Link Building8 min read
The Backlink Audit Checklist We Run Before Every New Client
Before we build a single new link, we run this 40-minute audit. It's the difference between compounding growth and a manual action six months in.
Every new backlink program starts with an audit of what's already there. Skip this and you'll spend months building on top of a profile that's actively hurting you.
Look at three things first: anchor distribution, referring-domain quality curve, and link velocity. Any spike or imbalance is a red flag worth chasing before adding new links.
Disavow sparingly. Google is much better at ignoring low-quality links than it was five years ago — the disavow file is a scalpel for obvious spam networks, not a mop for anything you don't like.