Building a Website's Link Profile
Building a link profile crawls the site and shows what and where it links to: internal and external links, anchors, broken addresses. This is not a database of other people's backlinks, but an analysis of what is visible from the pages. The tool is link profile builder.
How this differs from link services
| Website Crawl | Link Service | |
|---|---|---|
| What it sees | Links on your site's pages | Links from other sites to you |
| Timeliness | Right now | With a delay of weeks |
| Completeness | Complete for crawled pages | Depends on the service's database |
| Cost | Free | Usually paid |
For incoming links, there are two sources: the "Links" report in Search Console and paid link databases. Remember the delay: a fresh link does not appear there immediately.
What to look for in the results
- Where weight goes. How many external links and to which domains.
- Anchors of internal links. "Read more" does not inform the search about the target page.
- Broken addresses — see how to find and fix them.
- Pages without incoming internal links — orphans.
- Links to http, remaining after switching to https.
rel attribute should be checked in developer tools, not in the source code: some sites change it with a script already in the browser. Details and examples are in the article on weight transfer.What to do with external links from your pages
Each outgoing link gives away part of the weight outside — this is normal and natural, links to sources increase trust. The problem arises when there are dozens on a page or when they lead to abandoned and questionable sites. A reasonable approach: remove links to dead resources, keep meaningful ones, and tag advertising and user links with appropriate attributes — see attribute breakdown.
Regularity
The profile changes subtly: sections move, pages are deleted, links remain. It is sufficient to check key sections once a quarter and definitely after any restructuring of the structure.