seo-backlink-audit

$npx mdskill add rampstackco/claude-skills/seo-backlink-audit

Audit a backlink profile to assess health and identify gaps

  • Identifies potential issues in a backlink profile using Ahrefs MCP data.
  • Depends on Ahrefs MCP for data retrieval and analysis.
  • Decides actions based on profile health, anchor text distribution, toxic links, reclamation opportunities, and competitor analysis.
  • Delivers results through reports and recommendations for further action.

SKILL.md

.github/skills/seo-backlink-auditView on GitHub ↗
---
name: seo-backlink-audit
description: "Audit a backlink profile using Ahrefs MCP data: profile health, anchor text distribution, toxic link identification, lost link reclamation, and gap analysis against competitors. Use this skill when reviewing backlink health, scoping a disavow project, recovering from a manual action, planning link building, or doing M&A due diligence on a property's link equity. Triggers on backlink audit, link profile, toxic links, disavow, anchor text analysis, lost links, link reclamation, referring domains, link gap. Also triggers when traffic decline correlates with link loss or when an unnatural link warning appears in Search Console."
category: seo-audit-suite
catalog_summary: "Profile health, anchor mix, toxic links, reclamation, gap analysis"
display_order: 2
---

# SEO Backlink Audit

Audit a backlink profile using data pulled from the Ahrefs MCP. Stack-agnostic. Produces a profile health assessment, a toxic link list (if needed), a reclamation list, and a gap analysis against competitors.

---

## When to use

- Periodic backlink health check (quarterly or biannual)
- Recovering from a Google manual action or unnatural link warning
- Scoping a disavow file
- Pre-acquisition due diligence on link equity
- Planning a link building campaign (need a baseline)
- Investigating ranking drops correlated with link loss
- Recovering lost links after a migration or replatform

## When NOT to use

- Building new links (use `seo-offpage`)
- General SEO audits (use `seo-audit-orchestration`)
- Keyword opportunity analysis (use `seo-keyword-gap-audit`)
- Technical issues unrelated to links (use `seo-site-health-audit`)

---

## Required inputs

- Target property (root domain, subdomain, or URL prefix)
- Competitor set (3-5 properties with comparable strategies)
- Time window (typically last 12-24 months)
- Confirmation Ahrefs MCP is connected and has access to the property
- Search Console manual action status (if any)
- Recent SEO history (migrations, link campaigns, penalties)

---

## The framework: 5 dimensions of a backlink profile

A profile is healthy when all five dimensions are healthy. Issues in any one can cap rankings or invite penalties.

### Dimension 1: Referring domain quality

Volume of links matters less than the quality and relevance of the linking domains.

Pull from Ahrefs:

- Total referring domains (current and trended)
- Domain Rating distribution (DR bands)
- Topical relevance of linking domains
- Geographic distribution (where appropriate)
- Domain age and trust signals

Healthy signal: a long tail of relevant, established domains. Concentration in any single source is a risk.

### Dimension 2: Link velocity

How fast links are gained or lost.

Pull from Ahrefs:

- New referring domains per month (trended 12-24 months)
- Lost referring domains per month
- Net change

Healthy signal: steady positive growth. Sudden spikes suggest paid campaigns or negative SEO. Sudden drops correlate with redirect mistakes, content removal, or the linking sites going down.

### Dimension 3: Anchor text distribution

The mix of anchor types tells search engines what the property is about and whether the profile looks natural.

Categories to map:

- Branded (the brand name)
- Naked URL
- Generic ("click here", "this page")
- Exact-match keyword
- Partial-match keyword
- Image (alt text or none)

Healthy signal: branded and naked URL anchors dominate. Exact-match keyword anchors are a small minority. Heavy exact-match concentration triggers spam filters.

### Dimension 4: Link types

Not all links are equal.

Categories:

- Dofollow versus nofollow
- Editorial versus directory or comment
- In-content versus footer or sidebar
- Sponsored or UGC tagged
- Redirect chains
- Lost links recoverable via outreach

Healthy signal: editorial in-content dofollow links from relevant sites dominate.

### Dimension 5: Competitive gap

What links do peers have that you do not?

Pull from Ahrefs:

- Domains linking to 2+ competitors but not the target
- Domains linking to 1 competitor with high relevance to the target
- Top performing competitor pages by referring domain count

Healthy signal: the gap is shrinking over time. A widening gap is a strategic risk.

