DIY Link Audit

Instead of focusing all of your energy on new inbound links, from time to time it is a good

idea to divert some of that to evaluating the internal links you already have. Internal site link audits do not cost much money if any and can help boost your site by clearing out the useless and maximizing the existing. It will likely take some time to see results as you will find yourself at the mercy of other webmasters, but anything good comes at some kind of price.

If you have built the bulk of your inbound links yourself, the process is fairly quick. Check the anchor text and surrounding content to make sure that the links are going to the content you want. That is simple enough, but when it comes to 100% natural inbound links, the process changes a little if you desire adjustments.

Check the anchor text of your natural incoming links. Ask yourself if the anchor text being used is the most advantageous possibility for you. Usually, your company name will be used as anchor text, but rarely is that the best option. If you identify better anchor text for your link, send the webmaster a note requesting that they change the anchor text. Most of the time your request will be ignored, but there are some webmasters that will extend you this courtesy. Even a small improvement is improvement.

Similarly, you will sometimes notice that with older inbound links they may be dead or going to a page which still exists but is not as relevant as content you have added since the link was created. Again, a request to a webmaster to make adjustments you send him cannot hurt. In the case of dead links, if you cannot get a webmaster to replace them then your best option is to place a 301 re-direct to try to regain a little value for the link. It isn’t the best scenario but it is better than nothing,

The odds are you may only get about 15% of the links you request a change for actually changed. Just because that is a low number hardly means it carries low value. Improving your existing inbound links is fairly quick, requires no money out of pocket if you go DIY and it makes your site better. It is win-win all around.