Backlinks go by many names: inbound links, incoming links, in-links, inward links and citations. Whatever you call them, there’s no denying their importance. Consider backlinks a signal telling search engines “I have authority!” They’re a high-flying flag showing that other notable websites trust your site and consider it reputable.
Why is this important? Ultimately, the more high-quality backlinks, the higher you’ll rank. That means having an effective backlinking strategy and profile is the recipe for success in SERPs.
But, how do you know if you have enough backlinks? And, how can you tell if they’re high-quality or potentially doing more harm than good? While there are many ways to test your backlink health, one of the most popular is through the Ahrefs Backlink Checker, the second-most active web crawler after Google, making it a dependable tool for your company to use.
Let’s dive deep into using this program, focusing on checking your backlink profile for the most long-term success.
What Makes Backlinks So Important?
Often overlooked, backlinks are the backbone of a strong SEO strategy, serving as a bridge between different sites. What are they? Essentially, backlinks are links from another website to yours, increasing your reach and bringing more people to your page.
Having another site linked to yours boosts your site’s credibility, which is a critical factor in jumping up in rankings. Without backlinks, your site may struggle to gain visibility, even if you post informative and engaging content. In fact, Search Engine Journal found that the top three Google ranking factors are high-quality content, page experience and links.
But their value goes beyond just search rankings. High-quality backlinks connect your site to a broader audience, reeling in organic traffic genuinely interested in your offerings. They act as a beacon for new users, creating an opportunity to build lasting relationships and grow your online presence.
Want more reasons to pursue a healthy backlink structure? We’ll give you five:
Improved Search Rankings
Backlinks are among the most significant factors influencing search rankings, as they signal relevance and credibility to search engines. Google and other search platforms use backlinks to evaluate a site’s credibility, so the more backlinks your site earns, the more likely it is to rank well for a targeted keyword. This means they’re a cornerstone for achieving prominent visibility online, helping you outpace competitors.
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Increased Organic Traffic
While paid traffic is helpful, organic traffic is the lifeblood of any website, and backlinks are a powerful tool for driving it. When your site earns backlinks from other authoritative websites, it gains exposure to their audience. These users often click through to your site, curious about your content or services. Unlike paid ads or social campaigns, this traffic comes from them wanting to learn more, making it more likely to result in conversions.
Additionally, backlinks help search engines discover your pages more efficiently, allowing them to be indexed and ranked faster. Over time, a strong backlink profile can result in a consistent flow of organic traffic, helping your business grow sustainably.
Brand Authority
When well-known and respected websites link to your content, it positions your brand as a trusted voice in your industry. This kind of endorsement signals to both users and search engines that your website is a reliable source of information or services. Over time, this can help establish your company as a go-to resource, enhancing your reputation and page authority.
Beyond search engines, backlinks also influence how your audience perceives you. Let’s say someone sees a link to your website on one of their favorite brand’s pages. This automatically encourages this person to trust your site before interacting with it.
Referral Traffic
When someone clicks on a link to your site from another website, you gain a visitor who might not have found you through a traditional search. This type of traffic can help diversify your website’s visitor sources. Relying solely on search engines for traffic leaves you vulnerable to algorithm changes, but referral traffic creates a secondary, reliable pipeline for reaching potential customers. With a thoughtful backlink strategy, you can target referral links that align with your audience, driving meaningful traffic to your site consistently.
Long-Term SEO Value
While some marketing strategies have a limited shelf life, backlinks remain relevant as long as the linking website stays active and credible. This means a single high-quality backlink can continue driving traffic and boosting your rankings for years.
Checking Your Backlink Profile
There are several ways you can check your backlink profile, which is how you understand your website’s link-building health and quality. A strong backlink profile is more than just numbers — it’s about quality and strategy. Here’s how to assess and improve yours:
Use SEO Tools Like Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers comprehensive data on backlinks, including new and lost links, anchor text distribution and the domain authority of linking sites. These metrics can help you identify problem areas so you’re constantly improving your ranking.
