Backlink Profile Analysis
This skill requires the DataForSEO extension:
bash
./extensions/dataforseo/install.sh
Check availability: Before using backlink tools, verify the DataForSEO MCP server
is connected by checking if
dataforseo_backlinks_summary
or similar tools are available.
If unavailable, inform the user and provide install instructions.
Quick Reference
| Command | Purpose |
|---|
| Full backlink profile analysis |
/seo backlinks gap <url1> <url2>
| Competitor backlink gap analysis |
/seo backlinks toxic <url>
| Toxic link detection and disavow recommendations |
| New and lost backlinks (recent changes) |
Analysis Framework
When analyzing a backlink profile, produce all 7 sections below.
1. Profile Overview
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_summary
to get:
- Total backlinks and referring domains
- Domain rank / authority score
- Follow vs nofollow ratio
- Historical trend (growing, stable, or declining)
Scoring:
| Metric | Good | Warning | Critical |
|---|
| Referring domains | >100 | 20-100 | <20 |
| Follow ratio | >60% | 40-60% | <40% |
| Domain diversity | No single domain >5% | 1 domain >10% | 1 domain >25% |
| Trend | Growing or stable | Slow decline | Rapid decline (>20%/quarter) |
2. Anchor Text Distribution
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_anchors
to analyze anchor text patterns.
Healthy distribution benchmarks:
| Anchor Type | Target Range | Over-Optimization Signal |
|---|
| Branded (company/domain name) | 30-50% | <15% |
| URL/naked link | 15-25% | N/A |
| Generic ("click here", "learn more") | 10-20% | N/A |
| Exact match keyword | 3-10% | >15% |
| Partial match keyword | 5-15% | >25% |
| Long-tail / natural | 5-15% | N/A |
Flag if exact-match anchors exceed 15% -- this is a Google Penguin risk signal.
3. Referring Domain Quality
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_referring_domains
to assess link quality.
Analyze:
- TLD distribution: .edu, .gov, .org = high authority. Excessive .xyz, .info = low quality
- Country distribution: Match target market. 80%+ from irrelevant countries = PBN signal
- Language distribution: Should match site language. Foreign-language links can be spam
- Domain rank distribution: Healthy profiles have links from all authority tiers
- Follow/nofollow per domain: Sites that only nofollow = limited SEO value
4. Toxic Link Detection
Identify potentially harmful backlinks using these patterns:
High-risk indicators (flag immediately):
- Links from known PBN (Private Blog Network) domains
- Unnatural anchor text patterns (100% exact match from a domain)
- Links from penalized or deindexed domains
- Mass directory submissions (50+ directory links)
- Comment spam links (forum/blog comment backlinks at scale)
- Link farms (sites with 10K+ outbound links per page)
- Foreign-language links to English sites (unless intentional)
- Paid link patterns (footer/sidebar links across all pages of a domain)
Medium-risk indicators (review manually):
- Links from unrelated niches
- Reciprocal link patterns (A links to B, B links to A)
- Links from thin content pages (<100 words)
- Excessive links from a single domain (>50 backlinks from 1 domain)
Output:
Toxic Link Report
=================
Total backlinks analyzed: X
Potentially toxic: Y (Z%)
High Risk (recommend disavow):
[list with domain, reason, anchor text]
Medium Risk (review manually):
[list with domain, reason, anchor text]
5. Top Pages by Backlinks
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_backlinks
with target type "page" to find:
- Which pages attract the most backlinks
- Pages with high-authority links (link magnets)
- Pages with zero backlinks (internal linking opportunities)
- 404 pages with backlinks (redirect opportunities to reclaim link equity)
6. Competitor Gap Analysis
For
/seo backlinks gap <url1> <url2>
:
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_referring_domains
for both domains and compare:
- Domains linking to competitor but NOT to target = link building opportunities
- Domains linking to both = validate existing relationships
- Domains linking only to target = competitive advantage
Output:
Competitor Gap: example.com vs competitor.com
=============================================
Competitor has links from X domains you don't
You have links from Y domains competitor doesn't
Top 20 Link Building Opportunities:
[domain, authority, anchor used for competitor, contact suggestion]
7. New and Lost Backlinks
Use
dataforseo_backlinks_backlinks
with date filters to track:
- New backlinks in last 30/60/90 days
- Lost backlinks in last 30/60/90 days
- Link velocity (new per month trend)
Red flags:
- Sudden spike in new links (possible negative SEO attack)
- Sudden loss of many links (site penalty or content removal)
- Declining velocity over 3+ months (content not attracting links)
Backlink Health Score
Calculate a 0-100 score based on:
| Factor | Weight | Scoring |
|---|
| Referring domain count | 20% | Scale based on industry benchmarks |
| Domain quality distribution | 20% | % from authority domains (DR 40+) |
| Anchor text naturalness | 15% | Penalty for over-optimization |
| Toxic link ratio | 20% | <2% = full score, >10% = 0 |
| Link velocity trend | 10% | Growing = full, declining = partial |
| Follow/nofollow ratio | 5% | >60% follow = full score |
| Geographic relevance | 10% | % from target market countries |
Output Format
Backlink Health Score: XX/100
| Section | Status | Score |
|---|
| Profile Overview | pass/warn/fail | XX/100 |
| Anchor Distribution | pass/warn/fail | XX/100 |
| Referring Domain Quality | pass/warn/fail | XX/100 |
| Toxic Links | pass/warn/fail | XX/100 |
| Top Pages | info | N/A |
| Link Velocity | pass/warn/fail | XX/100 |
Critical Issues (fix immediately)
High Priority (fix within 1 month)
Medium Priority (ongoing improvement)
Link Building Opportunities (top 10)
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Resolution |
|---|
| DataForSEO tools unavailable | Extension not installed | Run ./extensions/dataforseo/install.sh
|
| No backlink data returned | Domain too new or very small | Note: small sites may have <10 backlinks |
| API credits insufficient | DataForSEO balance low | Check balance at app.dataforseo.com |
Graceful fallback: If DataForSEO is unavailable:
- Inform user that backlink analysis requires the DataForSEO extension
- Offer to check robots.txt and sitemap for basic link signals instead
- Suggest manual tools: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free), Google Search Console Links report
Reference Documentation
Load on demand (do NOT load at startup):
references/backlink-quality.md