Looking for the best back link audit tool for your SEO agency or company? There are plenty of solutions for back link audit on review sites, but they don’t make the choice any easier. The crux of the issue is – to make the right choice, you need to account for your priorities: your different jobs to be done, your budget, and the size of the company. But don’t worry – we’re coming to help! In this post, we’ll discuss exactly that – which back link audit tool is best depending on the different criteria that companies looking for back link audit software typically have. Let’s dive in!
TL;DR
- Back link audit is the process of analyzing links pointing to a website to identify issues and opportunities for improvement.
- Back link audit is important for improving search engine rankings and maintaining a healthy link profile.
- Back link audit tools are essential for efficient and comprehensive analysis.
- Must-have features of good back link audit tools include comprehensive backlink analysis, competitive research tools, keyword research and analysis, content gap analysis, robust reporting capabilities, and integration with other SEO tools.
- The best back link audit tools for SaaS companies are Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Majestic, and Google Search Console.
- Each tool has its own pros and cons, such as comprehensive features, pricing, ease of use, customer support, and data limitations.
- The pricing of each tool varies based on the features and data allowances provided.
- BacklinkManager is also recommended as a back link audit solution for SEOs and agencies.
- Some testimonials and user reviews are included to provide insights into the user experience of the tools.
- Finally, readers are encouraged to try BacklinkManager for free to find the best back link audit tool for their specific needs.
What is back link audit?
Back link audit refers to the process of analyzing the links pointing to a website in order to identify any potential issues or opportunities for improvement. This involves examining the quality and relevance of the links, as well as identifying any spammy or low-quality links that could be harming the website’s search engine rankings. A back link audit can help website owners to improve their link profile and ensure that their website is ranking as well as possible in search engine results pages.
Why is back link audit important?
A backlink audit is a process of analyzing the links pointing to a website from other websites. The purpose of a backlink audit is to identify any low-quality or spammy links that may be harming the website’s search engine rankings. The audit involves reviewing the anchor text, source domain, and other factors of each backlink to determine its quality and relevance. Once the audit is complete, the website owner can take steps to remove or disavow any harmful links and improve the overall quality of their backlink profile.
Why do you need back link audit tools?
Wondering why you even need a back link audit tool? There are several reasons why you may need one: A backlink audit is a process of analyzing the links pointing to a website from other websites. The purpose of a backlink audit is to identify any low-quality or spammy links that may be harming the website’s search engine rankings. By removing or disavowing these links, the website can improve its overall link profile and increase its chances of ranking higher in search results. A backlink audit can be done manually or with the help of various online tools.
Must have features of good back link audit tools
A backlink audit is a process of analyzing the links pointing to a website from other websites. It helps to identify any low-quality or spammy links that may be harming the website’s search engine rankings. The audit involves reviewing the anchor text, source domain, and other factors to determine the quality and relevance of each backlink. Once the audit is complete, steps can be taken to remove or disavow any harmful links and improve the overall link profile of the website.
Best back link audit tools
The best back link audit tools for SaaS include the following: A backlink audit is a process of analyzing the links pointing to a website from other websites. It helps to identify any low-quality or spammy links that may be harming the website’s search engine rankings. The audit involves reviewing the anchor text, source domain, and other factors to determine the quality and relevance of each backlink. Once the audit is complete, steps can be taken to remove or disavow any harmful links and improve the overall link profile of the website. Let’s dive deeper into how each stacks up for different company sizes, budgets and jobs to be done!
Ahrefs- Best back link audit platform for link audit
Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool that helps you analyze your website’s backlinks, research your competitors’ backlinks, and monitor your website’s performance in search engine rankings. It is a web-based tool that can be used to analyze HTML code and identify potential issues with your website’s SEO. It can also be used to identify broken links, analyze keyword performance, and track your website’s performance in search engine rankings.
Conducting regular link audits is vital for maintaining a healthy backlink profile and ensuring your website’s credibility and search engine rankings. Ahrefs provides a robust set of tools to help beginners perform comprehensive link audits. Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for link audits:
- Create an account: Sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their suite of SEO tools designed to help with link audits and more.
- Analyze your backlink profile: Use the Site Explorer tool to gain insights into your domain’s backlink profile, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and their quality.
- Identify low-quality or toxic links: In the Site Explorer, navigate to the ‘Backlinks’ tab and use filters to find low-quality or toxic backlinks, such as those with low Domain Rating (DR), high Spam Score, or coming from unrelated or spammy websites.
- Export toxic links: Export a list of toxic backlinks by clicking the ‘Export’ button in the Site Explorer. This will provide you with a CSV file containing the data required for further analysis or disavowal.
