How to Run a Link Audit That Produces an SEO Fix Plan

A link audit checks the links pointing to your website, connecting its pages and sending visitors to other sites. Its purpose is to identify what to keep, repair, investigate or remove—not simply produce a backlink count or a “toxicity” score.

For a B2B business, start with pages that support qualified enquiries: service pages, product comparisons, case studies and booking flows. A broken link from an industry publication to a retired service page deserves attention before hundreds of unfamiliar domains in a report.

1. Build a dated link inventory

Use three inputs:

• Google Search Console: Export “Latest links” and “More sample links,” plus the top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text tables.
• A website crawler: Collect internal and outbound links, source pages, destination URLs, response codes, redirect paths and anchor text.
• A backlink tool, if needed: Supplement discovery when you need more source URLs, historical comparisons or lost-link candidates. Keep its findings separate until verified.

Search Console is a starting point, not a complete inventory. Its Links report contains a sample, groups your pages by canonical URL and can include links that have since disappeared. Individual tables are limited to 1,000 rows; the two main backlink exports support up to 100,000 rows each. It also does not identify whether links are marked nofollow. Google documents these limits.

Record the export date and source. “Latest” means recently discovered by Google, not necessarily recently published.

For each reviewed link, retain the source URL, linked URL, final destination, anchor text, link attributes, finding and proposed action. Preserve the original linked URL even when it redirects.

2. Review backlinks by context, not score

Group backlinks by referring domain to spot repeated patterns, then inspect representative source pages. Review important links individually—especially those to commercial pages, broken destinations or placements your business commissioned.

Ask:

• Does the linking page have a credible reason to mention your business?
• Is the link an editorial citation, customer reference, directory listing, advertisement or user-generated contribution?
• Does the anchor accurately describe the destination?
• Does the link still exist, and does it reach the right page?
• Was it purchased, exchanged or created through an automated campaign intended to influence rankings?

The last question matters more than an unfamiliar domain name. Google’s link-spam policy identifies practices such as buying ranking links, excessive exchanges and automated link creation. Paid advertising and sponsorship links are allowed when appropriately qualified with nofollow or sponsored.

Treat a vendor’s toxicity score as a review cue, not proof of a Google penalty. An audit should document the actual placement and campaign history before recommending removal.

When should you disavow links?

Not as routine housekeeping. Google says most sites do not need the tool. Its stated threshold is a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links and those links having caused, or being likely to cause, a manual action. Try to remove policy-violating links first; incorrect disavowal can harm search performance. Use Google’s disavow guidance, rather than uploading every link a tool flags.

3. Repair destinations and internal paths

Check whether valuable backlinks and internal links reach live, relevant pages. For a permanently moved page, a server-side 301 or 308 redirect is Google’s recommended approach when possible. Google’s redirect guidance explains how these redirects signal the preferred destination.

Choose replacements by intent. An old implementation guide should lead to its updated equivalent, not automatically to the homepage. Update internal links to point directly to the replacement.

Next, compare crawled URLs with your sitemap and CMS page list. This helps identify possible orphan pages: pages with no discovered internal links. Verify those candidates before adding links, since crawl scope and rendering can affect the result.

For priority pages, check:

• Relevant navigation or contextual links lead to them.
• Anchor text describes what the reader will find.
• Links use crawlable anchor elements with an href, rather than relying only on script-driven clicks.
• The path from educational content to a relevant service or enquiry page works.

Google recommends that every page you care about receive a link from at least one other page on your site, with descriptive, natural anchor text. Its link best practices also explain crawlable link implementation. For broader navigation decisions, use a buyer-led SEO architecture.

4. Check outbound links

Review external links on important articles and commercial pages. Replace broken citations, check that sources still support nearby claims and inspect unexpected destinations for compromise.

Do not apply nofollow to every external citation. Google recommends qualifying paid links with sponsored or nofollow, and user-inserted links with ugc or nofollow; ordinary, trusted editorial sources do not need blanket qualification. See Google’s external-link guidance.

5. Turn findings into assigned actions

Prioritize confirmed problems by business exposure and control—not by the largest count in the export.

Finding	Next action	Suggested owner
Industry backlink reaches a retired service URL	Restore useful content or redirect to a relevant replacement; request a link update	SEO lead and developer
Buyer guide has no route to the relevant service	Add a contextual link with clear anchor text	Content editor
Previous agency purchased ranking links	Document placements, stop the campaign and assess removal against Google’s guidance	SEO lead
Citation points to a broken or unrelated source	Replace the source or revise the unsupported claim	Content editor

Each ticket should include evidence, affected URLs, priority, owner, due date and validation steps. Separate “investigate” from “implement” so an unverified tool flag does not become an automatic removal request.

After changes, recrawl the affected pages and test destinations in a browser. Track confirmed technical fixes separately from search impressions, clicks and qualified enquiries to affected pages. Visibility or lead changes are useful outcomes, but do not attribute them solely to link work when content, demand or other site changes also occurred.

Keep a consistent baseline for subsequent audits; the link reporting guide covers how to distinguish inventory changes from performance reporting.