A link audit reviews how links connect a website with its own pages and the wider web. It should identify actionable issues, useful references and specific risks rather than produce an alarming score without context.
What it means for search
Internal links affect navigation and discovery, while a backlink introduces an external reference to the site. Both deserve review, but their problems differ. An orphan page may need a useful internal connection; a broken destination on your own site may need a relevant redirect. If your outgoing link points to an unavailable page on another site, update or remove the reference because you cannot control that site’s redirect. A suspicious incoming link requires evidence about its purpose before it justifies removal or advanced remediation.
A practical check
Define the audit question and combine appropriate sources, such as a crawl, Search Console and historical campaign records. Inspect important destinations, broken links, unexpected redirects and repeated source patterns. Read representative linking pages. Prioritise issues by customer impact, commercial importance and strength of evidence. Give each recommendation a reason, an owner and a way to verify the outcome, rather than recommending every change a tool can suggest.
Make the final action list specific about which system or website the business controls. An internal link can usually be corrected on the site itself, while a backlink may require a request to another publisher. A redirect can repair a changed destination only where the relevant site owner implements it. Check an orphan page by reviewing navigation as well as crawl output. These distinctions prevent an audit recommendation from sounding practical while leaving responsibility or the proposed remedy unclear.
A hypothetical business example
A hypothetical service business redesigns its site and finds that a widely cited checklist now returns an error. Restoring the resource or a close replacement is a clear action. The same audit also finds unfamiliar scraped links, but no evidence of commissioned manipulation or a manual action. Those findings should not be treated as equally urgent simply because both appear in a link report.
Limits and next steps
Link reports are incomplete, and provider scores do not expose Google’s internal assessment. Avoid mass disavow recommendations, arbitrary anchor ratios or link-acquisition quotas. If a documented artificial-link campaign creates a manual-action or likely-action case, seek focused specialist review. Otherwise, concentrate on accurate references, useful content and reliable navigation, then reassess only when meaningful changes or new evidence warrant another audit.
A focused SEO audit can connect this work with the pages, enquiries and business decisions it should support.
Common questions
How often should a link audit be performed?
Review after major migrations, significant campaigns or a concrete issue, with lighter maintenance suited to the site’s size and change rate.
Should an audit remove every low-quality-looking backlink?
No. Investigate actual manipulation and Google’s limited disavow use case; unfamiliar or low-scoring sources alone are insufficient.
Terms in this guide
- Internal link — A hyperlink between pages on the same website. Useful internal links connect related subjects, explain the site structure and give readers a relevant next step.
- Backlink — A link from another website to yours. The context and purpose of a link matter; buying manipulative links is not a sound substitute for useful content and real reputation.
- Orphan page — A page without discoverable internal links from the rest of the site. Important pages should be connected through appropriate navigation and contextual links.
- Redirect — A server or browser instruction that sends a request to another URL. Permanent URL migrations should avoid unnecessary chains and link directly to the intended destination.
Related SEO guides
Apply this to your website
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