Managing the backlink profile is one of the most important tasks that an SEO professional can take on.
However, managing backlinks is so important that it can be intimidating without help.
This year Semrush has dramatically improved the solutions we offer so that anyone can easily manage dynamic backlinks and at the moment our backlink analyzes are free for everyone.
We recently asked our friends at Marketing Signals to test out the new and improved backlinks database.
Below is what Gareth Hoyle, CEO of Marketing Signals, had to say.
What is dynamic backlink management?
By taking advantage of the functionality of the backlink tool suite in Semrush, I will show how you can streamline multiple tasks into one seamless process called dynamic backlink management.
This concept is characteristic of the Semrush link building suite.
With Semrush, you get a comprehensive set of tools that allow you to streamline a complete backlink workflow while getting the fastest data from their advanced backlink database and state-of-the-art architecture.
In essence, everything that has made Semrush the leading tool for online marketers (speed, ease of use, powerful features, constant innovation, intuitive UX) can be leveraged to help you build your workflow. backlink management – saving you valuable time while delivering tangible results.
Semrush tools to help you streamline your backlink management
Let’s look at four tools:
- Analysis of backlinks
- Backlink audit
- Backlink spread
- Link building tool
Read on to find out how you can perform critical link management tasks with these tools.
The domain I will be using for the demonstration is smythstoys.com, one of the UK’s leading online toy retailers. This large site has over 600,000 backlinks and over 15,000 referral domains, with an estimated overall traffic volume of 16.4 million monthly visits.
Analysis of backlinks
Your first port of call when starting the link management business should be Analysis of backlinks tool. It gives a good high level overview with insight into the authority of a site.
Below you can see the overview screen itself showing the different data and measurements available.
One thing that is great about Semrush is the graphical nature of each dashboard, so much data is easily accessible on one screen. For example, you can see:
- Authority Score
- Number of referring domains
- Number of backlinks
- Estimated monthly visits
- Top anchors texts
- Follow vs. Nofollow
- Top of page
- Anchor text wordle
- Referral domains by authority score
This means you can quickly assess a site’s authority in seconds, as well as identify areas that need special attention.
The dashboard is so easy to navigate, and the various charts provide quick (but in-depth) information on the nature of each area you need to look for.
For example, at a glance you can see that there has been a constant flow of referring domains over the past year, which has decreased slightly over the past month. You can then formulate an actionable task based on this information (for example, increasing the speed of link building).
How to find new links
One of the most common tasks that anyone dealing with the day-to-day backlink management will want to find is newly discovered links.
Analyzing backlinks makes this super easy. Just click on the second tab of the marked preview screen Back links then filter by New.
If you really want to have the data at your fingertips, there’s also a handy hyperlink to the newly discovered links for each day from the overview screen. Practice or what?
This is useful in many ways.
If you’re running a digital PR business or just want to know which high traffic posts linked you recently, you can use the tool to find new inbound links, like the one from The Sun last month.
The data is also updated very quickly. For example, another link from the same post here has a post date of June 10, 2021.
According to data from the Semrush tool, the link was Seen the first time five days before the time of writing, which would be June 12, 2021, so two days after it was first published.
In fact, according to a test run in Q1 / Q2 of this year, the Semrush link database outperforms the competition when it comes to tools that discovered the first new backlinks the fastest.
In the example below, you can see how Semrush is able to see links at 9:40 am to a piece of content that was not uploaded until 9:00 am that same morning.
Benchmarking against competitors
Who are your competitors?
Knowing how far behind or ahead of the competition you are is a critical part that should inform your overall link building strategy.
Analysis of backlinks allows you to perform a very quick competitor analysis in the overview screen.
The best part? You don’t even have to declare who the competitors are. Semrush does the hard work for you by finding similar sites in the same niche.
When done, Semrush gives you some useful authority metrics (e.g. number of referring domains, backlinks, IP addresses, monthly visits, ranking keywords).
A fantastic feature is that once you have selected the sites you want to compare with, all the charts are updated with competitor metrics data, giving you an invaluable graphical illustration of your site against the market. competetion.
You can then start to learn some lessons – for example, the competitor with the highest traffic score is also likely to have the most referring domains and the highest authority score.
Additionally, the illustrative way the data is displayed allows you to observe trends, such as increases or decreases in competitor link building activity.
Which sites are related to your competitors but not to you
Here is another very useful feature.
Once you have run a competitive analysis in preview mode, you can scroll to the Top Link Creation Opportunities widget where you can navigate directly to Backlink spread and find a host of potential awareness targets.
You will see that a bunch of sites only link to competitors of smythstoys.com. You can then filter them (by authority score, monthly visits, etc.) to find the best outreach opportunities.
This process is another demonstration of how the Semrush link building tool suite allows you to run your link management workflow by finding relevant competitors and then providing you with a list of sites that link to. your competitor (but not yours).
How to Email Prospects Directly from Semrush
Once you have found a list of prospects from Backlink spread, you like the look, you can email them directly from Semrush, so no need to open your inbox in a new window.
Simply select the leads link in Backlink spread then press the Start awareness button then click send leads and these will then land in your Link building tool project. Connect your email (if you haven’t already) and go!