- Create a disavow file: Use the exported list of toxic backlinks to create a disavow file, following Google’s disavow guidelines.
- Submit the disavow file to Google: Submit the disavow file to Google Search Console to request Google to ignore the low-quality or toxic backlinks, thereby preventing any potential negative impact on your website’s rankings.
- Monitor your backlink profile: Regularly monitor your backlink profile using the Site Explorer and set up Ahrefs Alerts to receive email notifications about new or lost backlinks, ensuring you stay up to date on any changes.
- Learn more: Enhance your knowledge of link audits by leveraging the educational resources available through Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog.
PROs of Ahrefs
- Comprehensive backlink analysis
- Competitive research tools
- Keyword research and analysis
- Content gap analysis
- Robust reporting capabilities
- Integration with other SEO tools
- Easy-to-use interface
- Affordable pricing plans
Cons of Ahrefs
- Expensive subscription plans
- Limited data for free users
- Difficult to use for beginners
- No keyword research tool
- No social media analytics
Ahrefs pricing
Ahrefs offers a range of plans and pricing options to provide access to their powerful SEO tools and data. These plans cater to various needs, from small businesses to large enterprises:
- Lite: Starts at £79/month – Essential data for small businesses and hobby projects. Subscribe.
- Standard: Starts at £159/month – Perfect for freelance SEOs and marketing consultants. Subscribe.
- Advanced: Starts at £319/month – More tools and data for lean in-house marketing teams. Subscribe.
- Enterprise: Starts at £799/month – Ideal for agencies and enterprises. Talk to us.
Each plan comes with a variety of features and data allowances, such as SEO Dashboard, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, and more. You can choose to pay monthly or pay annually and get 2 months free. To learn more about each plan and get started, visit Ahrefs’ pricing page.
Still looking for the best back link audit tool for your business?
SEMrush- Best back link audit platform for link audit
SEMrush is a comprehensive digital marketing suite that offers a wide range of tools and features to help businesses and marketers optimize their online presence. Trusted by professionals around the globe, SEMrush provides valuable insights into search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing, and content strategy. With its powerful keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audit capabilities, SEMrush enables users to make data-driven decisions and craft effective marketing campaigns. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or a beginner in the digital marketing space, SEMrush offers a user-friendly interface and a wealth of resources to help you grow your online visibility, drive organic traffic, and achieve success in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
SEMrush is an excellent tool for conducting link audits, helping you identify and analyze your backlink profile to ensure your website maintains a healthy link profile. To perform a link audit with SEMrush, follow these actionable steps:
- Backlink Analytics: Start by using the Backlink Analytics tool to get an overview of your website’s backlink profile, including the total number of backlinks, referring domains, and anchor text distribution.
- Backlink Audit: Run a Backlink Audit within the “Projects” section of SEMrush. This will help you identify potentially harmful or low-quality links that may negatively impact your website’s rankings.
- Analyze Toxic Score: Review the toxic score assigned to each backlink in your audit report. The higher the toxic score, the more potentially harmful the link is to your website. Focus on the links with the highest toxic scores for further analysis.
- Review Link Details: Examine the details of each toxic backlink, such as the referring domain’s authority, anchor text, and the type of link (follow or nofollow). This information will help you determine whether the link should be removed or disavowed.
- Contact Webmasters: Reach out to the webmasters of the sites with harmful links, requesting link removal. SEMrush provides built-in email templates to streamline this process, or you can create your own personalized outreach emails.
- Create a Disavow File: If you’re unable to get certain harmful links removed, use SEMrush’s Disavow tool to create a disavow file. Submit this file to Google Search Console to ask Google to disregard those links when assessing your site’s ranking.
- Monitor Progress: Regularly review your backlink profile and update your disavow file as needed. Continuous link audits will help you maintain a healthy link profile and safeguard your website’s rankings in search engine results.
PROs of SEMrush
- Comprehensive keyword research tool
- Identify organic search opportunities
- Analyze competitors’ organic search strategies
- Track keyword rankings
- Monitor backlinks
- Identify technical SEO issues
- Generate detailed SEO reports
Cons of SEMrush
- Costly subscription plans
- Limited data for free users
- Difficult to use for beginners
- No support for mobile devices
SEMrush pricing
Semrush offers three pricing plans tailored to meet the needs of different users, from newbies to large enterprises:
- Pro: At $119.95 per month, this plan is suitable for newbies and small teams. It includes 5 projects, 500 keywords to track, 10,000 results per report, and a range of SEO, social, and PPC tools, such as competitor analysis, keyword research, website audit, advertising, and social media tools.