---

## Workflow

1. **Charter the audit.** Goal, scope, time window, competitor set.
2. **Pull baseline data.** Referring domains, anchor text, link types, lost links, competitor overlap.
3. **Map the profile across 5 dimensions.** One section per dimension.
4. **Identify red flags.** Velocity spikes, anchor concentration, low-DR concentration, suspect TLDs, repeated footprints.
5. **Build the toxic list (if needed).** Use the criteria in [`references/toxic-link-criteria.md`](references/toxic-link-criteria.md).
6. **Build the reclamation list.** Lost links worth recovering via outreach.
7. **Build the gap list.** Domains linking to peers, prioritized by relevance.
8. **Synthesize.** Profile health verdict, top 3 risks, top 3 opportunities.
9. **Recommend.** Disavow (rare), reclamation outreach, link building targets, monitoring cadence.
10. **Document and hand off.** Outputs feed `seo-offpage` and `seo-audit-orchestration`.

---

## Failure patterns

- **Disavow happy.** Most profiles do not need a disavow. Disavowing legitimate links damages rankings. Use it only after a manual action or clear algorithmic signals.
- **Counting links instead of evaluating them.** A profile with 10,000 referring domains can be weaker than one with 200 high-quality editorial links.
- **Ignoring lost links.** Recovering a lost link is faster and cheaper than building a new one.
- **No competitor benchmark.** Profile health is relative. A "low" backlink count for a tier-1 competitor is a "great" count for a niche site.
- **Anchor text panic.** A high exact-match percentage in absolute terms is fine for niche sites where the brand and keyword overlap. Investigate before disavowing.
- **One-time audit.** Profile health drifts. Audit on a cadence (quarterly minimum for active properties).
- **Treating Ahrefs as ground truth.** Ahrefs sees most links but not all. Triangulate with Search Console for completeness.
- **Over-indexing on Domain Rating.** DR is a relative metric, not a quality signal. A DR-30 niche site can be more valuable than a DR-80 generalist.

---

## Output format

A backlink audit document with:

1. **Executive summary.** Profile health verdict and top risks.
2. **Profile snapshot.** Key metrics: referring domains, DR distribution, anchor mix, velocity.
3. **5-dimension analysis.** One section per dimension with findings.
4. **Toxic link list.** If needed. Disavow file ready format.
5. **Reclamation list.** Lost links worth recovering, with contact paths.
6. **Gap list.** Top 50 domains linking to competitors but not target.
7. **Recommendations.** Disavow (Y/N), reclamation outreach plan, link building targets.
8. **Methodology.** Data sources, pull dates, criteria used.

Length: 8-15 pages depending on profile complexity.

---

## Reference files

- [`references/toxic-link-criteria.md`](references/toxic-link-criteria.md) - Decision framework for classifying a link as toxic, including the disavow file format and threshold guidance.

