seo-backlinks

Backlink Profile Analysis

This skill requires the DataForSEO extension:

./extensions/dataforseo/install.sh

Check availability: Before using backlink tools, verify the DataForSEO MCP server is connected by checking if dataforseo_backlinks_summary or similar tools are available. If unavailable, inform the user and provide install instructions.

Quick Reference

Command	Purpose
/seo backlinks <url>	Full backlink profile analysis
/seo backlinks gap <url1> <url2>	Competitor backlink gap analysis
/seo backlinks toxic <url>	Toxic link detection and disavow recommendations
/seo backlinks new <url>	New and lost backlinks (recent changes)

Analysis Framework

When analyzing a backlink profile, produce all 7 sections below.

1. Profile Overview

Use dataforseo_backlinks_summary to get:

• Total backlinks and referring domains
• Domain rank / authority score
• Follow vs nofollow ratio
• Historical trend (growing, stable, or declining)

Scoring:

Metric	Good	Warning	Critical
Referring domains	>100	20-100	<20
Follow ratio	>60%	40-60%	<40%
Domain diversity	No single domain >5%	1 domain >10%	1 domain >25%
Trend	Growing or stable	Slow decline	Rapid decline (>20%/quarter)

2. Anchor Text Distribution

Use dataforseo_backlinks_anchors to analyze anchor text patterns.

Healthy distribution benchmarks:

Anchor Type	Target Range	Over-Optimization Signal
Branded (company/domain name)	30-50%	<15%
URL/naked link	15-25%	N/A
Generic ("click here", "learn more")	10-20%	N/A
Exact match keyword	3-10%	>15%
Partial match keyword	5-15%	>25%
Long-tail / natural	5-15%	N/A

Flag if exact-match anchors exceed 15% -- this is a Google Penguin risk signal.

3. Referring Domain Quality

Use dataforseo_backlinks_referring_domains to assess link quality.

Analyze:

• TLD distribution: .edu, .gov, .org = high authority. Excessive .xyz, .info = low quality
• Country distribution: Match target market. 80%+ from irrelevant countries = PBN signal
• Language distribution: Should match site language. Foreign-language links can be spam
• Domain rank distribution: Healthy profiles have links from all authority tiers
• Follow/nofollow per domain: Sites that only nofollow = limited SEO value

4. Toxic Link Detection

Identify potentially harmful backlinks using these patterns:

High-risk indicators (flag immediately):

• Links from known PBN (Private Blog Network) domains
• Unnatural anchor text patterns (100% exact match from a domain)
• Links from penalized or deindexed domains
• Mass directory submissions (50+ directory links)
• Comment spam links (forum/blog comment backlinks at scale)
• Link farms (sites with 10K+ outbound links per page)
• Foreign-language links to English sites (unless intentional)
• Paid link patterns (footer/sidebar links across all pages of a domain)

Medium-risk indicators (review manually):

• Links from unrelated niches
• Reciprocal link patterns (A links to B, B links to A)
• Links from thin content pages (<100 words)
• Excessive links from a single domain (>50 backlinks from 1 domain)

Output:

Toxic Link Report
=================
Total backlinks analyzed: X
Potentially toxic: Y (Z%)

High Risk (recommend disavow):
  [list with domain, reason, anchor text]

Medium Risk (review manually):
  [list with domain, reason, anchor text]

5. Top Pages by Backlinks

Use dataforseo_backlinks_backlinks with target type "page" to find:

• Which pages attract the most backlinks
• Pages with high-authority links (link magnets)
• Pages with zero backlinks (internal linking opportunities)
• 404 pages with backlinks (redirect opportunities to reclaim link equity)

6. Competitor Gap Analysis

For /seo backlinks gap <url1> <url2>:

Use dataforseo_backlinks_referring_domains for both domains and compare:

• Domains linking to competitor but NOT to target = link building opportunities
• Domains linking to both = validate existing relationships
• Domains linking only to target = competitive advantage

Output:

Competitor Gap: example.com vs competitor.com
=============================================
Competitor has links from X domains you don't
You have links from Y domains competitor doesn't

Top 20 Link Building Opportunities:
  [domain, authority, anchor used for competitor, contact suggestion]

7. New and Lost Backlinks

Use dataforseo_backlinks_backlinks with date filters to track:

• New backlinks in last 30/60/90 days
• Lost backlinks in last 30/60/90 days
• Link velocity (new per month trend)

Red flags:

• Sudden spike in new links (possible negative SEO attack)
• Sudden loss of many links (site penalty or content removal)
• Declining velocity over 3+ months (content not attracting links)

Backlink Health Score

Calculate a 0-100 score based on:

Factor	Weight	Scoring
Referring domain count	20%	Scale based on industry benchmarks
Domain quality distribution	20%	% from authority domains (DR 40+)
Anchor text naturalness	15%	Penalty for over-optimization
Toxic link ratio	20%	<2% = full score, >10% = 0
Link velocity trend	10%	Growing = full, declining = partial
Follow/nofollow ratio	5%	>60% follow = full score
Geographic relevance	10%	% from target market countries

Output Format

Backlink Health Score: XX/100

Section	Status	Score
Profile Overview	pass/warn/fail	XX/100
Anchor Distribution	pass/warn/fail	XX/100
Referring Domain Quality	pass/warn/fail	XX/100
Toxic Links	pass/warn/fail	XX/100
Top Pages	info	N/A
Link Velocity	pass/warn/fail	XX/100

Critical Issues (fix immediately)

High Priority (fix within 1 month)

Medium Priority (ongoing improvement)

Link Building Opportunities (top 10)

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Resolution
DataForSEO tools unavailable	Extension not installed	Run ./extensions/dataforseo/install.sh
No backlink data returned	Domain too new or very small	Note: small sites may have <10 backlinks
API credits insufficient	DataForSEO balance low	Check balance at app.dataforseo.com

Graceful fallback: If DataForSEO is unavailable:

1. Inform user that backlink analysis requires the DataForSEO extension
2. Offer to check robots.txt and sitemap for basic link signals instead
3. Suggest manual tools: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free), Google Search Console Links report

Reference Documentation

Load on demand (do NOT load at startup):

• references/backlink-quality.md -- Detailed toxic link patterns and scoring methodology