SEO Tips & Tricks Podcast: SEO Website Audit (Part 4)

Backlink Website Audit

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks Podcast with Tim Jennings. I am your host, Tim and I have been the head of SEO at Soulheart for almost a decade now. In my time at Soulheart I have helped countless businesses and nonprofits reach their goals through gaining organic traffic from search engines like Google, Bin, Yahoo, and others. Today we are going to continue our third episode of our SEO Website Audit series where we will be discussing backlinks and how to audit them.

In the big world of the internet, websites are like friends connecting to one another. Just like friends sharing stories and ideas, websites connect through something called backlinks. Have you ever wondered how search engines like Google decide which websites are the coolest and most trustworthy? Well, one of the secrets lies in these backlinks! In this article, we’ll dive into the exciting world of backlinks, why they’re super important for your website’s success, and how you can audit them to make your site even better.

Understanding Backlinks

Imagine your website is throwing a party, and each backlink is like an invitation from another website to your party. These invitations, or backlinks, show that other websites think your website is cool and worth visiting. When more websites link to yours, search engines start thinking, “Wow, this website must be really helpful and important!”

Why Backlinks Matter for SEO

Just like getting more friends to your party makes it more exciting, having more quality backlinks can make your website more exciting to search engines. When you want to find something online, you type words into a search engine, right? Search engines like Google use backlinks to figure out which websites are trustworthy and full of good information. So, the more quality backlinks your website has, the higher it might show up in search results. It’s like getting a gold star from the internet!

Importance of Backlink Audits

Now that we know how special backlinks are, let’s talk about why it’s important to audit them. Imagine if someone at your party was causing trouble. You’d want to figure out who they were and ask them to leave, right? Similarly, some backlinks can cause trouble for your website. If your website has too many bad or spammy backlinks, search engines might think your site is up to no good. By doing a backlink audit, you can find these naughty backlinks and ask them to leave your party (or your website!). And the opposite is true as well. When you have a lot of high-quality backlinks, search engines see you as popular and trustworthy. If you were to have one disappear then it could be bad for your website. Monitoring your good links to ensure they are still present and pivoting if they are removed is vital for any website.

Tools for Backlink Audits

Just like you might use a flashlight to find hidden treasures, there are tools that can help you find hidden backlinks. Some popular tools that many SEO strategists use for backlink audits are:

• Ahrefs
• Moz
• SEMrush

These tools can help you see which websites are linking to yours and whether they’re good or bad friends for your website.

Earning Quality Backlinks

Now, let’s talk about how to make new friends (backlinks) for your website. You can earn quality backlinks by:

• Creating awesome content that other websites will want to link to.
• Reaching out to other website owners and asking nicely for a backlink.
• Guest posting on other websites and sharing your knowledge.
• Being active on social media and getting noticed by others.
• Run a search ad campaign with Google and other search engines

Using Backlink Audits to Improve

Once you’ve done a backlink audit and found the good and not-so-good backlinks, it’s time to make your website even better. You can

• Strengthen relationships: Reach out to websites with good backlinks and thank them for linking to you. Maybe they’ll want to link to you again!
• Keep creating awesome content: The more helpful stuff you have on your website, the more likely others will want to link to it.
• And finally, an idea that I would use with caution and very sparingly – Disavow bad backlinks: This is like telling search engines to ignore the bad friends at your party. The reason I am so cautious to disavow backlinks is because it can do much more harm than good if you disavow a good link. In fact, Google has stated that they are equipped to qualify all of your backlinks and just automatically place no value on spammy links. However, there are times when a bad links sneak through and it can harm your SEO efforts.

More Backlink Audit Tips

Backlinks are like the secret sauce that can make your website shine bright in the online world. By understanding what backlinks are, why they’re important, and how to audit them, you can make your website the coolest kid on the internet block.

I trust that you have a better understanding of what backlinks are, their importance, and why you should regularly audit them. It is important to maintain a high-quality backlink profile. If you are interested in more tips and strategies to build backlinks to your website then I would encourage you to head over to soulheart.co/seo to sign up for exclusive content and resources that I don’t share anywhere else. 

And finally, if you are really serious about growing your business or nonprofit, then I would highly suggest going to https://soulheartcircle.co. There will you get expert advice, training on the very operational procedures that we use at Soulheart to bring victories to our clients, access to our team where you can ask your marketing questions during live Q&As, and more!

Until the next episode, have a great day and go audit those backlinks!