More from rampstackco/claude-skills

SkillDescription
ads-creative-developmentHow to produce ad creative that converts at performance scale. Hook patterns, format selection, video pacing, variation systems, sequential testing methodology, fatigue detection, brand-voice alignment without conversion dilution, and platform-specific creative norms. Triggers on ad creative, ad design, hook patterns, ad video pacing, creative testing, ad variations, creative refresh, creative fatigue, refresh ad creative, video ads for Meta, TikTok creative, LinkedIn ad creative, ad asset library. Also triggers when a team is producing creative at scale, planning a creative test cycle, or auditing why creative is not converting.
ads-performance-analyticsHow to read paid media dashboards without fooling yourself. Attribution models, platform reporting quirks, multi-platform reconciliation, ROAS vs LTV horizon traps, statistical noise in performance metrics, incrementality testing, and the failure modes that produce expensive lessons. Triggers on read paid media dashboard, attribution analysis, ROAS vs LTV, multi-platform reconciliation, ad incrementality, geo holdout, conversion lift study, ghost bidding, paid media reporting, board-deck paid media metrics, blended CAC, MMM, MTA, last-click attribution. Also triggers when a marketer is about to scale, kill, or rebudget a campaign based on platform metrics, or when reconciling platform reports against warehouse revenue.
after-action-reportRun a structured after-action review (postmortem, retrospective) on a launch, incident, or completed project to capture timeline, root cause analysis, contributing factors, and actionable lessons. Use this skill whenever the user wants to run a postmortem, retrospective, AAR, or after-action review on any past event. Triggers on after-action report, AAR, postmortem, retrospective, retro, post-incident review, what went well what didn't, lessons learned, blameless postmortem, root cause analysis, RCA, five whys. Also triggers when the user has just shipped something or just resolved an incident and wants to capture learnings.
ai-content-collaborationHow humans and AI compose in content workflows. Where AI legitimately participates, where humans must own, hybrid workflow patterns, voice ownership preservation, the AI slop problem, disclosure and transparency, team calibration, and the ethics of intellectually honest AI-assisted content production. Triggers on AI content workflow, AI-assisted writing, hybrid content production, AI in editorial, AI slop, AI disclosure, AI usage policy, AI content ethics, voice preservation with AI, team AI calibration. Also triggers when content feels generic despite quality tools, when team AI usage has drifted into inconsistency, or when a regulated or trust-sensitive context requires explicit AI policy.
analytics-strategyDesign measurement frameworks including event taxonomy, KPI hierarchy, dashboard architecture, attribution models, and analytics implementation strategy. Use this skill whenever the user wants to plan analytics, design dashboards, build event taxonomies, define KPIs, set up tracking, or audit existing measurement. Triggers on analytics strategy, measurement plan, event taxonomy, tracking plan, KPI framework, dashboard design, north star metric, attribution model, conversion tracking, GA4 setup, Mixpanel setup, analytics audit. Also triggers when the user has data but no clear way to use it, or wants to make decisions but doesn't know what to track.
art-directionDirect visual and creative work for campaigns, photography, illustration, video, and branded experiences. Use this skill whenever the user wants to brief a photographer, direct illustrators, plan a creative campaign, develop visual concepts, write a creative direction document, or evaluate creative work for fit. Triggers on art direction, photo brief, photography brief, illustration brief, campaign concept, creative concept, visual direction, mood board, look and feel, visual treatment, video direction. Also triggers when the user has approved brand identity but needs to extend it into specific creative deliverables.
backup-and-disaster-recoveryPlan and run backups, set recovery objectives, and run disaster recovery drills. Use this skill when defining RPO/RTO targets, designing backup architecture, deciding what to back up and how often, planning for full-region or platform outages, or running a restoration drill. Triggers on backup, restore, RPO, RTO, disaster recovery, DR, business continuity, what if the database is gone, what if our hosting goes down, recovery drill, ransomware planning. Also triggers when an incident reveals a gap in restoration capability.
beta-program-managementRunning closed and open betas that produce real signal. Beta participant selection, structured feedback collection, beta-to-GA decision criteria, and the difference between soft-launch (no structure, no signal), kitchen-sink (everyone in, no actionable feedback), and structured beta (calibrated cohort, intentional feedback loops, clear graduation criteria). Triggers on beta program, alpha test, beta cohort, beta participant, beta feedback, beta to GA decision, design partner, early access program, closed beta, open beta, RC release. Also triggers when a feature is approaching launch and the team needs structured pre-GA validation, when prior betas produced noise rather than signal, or when the team has soft-launched before but wants more structured feedback this time.
brand-archetype-systemApply pre-composed aesthetic archetype defaults to jumpstart brand design work covering color, typography, layout, voice, and imagery direction. Use this skill whenever the user wants a starting point for brand visual and verbal direction, references a brand they want to design near (for example 'something like Stripe' or 'editorial like Linear'), needs to converge faster from many directions to one, or wants known-good defaults for a specific industry vertical. Triggers on archetype, design archetype, brand archetype, near to (brand), in the style of, similar aesthetic, design starting point, brand template, vertical-typical, industry-typical. Also triggers when the user has a brief and wants to map it to a known aesthetic family rather than design from first principles.
brand-discoveryRun upstream brand discovery covering audience research, competitive landscape, category dynamics, problem space, and positioning territory exploration. Use this skill at the very start of a brand or website project when the user needs to understand who they're for, who they compete with, what the audience actually needs, and where the brand could plausibly stand. Triggers on brand discovery, audience research, market research, competitive scan, category research, customer research, who is this for, who are we, positioning research, intake, kickoff. Also triggers when a creative brief is requested but the upstream inputs (audience, competitors, problem space) are not yet clear.