- Guru: Priced at $229.95 per month, the Guru plan is designed for agencies and mid-size businesses. It offers 15 projects, 1,500 keywords to track, 30,000 results per report, and all the features included in the Pro plan. Additionally, it includes the Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, Looker Studio integration, and more.
- Business: For $449.95 per month, the Business plan is tailored for large agencies and enterprises. It provides 40 projects, 5,000 keywords to track, 50,000 results per report, and all the features available in the Guru plan. Furthermore, it includes Share of Voice, extended limits, API access, PLA analytics, and free migration from third-party tools.
Additional users can be added to each plan at an extra cost, allowing for secure and efficient teamwork within the platform.
MOZ- Best back link audit platform for link audit
Moz is a renowned digital marketing and SEO software suite that offers a wide array of tools and resources to help businesses and marketers improve their online presence. With a focus on search engine optimization (SEO), Moz provides users with essential insights into keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, and on-page optimization. Its intuitive interface and powerful features make it an ideal choice for both beginners and experienced professionals in the digital marketing space. By leveraging Moz’s industry-leading expertise and cutting-edge tools, users can effectively optimize their websites, enhance their search engine rankings, and drive organic traffic to achieve lasting success in the competitive online landscape.
Continuing our discussion on leveraging Moz for SEO, let’s dive into how to conduct a link audit using Moz’s powerful tools. Regular link audits are essential for maintaining a healthy backlink profile and ensuring your website’s search engine ranking remains strong. Here’s a step-by-step guide that even a beginner SEO can follow:
- Step 1: Log in to your Moz dashboard and navigate to the “Link Explorer” tool, which can be found under the “SEO” tab in the top menu.
- Step 2: Enter your website’s domain in the search bar, then click “Analyze Domain.” This will provide you with an overview of your backlink profile, including Domain Authority (DA), number of backlinks, and referring domains.
- Step 3: Click on the “Inbound Links” tab to view a comprehensive list of all the backlinks pointing to your website.
- Step 4: Analyze your backlinks, paying close attention to the quality and relevance of each link. Use Moz’s Spam Score metric to help identify potentially harmful or low-quality links.
- Step 5: Export your backlink data to a spreadsheet for further analysis and organization. In the spreadsheet, create columns for the website name, URL, DA, Spam Score, and any relevant notes.
- Step 6: Review your spreadsheet and identify any links that need to be removed or disavowed due to low quality, high Spam Score, or irrelevance to your niche. Highlight these links for easy reference.
- Step 7: Reach out to the website owners or editors hosting the harmful links, politely requesting link removal. Keep track of your communications in your spreadsheet.
- Step 8: If link removal is unsuccessful or not possible, create a disavow file using Moz’s Disavow Tool. Upload this file to Google Search Console to inform Google that you do not want these links to impact your website’s ranking.
- Step 9: Regularly monitor your backlink profile using Moz’s “Link Explorer” tool to ensure your link audit efforts are effective and to identify any new links that may require attention.
By following these actionable steps, you can effectively use Moz to perform a link audit and maintain a healthy backlink profile for your website, ultimately improving your search engine ranking.
PROs of MOZ
- Easy to use
- Comprehensive SEO tools
- Detailed keyword research
- Robust link building capabilities
- Competitive analysis
- Content optimization
- Real-time website monitoring
Cons of MOZ
- Expensive subscription plans
- Limited features for free users
- Difficult to use for beginners
- Lack of customer support
MOZ pricing
If you’re considering Moz Pro as your SEO tool of choice, it’s essential to understand the different pricing plans available to you. All Moz Pro plans include 24-hour online support, and you can choose between monthly or yearly payment options, with a 20% discount for annual subscriptions:
- Standard: $99/month ($79/month when billed yearly) – Perfect for beginners or those requiring basic SEO features.
- Medium: $179/month ($143/month when billed yearly) – Most popular plan, with ample limits and full access to keyword research tools.
- Large: $299/month ($239/month when billed yearly) – Ideal for businesses and agencies serious about search, offering more extensive limits and tools.
- Premium: $599/month ($479/month when billed yearly) – Designed for large SEO-focused agencies and in-house marketing teams, providing the most comprehensive features.
Each plan offers different levels of access to features such as campaigns, keyword rankings, mobile rankings, pages crawled per week, performance metrics, keyword queries, backlink queries, link tracking lists, and more. By selecting the plan that best fits your needs and budget, you can optimize your SEO efforts and make the most of Moz Pro’s powerful tools. Click here to explore each plan’s features and find the one that’s best for you.
