Backlinks are one of the most powerful signals that boost your website’s authority and improve search engine rankings. However, it’s common for backlinks to become inactive over time. Links can be removed, broken, or redirected without notice, resulting in lost SEO benefits. Checking if your backlinks are still active is essential for protecting your SEO strategy and maximizing organic traffic.
This step-by-step guide will walk you through how to check if your backlinks are still active, ensuring you retain the full value of your link-building efforts. We’ll explore both manual and automated methods, and show you how to use a backlink checker tool for optimal results.
Why It’s Important to Check if Backlinks Are Active
Active backlinks from high-authority sites help signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. However, inactive or lost backlinks can have the opposite effect, leading to:
- Reduced Search Engine Rankings: Inactive backlinks cause a loss of authority, which can impact your ranking in search results.
- Missed Traffic Opportunities: Each backlink serves as a pathway for potential visitors. Lost or broken links mean fewer visitors and less traffic.
- Risk of SEO Penalties: Sometimes, inactive backlinks come from low-quality or harmful sites. If you don’t regularly check your backlinks, these poor-quality links can damage your SEO and potentially result in a penalty from Google.
Step 1: Collect a List of Your Backlinks
The first step is to gather a complete list of your backlinks. Most SEO tools provide backlink reports, including Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Google Search Console. Here’s how to get a list of your backlinks from Google Search Console:
- Log in to Google Search Console and select your website.
- Navigate to Links > Top linking sites.
- Export the list of backlinks to a spreadsheet for easy reference.
Using a spreadsheet makes it easy to organize and check each link status manually, or you can import this list into a backlink checker tool for automated monitoring.
Step 2: Manually Check Each Backlink (Optional)
If you have a smaller site or prefer a hands-on approach, you can manually check each backlink’s status. Here’s how:
- Visit Each Backlink’s Source Page: Open each link in your spreadsheet and check that the link is live and still points to your page. If the page returns a “404 Not Found” error, the backlink is inactive.
- Check for Redirects: Sometimes, websites implement redirects that can impact link value. Ensure each link points directly to your intended URL rather than through a series of redirects.
- Evaluate Link Placement: Check if your link is still in a prominent place on the page. Sometimes, links can be buried deep in the content, reducing their effectiveness.
Manual checking is time-consuming but allows you to assess each link’s quality and placement. However, for sites with numerous backlinks, an automated approach is more efficient.
Step 3: Use a Backlink Checker Tool for Automated Monitoring
The most efficient way to check if your backlinks are active is to use a backlink checker tool. These tools can automatically analyze your backlinks, report lost or broken links, and often provide detailed insights into each link’s quality.
Popular tools for backlink monitoring include:
- Ahrefs: Provides real-time updates on lost, broken, and redirected backlinks. It includes domain authority scores to help you prioritize link recovery efforts.
- SEMrush: Offers backlink audits that detect broken or inactive links and assess the quality of each backlink.
- Moz: Includes link metrics and the ability to track lost links over time.
- Backlinktrackr which is our app. check here the pricing page
To monitor your backlinks with a tool:
- Enter Your Website URL: Most tools allow you to input your website’s URL and start scanning for backlinks.
- Analyze the Results: Look for any links marked as inactive, broken, or redirected. Tools typically let you filter backlinks by status, so you can focus on inactive or lost links.
- Export and Review: Export the report for future reference and prioritize high-authority or high-traffic backlinks for immediate follow-up.
Automated tools streamline backlink monitoring, especially for websites with large backlink profiles, saving time and effort while ensuring consistent accuracy.
Step 4: Reclaim Lost Backlinks
Once you identify inactive or lost backlinks, it’s time to reclaim them. Here are some strategies to recover valuable backlinks:
- Reach Out to the Linking Website: Contact the website owner or webmaster and politely request that they reinstate the link. Explain how the backlink benefits their readers and offer to provide updated content if necessary.
- Suggest an Alternative Link: If your original page no longer exists, offer an alternative page as a new link destination. This can be especially useful if the linking website updated their content but is still open to linking to you.
- Use Internal Redirects: If you notice that a backlink points to a page that no longer exists, set up a 301 redirect to an active page with similar content. This allows you to retain link equity without losing the SEO value of the original backlink.
Step 5: Monitor Your Backlinks Regularly
Backlink monitoring isn’t a one-time task. Regular checks ensure you maintain a strong backlink profile over time. Set up periodic backlink audits—ideally, once a month or once a quarter—to catch inactive links early and keep your SEO strategy intact.
Using a backlink checker tool with automated alerts can simplify this process. Many tools allow you to set up notifications for lost, broken, or redirected backlinks. These alerts keep you informed so you can address issues before they impact your site’s SEO.
Best Practices for Keeping Your Backlinks Active
- Build Relationships with Linking Sites: Building strong relationships with webmasters can improve your chances of retaining links long-term. When you establish rapport, websites are more likely to maintain your backlinks and notify you of any changes.
- Create High-Quality, Evergreen Content: When your content is valuable and timeless, websites are more likely to keep linking to it. Aim to create resources that are consistently useful to readers, which reduces the chances of link loss.
- Disavow Low-Quality Links: Use Google’s Disavow Tool to prevent harmful, low-quality backlinks from impacting your SEO. Regularly auditing your backlinks for quality helps keep your profile strong and trustworthy.
Conclusion
Knowing how to check if your backlinks are still active is essential to maintaining a healthy SEO strategy. Active backlinks enhance your authority, drive organic traffic, and strengthen your website’s search engine performance. By using a backlink checker tool and following a consistent monitoring process, you’ll protect your SEO investment and ensure your hard-earned backlinks continue to deliver value.
Don’t let inactive or lost backlinks undermine your SEO efforts. Start monitoring today, reclaim any lost links, and enjoy the long-term benefits of a healthy backlink profile!