatically, so disavowing them is usually unnecessary and occasionally harmful. Only act on links that are genuinely toxic and could be dragging you down, along with any tied to a manual action. When you do act, prioritise the worst offenders first, as we explain in How to prioritise backlink clean-up actions.
Step five: remove, then disavow if needed
For the few links worth acting on, try removal first. Contact the site owner and politely ask them to take the link down. If that fails and the link is genuinely harmful, the disavow tool tells Google to ignore it. Use disavow sparingly and surgically, since Google warns it can hurt your rankings if misused. We explain it fully in What is disavow in SEO. Our Backlink Services team handles the whole audit for clients. The full method is in The Complete Guide to Backlink Building. For how often to repeat the process, see How often you should audit your backlink profile.
Three rules for a good audit
Use many sources
No single tool sees every link. Combine Google Search Console with Ahrefs or Semrush for the full picture.
Trust your eyes
Tool toxicity scores are a starting point, not a verdict. Review flagged links manually before acting.
Mostly do nothing
Google ignores most bad links. Disavow only the genuinely harmful ones, as a true last resort.
The backlink audit steps
Four stages take you from a full export to the right action, with most audits needing very little doing.
The audit steps,
the quick answer
A proper audit
vs a sloppy one
A real audit
- Data from many sources
- Reviews links by eye
- Acts on real problems
- Removal before disavow
- Leaves good links alone
A risky shortcut
- One tool, one export
- Trusts toxicity scores blindly
- Disavows in bulk
- Skips manual review
- Removes harmless links
Want your audit done right?
We pull every link, review them by hand and act only where it truly helps, never disavowing in a panic. See how we do it.
A proper backlink audit,
from £350 per month.
We audit your full profile, act only where it helps and report on what moves. Free quote, no pressure.