Majestic- Best back link audit platform for link audit
Majestic is a powerful SEO tool that helps you analyze and monitor your website’s performance in search engine rankings. It provides detailed insights into your website’s backlinks, anchor text, and other SEO metrics. It also helps you identify potential link building opportunities and track your competitors’ SEO strategies. Majestic is a great tool for any website owner looking to improve their website’s visibility in search engine results.
Next, let’s examine how Majestic can be used to conduct link audits. A thorough link audit helps you maintain a high-quality backlink profile, ensuring optimal search engine performance. Here’s an actionable, step-by-step guide for beginner SEOs:
- Step 1: Log in to your Majestic dashboard and navigate to the “Site Explorer” tool.
- Step 2: Enter your website’s domain in the search bar and click “Explore” to access a wealth of information about your backlink profile, Trust Flow, and Citation Flow.
- Step 3: Review the “Backlinks” tab for a detailed list of all the backlinks pointing to your website. Look for any suspicious or low-quality links that may negatively impact your search engine ranking.
- Step 4: Use the Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics to evaluate the quality and authority of your backlinks. Prioritize links with high scores for removal or disavowal.
- Step 5: Create a spreadsheet to document your link audit findings. Include columns for the website name, URL, Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and any relevant notes or actions to be taken.
- Step 6: Reach out to the website owners or editors hosting the low-quality or spammy links. Politely request link removal, providing a brief explanation of your concerns.
- Step 7: For unresponsive or uncooperative website owners, use Google’s Disavow Links tool to disavow the harmful links, preventing them from impacting your search engine ranking.
- Step 8: Monitor the results of your link audit efforts using Majestic’s “Site Explorer” tool. Regularly review your backlink profile to ensure a healthy link profile and continuous improvement in your search engine ranking.
By following these actionable steps, you can effectively use Majestic to perform comprehensive link audits, maintaining a high-quality backlink profile and optimizing your website’s search engine performance.
PROs of Majestic
- Extensive link data: Majestic boasts one of the largest link databases in the industry, providing a wealth of information for backlink analysis and competitor research.
- Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics: Majestic’s proprietary metrics, Trust Flow and Citation Flow, help users evaluate the quality and authority of backlinks, making it easier to identify valuable link opportunities.
- Topical Trust Flow: This unique feature allows users to analyze the topical relevance of backlinks, ensuring that they build a natural and diverse link profile.
- Historical backlink data: Majestic offers access to historical backlink data, enabling users to analyze link profiles over time and monitor changes in their competitors’ strategies.
- Link visualization tools: Majestic’s link visualization tools, such as Link Graph and Link Map, help users understand the structure of their link profile and identify patterns or anomalies.
- Custom reports: Users can create custom reports tailored to their specific needs, making it easy to share insights and data with clients or team members.
- Bulk backlink analysis: Majestic’s Bulk Backlink Checker tool allows users to analyze up to 400 URLs at once, saving time and effort when working on large-scale link analysis projects.
- API access: For users with advanced needs, Majestic offers API access to their data, allowing for seamless integration with other tools and custom applications.
- Competitive pricing: Compared to other industry-leading SEO tools, Majestic offers a variety of pricing plans that cater to different budgets and needs, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Cons of Majestic
- Expensive
- Difficult to use
- Limited customer support
- Lack of features
Majestic pricing
Please note that the pricing information can change frequently and is only valid as of the publishing date. For the most up-to-date pricing, please visit the Majestic Pricing Plans page.
- Lite Plan: Designed for individual users or small businesses, the Lite Plan is priced at $49.99 per month. This plan includes 1 million analysis units, 60 detailed reports per month, and access to Fresh Index data.
- Pro Plan: Targeted at professionals and agencies, the Pro Plan costs $99.99 per month. It includes 5 million analysis units, 300 detailed reports per month, and access to both Fresh Index and Historic Index data, along with additional features like Raw Data Exports and API access.
- API Plan: For users with advanced data needs, the API Plan starts at $399.99 per month. This plan includes 100 million analysis units, 950 detailed reports per month, access to Fresh Index and Historic Index data, and extensive API access for custom applications.
- Custom Plans: Majestic also offers custom plans tailored to specific business requirements. To inquire about custom plans, users can contact the Majestic sales team for a personalized quote.
Google Search Console- Best back link audit platform for link audit
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results. It provides you with detailed reports and data about your site’s performance in search results. With Google Search Console, you can see which queries are bringing visitors to your site, how often your pages are displayed in search results, and how often searchers click on your results. You can also use it to submit and check a sitemap, review your robots.txt file, and generate and check a robots meta tag.
