What is a Backlink Audit?

Backlink Audit

Backlink Audit is a discipline of SEO that had its debut with the [Google Penguin](/content/kb/penguin-faq/index.md#google-penguin "Google Penguin was a major algorithm update that was first released in April 2012."/index.html) updates. It involves the evaluation following the removal and [disavowing](/content/kb/disavow-links/index.md#what-does-to-disavow-links-and-disavow-domains-mean "When you disavow links you tell search engines to ignore them for ranking calculation."/index.html) of [toxic links](/content/kb/toxic-links.md#toxic-links "a broad marketing term often describing different things, but in general links deemed to be harmful for search engine rankings in Google and other search engines at varying grades."/index.html).

Every SEO who already went through the pain of a Google Filter for links, [Google penalty](/content/kb/google-penalty/index.md#what-are-google-penalties "Google Penalties are also called Manual Action by Google."/index.html) or a manual action knows about the importance of proactive disavows and proper [link risk](/content/kb/link-detox-risk/index.md#understanding-link-detox-risk "Link Detox Risk expresses the estimated risk a link has in a backlink profile."/index.html) management.

But there are also other fields in Backlink Audit besides [disavowing](/content/kb/disavow-links/index.md#what-does-to-disavow-links-and-disavow-domains-mean "When you disavow links you tell search engines to ignore them for ranking calculation."/index.html) high risk links.

Backlink Audit is also about assessing the average risk from new link prospects. It also involves analyzing websites for their best page to place a link on, as well as trying to recover link juice from lost links.

Backlink Audit Workflow

Backlink Audit must be seen as a continuous process. Your SEO success not only depends on the links you build yourself, but also on the links that others build to your site naturally.

Hopefully those new links you get are helping you, but potentially those could also be harmful for your ranking links, also known as [toxic links](/content/kb/toxic-links.md#toxic-links "a broad marketing term often describing different things, but in general links deemed to be harmful for search engine rankings in Google and other search engines at varying grades."/index.html).

Updating your domain’s disavow file, checking for broken links and assessing their quality should be in your weekly routine as a clever SEO.

Ongoing proactive [disavowing](/content/kb/disavow-links/index.md#what-does-to-disavow-links-and-disavow-domains-mean "When you disavow links you tell search engines to ignore them for ranking calculation."/index.html) was even mentioned and recommended by Google.

Disavow Links and Manage Risk

If you want to go for the classic “recover and protect” from [Google Penguin](/content/kb/penguin-faq/index.md#google-penguin "Google Penguin was a major algorithm update that was first released in April 2012."/index.html) and [manual actions](/content/kb/google-penalty/index.md#what-are-google-penalties "Google Penalties are also called Manual Action by Google."/index.html), then Link Detox (DTOX) is the tool for you. It helps you easily find the bad links that harm your site. You can clean up your inbound link profile and earn your rankings back.

You can also review the quality of the links in your disavow file and find links you wish to undisavow. Just upload your disavow file and run a [Disavow File Audit](/content/blog/google-penalty-5-steps/index.md#disavow-file-audit "Checking your disavowed links from time to time is highly recommended practice."/index.html) report for your domain.

Recover Link Juice, Optimize Link Structure

When auditing your [backlink profile](/content/kb/backlink-profile.md#what-is-backlink-profile "A Backlink Profile describes the combined backlinks to a website, in an abstract way."/index.html), make sure you don’t leave any broken links behind. Every broken link means a bad experience for your users and lost link juice in Google. This is why you should go after any broken link and fix it with the matching redirect.

You should also consider checking for the best subpages on your domain and optimize your internal link structure according to that. Also, you should check any domain for its best subpages whenever you have the chance to get a link there. This way, you can always make sure to get your link on the right page. Recommended tool: Strongest Subpages Tool (SSPT)

Speed up the Crawling

Whenever you did changes to your [backlink profile](/content/kb/backlink-profile.md#what-is-backlink-profile "A Backlink Profile describes the combined backlinks to a website, in an abstract way."/index.html) you want to have promoted, you have to make sure Google takes notice of it, no matter, if it’s a new disavow file or some awesome new links you just built. If you want to have those links crawled faster, you can always use the [Link Detox Boost (BOOST)](/content/seo-tools/boost/index.md#what-is-link-detox-boost "Link Detox Boost helps you recover from a Google Penalty."/index.html). It makes Google really count your disavow file or new links and helps you recover from any penalty and restore your rankings fast.

Conclusion

Conducting a Backlink Audit is like having a good health plan for your [backlink profile](/content/kb/backlink-profile.md#what-is-backlink-profile "A Backlink Profile describes the combined backlinks to a website, in an abstract way."/index.html). It involves the insurance against [toxic links](/content/kb/toxic-links.md#toxic-links "a broad marketing term often describing different things, but in general links deemed to be harmful for search engine rankings in Google and other search engines at varying grades."/index.html), helps you keep the link juice flowing to the right pages and recover from penalties.

A backlink audit is a very important, yet time-consuming aspect of the SEO process.