Backlink Analyzer

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](../../cross-cutting/domain-authority-auditor/SKILL.md) when toxicity or authority concerns need formal scoring.

Handoff Summary

> Emit the standard shape from [skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format](../../references/skill-contract.md).

Data Sources

All integrations optional (see [CONNECTORS.md](../../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](../../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:

1. 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).
2. Analyze Link Quality — top backlinks, link type mix, anchor text distribution, and geography.
3. Identify Toxic Links — risk indicators, links to review, and disavow recommendations; report the toxic ratio as a labeled figure.
4. Compare Against Competitors — profile comparison, link intersection, and top linked competitor content.
5. Find Link Building Opportunities — intersection prospects, broken links, unlinked mentions, resource pages, guest posts, and effort-vs-impact priorities.
6. Track Link Changes — new and lost links, net change, and recovery priorities, each delta labeled against its baseline.
7. 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](references/analysis-templates.md) 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

See [Analysis Templates](references/analysis-templates.md) for the full output structure (link-intersection table, opportunities, and impact model).

Link Quality and Strategy Reference

> Reference: See [Link Quality Rubric](references/link-quality-rubric.md) for the scoring matrix, toxic-link criteria, benchmarks, and disavow guidance.

> Reference: See [Outreach Templates](references/outreach-templates.md) 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](../../references/skill-contract.md) §Save Results Template. If toxic ratio exceeds 15%, recommend domain-authority-auditor.

Reference Materials

• [Link Quality Rubric](references/link-quality-rubric.md) — Quality and toxicity rubric
• [Outreach Templates](references/outreach-templates.md) — Outreach frameworks and examples

Next Best Skill

Toxic ratio > 15% → [domain-authority-auditor](../../cross-cutting/domain-authority-auditor/SKILL.md). Otherwise → Terminal. Visited-set rule applies per [skill-contract.md](../../references/skill-contract.md).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: aaron-he-zhu
• Source: aaron-he-zhu/aaron-marketing-skills
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.