In this section, we’ll explore how Google Search Console can be utilized for link audits, a crucial process for evaluating and optimizing your website’s backlink profile. Conducting regular link audits can help you maintain a healthy link profile and enhance your website’s search engine ranking. Here’s an actionable guide for beginner SEOs:
- Step 1: Log in to your Google Search Console account and verify your website, if you haven’t done so already.
- Step 2: Navigate to the “Links” section in the left-hand menu to view data about your website’s backlinks and internal links.
- Step 3: Analyze the “Top linking sites” report to evaluate the quality and relevance of websites linking to your content. Look for any suspicious or low-quality sites that could negatively impact your search engine ranking.
- Step 4: Review the “Top linked pages” report to assess the distribution of backlinks across your website’s content. Identify any pages that may be over-optimized or under-optimized in terms of backlinks, and adjust your link-building strategy accordingly.
- Step 5: Examine the “Top linking text” report to evaluate the anchor text used by other websites when linking to your content. Ensure that the anchor text aligns with your target keywords and accurately represents your content.
- Step 6: Create a spreadsheet to document your link audit findings, including columns for the website name, URL, link quality, anchor text, and any necessary actions or notes.
- Step 7: Address any issues identified during the link audit, such as contacting website owners to request changes, updating your content strategy, or using Google’s Disavow Tool to disavow harmful backlinks.
- Step 8: Schedule regular link audits as part of your ongoing SEO strategy. Consistent audits will help you maintain a healthy backlink profile and ensure your website’s search engine ranking continues to improve.
By following these actionable steps, you can effectively use Google Search Console to conduct thorough link audits, optimize your website’s backlink profile, and enhance your search engine ranking over time.
PROs of Google Search Console
- Gain insights into how your website is performing in Google search results
- Monitor your website’s search performance with tools like the Performance report and URL Inspection tool
- Receive alerts when Google detects issues on your site
- Submit your sitemap and individual URLs for crawling
- See which queries are driving traffic to your site
- Identify and fix indexing issues
- Track your website’s overall search performance
Cons of Google Search Console
- Requires technical knowledge to set up and use
- Can be difficult to interpret the data
- Can be time consuming to set up and maintain
- Can be difficult to integrate with other tools
Overall, users feel positive about Tool9– here’s an example summarizing some key points about its features and the value it offers:
Our Tool9 Representative, Joe Fimiani, is one of the main reasons we love working with Tool9. Joe works hard to establish a trusting relationship with his customers. Joe goes above and beyond to ensure we are satisfied and happy with our Tool9 product by doing regular check-ins.One thing that is a little frustrating is getting past the Tool9 pop-up widgets. Sometimes the pop-up widgets are in the way of tabs that need to be selected. As a result, the tabs are harder to select. However, this may not be an Tool9 issue, rather a Clarity issue 🙂 –
Desiree G.
Tool9 is incredibly helpful for new employees to get familiar with processes in our project management software. The work flows and tooltips have been essential for our workforce.The only downside to Tool9 was the learning curve of first building out the application to work with our project management tool. Tool9 had a great support system to help through those challenges. – Jennifer T
Most complaints are about the missing features, integrations and the steep learning curve.
It’s tricky to make the most of it, particularly in the early stages of adoption. The support team are great, but it can be challenging to know what support can be asked for if we’re unaware of what’s possible.- Administrator in Business Supplies and Equipment
With each new release of the software, there is a bit of uncertainty in the stability of new features. Requires more attention than preferable with each new switch. Also, our tools are more complex than your standard website and that requires more work and work-arounds than expected when first acquiring a third-party onboarding tool.- Administrator in Computer Software
UX experience when it comes to testing is cumbersome; a lot of back and forth.
Below are critical tools that are missing or need improvement. I would like to see these additions and enhancements as current features are limiting our options for solutions: Auto triggers (Related to Rule Engine, i.e. Specific page load, removing the reliance on triggers such as: Launchers, Menu Widget, and Announcement Button),IDP for standardized User Identifier,eLearning for content creators (Builder Certifications),Surveys,Chatbot etc- Paolo T.
Google Search Console pricing
Search Console is a free tool 🙂
Conclusion
As we’ve seen from the post above, there are several reasons why you should be using a back link audit tool.
To provide a stellar back link audit, you need to have the right tool in your stack.
Hopefully you’ve found this post helpful with choosing the right back link audit tool for your SaaS!
