Backlink audit and analysis: what your link profile is actually doing

No. It is part of the TomHow retainer. A standalone audit tends to produce a spreadsheet that nobody actions, and the value sits in what gets fixed afterwards rather than in the findings themselves.

No bought links, no link exchanges, no private networks. The work covers analysis, reclamation of links you have already earned, and building assets that give publications a genuine reason to cite you.

Semrush for referring domain and gap data, Google Search Console for what Google itself reports, and manual review of anything that looks decisive. No single index sees every link, so the report states which source produced each finding.

Reclamation fixes can register within weeks. Genuine authority growth is slower and depends on whether there is anything on the site worth linking to. Anyone promising a fixed timeline is guessing.

Most link profiles are not dangerous. They are just weak, and nobody has told the owner which parts carry weight and which are noise.

Backlink analysis reviews the referring domains and links available in your search data and compares them with relevant competitors. TomHow checks editorial relevance, lost links, redirects and useful content gaps. Findings become a repair, a content opportunity or a reason to leave a link alone. This work is included in the retainer; it is not sold as a standalone link package. No bought links or ranking guarantees.

A backlink audit does not create links or guarantee rankings. It tells you what authority you have, where it came from, and which gaps are worth closing. Analysis reflects the tools and index available on the date of the report.

Managed search work An agreed scope Part of the TomHow retainer. 01 A focused set of priorities 02 Implementation within scope 03 A written record of changes Founder-led. Written findings. Clear next steps.

01 / What gets checked

Link totals alone do not explain authority. A smaller set of relevant editorial references may be more useful than a large collection of unrelated listings. The review considers the publication, the linking page and the reason the reference exists.

• Every referring domain, scored for editorial value against directory and automated noise
• Authority distribution, so you can see how much of the profile sits in the near-zero band
• Anchor text spread and whether it looks natural or manipulated
• Lost and new referring domains over time, and what caused each change
• Links pointing at pages that now redirect, 404, or no longer match the intent they earned

02 / Competitor gap

A gap analysis compares your referring domains against the sites ranking above you for the terms you care about. What matters is the set of domains that link to two or more competitors and none to you, because those are publications with a demonstrated willingness to cover this category.

• Domains linking to multiple competitors but not to you
• The pages on their sites that earned those links, and why
• Which gaps are realistically reachable and which belong to budgets you are not competing with
• Whether the gap is a link problem or a missing asset problem

03 / What happens next

The audit output feeds the retainer work directly. Findings become either a technical fix, an asset worth building, or a documented decision to leave something alone. Every item lands in one of those three states before the report is signed off.

• Redirect and reclamation fixes where existing links point at dead or mismatched pages
• Unlinked brand mentions worth a polite correction request
• Asset gaps where the category earns links and you have nothing to earn them with
• An explicit do-nothing list, so effort is not spent on noise

• Competitor analysisWho you actually lose to, and why.
• Website auditThe full technical and content diagnostic.
• SEOThe foundation layer the links support.
• PackagesHow the retainer is put together.
• Talk to TomSend your website and the problem you need to solve.