Analyze Referring Domains
Your referring domains are the number of unique sites linking to a given page. Clicking through the number of backlinks or domains you have for specific pages will help you understand what pages are drawing the most backlinks. This can guide you in future content creation, delivering more high-value content to customers.
Identify Toxic or Spammy Links
Not all backlinks are beneficial. Toxic links from spammy or irrelevant sites can harm your SEO performance. Identify and get rid of these links to maintain a healthy profile, ensuring you only connect with beneficial websites.
Check Anchor Text Distribution
Anchor text — the clickable text of a link — plays a significant role in SEO. Review the distribution of anchor text in your backlink profile, and aim for a natural mix of branded, keyword-rich and generic anchors.
Monitor New and Lost Links
Keeping track of new and lost backlinks helps you understand trends in your backlink acquisition efforts. Look at reports from Ahrefs or other SEO tools so you can identify what’s working and address what’s not.
Benchmark Against Competitors
Competitive analysis is key to refining your strategy. Compare your backlink profile with those of your competitors, helping you uncover possible link-building opportunities they may already be using.
How To Use Ahrefs Backlink Checker
The Ahrefs Backlink Checker is a user-friendly site audit tool, but mastering its features can take your SEO efforts to the next level. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Enter your URL: Enter the domain you want to analyze in the search bar and select the option to search for either the entire domain or a specific URL.
2. Access the Ahrefs Backlink Checker: Log in or create an account on Ahrefs.
3. Review the overview report: Look at the overview of key metrics, such as the total number of backlinks, referring domains and your domain rating.
4. Analyze every referring domain: View the list of unique domains linking to your site.
4. Review anchor text distribution: Click on the “Anchors” section and view the anchor text used in the backlinks to your site.
5. Check new and lost backlinks: Track changes in your link profile in the “New” and “Lost” tabs.
Metrics and Terminology To Know
To use Ahrefs to its fullest potential, it’s helpful to know what the different metrics mean and how they impact your overall website performance and ranking. Here’s a breakdown of some important SEO metrics and terminology to help you get started:
- URL rating (UR): Measures the strength of a specific page’s backlink profile. It’s scored on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating stronger backlink profiles.
- Domain rating (DR): Evaluates the overall strength of a website’s backlink profile. Like UR, it’s scored from 0 to 100. However, Ahrefs’ domain rating assesses the entire domain’s authority rather than individual pages.
- Ahrefs rank (AR): Ranks all websites in the Ahrefs database based on the strength of their backlink profiles. The lower the AR number, the stronger the website’s backlink profile.
- Organic keywords: Shows the total number of keywords for which a website or page ranks in organic search results.
- Organic traffic: Estimates the number of monthly visits a website or page receives from organic search results.
- Organic traffic value: Identifies the monetary equivalent of organic traffic if it were acquired through paid advertising.
- Paid traffic cost: Estimates the amount of money spent on acquiring traffic through paid advertisements.
- Keyword difficulty (KD): Measures how challenging it would be to rank in the top 10 search results for a specific keyword.
- Traffic potential: Pinpoints the total organic search traffic a page could receive if it ranked in the top positions for its target keyword.
- Keyword search volume: Represents the average monthly search volume for a specific keyword across all users in a defined location.
- Parent topic: Groups keywords under a broader, high-ranking topic to help you identify the primary subject driving traffic.
- Share of voice: Measures the percentage of organic traffic a website captures for specific keywords compared to competitors.
- Organic pages: Lists the pages on a website that drive traffic from organic search results.
- Crawled pages: Refers to the pages Ahrefs webmaster tools have analyzed for a domain.
Ready to build a strong linking profile, showing your audience — and search engines — that your site is a valuable source of truth? Just remember, quality matters more than quantity when it comes to backlinks. Use tools like Ahrefs to monitor, refine and expand your link equity and link-building efforts.
With a strategic approach, you can unlock your site’s full potential and leave your competitors in the dust.
