Backlink Analyzer
Analyzes backlink profiles for quality, risk, competitive gaps, and link-building opportunities.
Quick Start
Analyze backlink profile for [domain]Find link building opportunities by analyzing [competitor domains]Skill Contract
Expected output: a backlink report or delta summary plus the standard handoff summary for memory/monitoring/.
- Reads: target domain, backlink/referring-domain exports, competitor domains, anchor data, and any user-provided or tool metrics.
- Writes: a user-facing monitoring deliverable and reusable summary.
- Promotes: significant changes, confirmed anomalies, follow-up actions, and pending decisions to
memory/open-loops.md. - Done when: referring domains, anchor mix, and toxic-link share are reported with each metric source-tagged (or N/A); toxic ratio is computed; and at least 3 link-building or disavow actions are named.
- Primary next skill: domain-authority-auditor when toxicity or authority concerns need formal scoring.
Handoff Summary
Emit the standard shape from skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format.
Data Sources
All integrations optional (see CONNECTORS.md). With tools, pull backlink profiles from ~~link database and competitor data from ~~SEO tool. Without tools, ask for backlink CSVs, referring domains, competitor domains, and link changes. Respect robots.txt and TOS per SECURITY.md.
Decision Gates
Stop and ask the user when:
- No backlink data is provided and no ~~link database is connected — link counts cannot be measured. Offer: (1) paste a backlink/referring-domain export, (2) connect a tool, (3) cancel. Do not estimate referring-domain volume from the domain alone.
Continue silently (never stop for):
- Which of several competitors to deep-dive — analyze the top 3 by overlap and note the rest.
- Missing optional fields (geography, link velocity) — mark N/A and proceed.
Instructions
When a user requests backlink analysis:
- Generate Profile Overview — output key metrics, link velocity, authority distribution, and profile health score, with each metric carrying its source tag (tool export / user-provided / estimated).
- Analyze Link Quality — top backlinks, link type mix, anchor text distribution, and geography.
- Identify Toxic Links — risk indicators, links to review, and disavow recommendations; report the toxic ratio as a labeled figure.
- Compare Against Competitors — profile comparison, link intersection, and top linked competitor content.
- Find Link Building Opportunities — intersection prospects, broken links, unlinked mentions, resource pages, guest posts, and effort-vs-impact priorities.
- Track Link Changes — new and lost links, net change, and recovery priorities, each delta labeled against its baseline.
- Generate Backlink Report — executive summary, strengths, concerns, opportunities, competitive position, recommended actions, and KPIs, with every figure source-tagged.
Label every metric Measured (tool/export), User-provided, or Estimated (model inference); never present an estimate as measured; if a required metric is unavailable, mark it N/A — do not invent it.
Reference: See Analysis Templates for the compact output templates used in all seven steps.
CITE Item Mapping
When running domain-authority-auditor after this analysis, the following data feeds directly into CITE scoring:
| Backlink Metric | CITE Item | Dimension |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domains count | C01 (Referring Domain Volume) | Citation |
| Authority distribution (DA breakdown) | C02 (Referring Domains Quality) | Citation |
| Link velocity | C04 (Link Velocity) | Citation |
| Geographic distribution | C10 (Link Source Diversity) | Citation |
| Dofollow/Nofollow ratio | T02 (Dofollow Ratio Normality) | Trust |
| Toxic link analysis | T01 (Link Profile Naturalness), T03 (Link-Traffic Coherence) | Trust |
| Competitive link intersection | T05 (Profile Uniqueness) | Trust |
Example
Sample outcome: a link-intersection table, top immediate opportunities, and an estimated impact model. Keep the full structure in Analysis Templates.
Tips for Success
Prioritize quality, monitor regularly, diversify anchors and link types, and disavow cautiously.
Link Quality and Strategy Reference
Reference: See Link Quality Rubric for the scoring matrix, toxic-link criteria, benchmarks, and disavow guidance.
Reference: See Outreach Templates for outreach frameworks, subject lines, response benchmarks, follow-up sequences, and templates.
Save Results
Ask "Save these results?" If yes, write to memory/monitoring/ — see Skill Contract §Save Results Template. If toxic ratio exceeds 15%, recommend domain-authority-auditor.
Reference Materials
- Link Quality Rubric — Quality and toxicity rubric
- Outreach Templates — Outreach frameworks and examples
Next Best Skill
Toxic ratio > 15% → domain-authority-auditor. Otherwise → Terminal. Visited-set rule applies per skill-contract.md.
