How the backlink analyzer works
Backlink tools are good at finding links and less good at telling a buyer what they add up to. The analyzer takes the export you already have, groups the links by referring domain, sorts every anchor into a kind — brand, bare URL, generic, empty, keyword, spam vocabulary or foreign script — and turns the patterns into a few plain sentences at the top. The file never leaves your browser.
If you do not have an export yet, our guide on how to check backlinks covers where to get one. Search Console’s link export works for domains you control; for a domain you are buying, use a third-party tool.
Reading the result
- Referring domains matter more than links. A thousand links from three sites is three votes, usually sitewide footers.
- Top 10 domains’ share shows concentration. When the biggest ten send almost everything, the profile depends on a few sites you cannot control.
- Anchor mix. Natural profiles lean on the brand, the URL and generic words. A profile dominated by keyword anchors was usually built, not earned — see our guide to anchor text.
- Spam vocabulary and foreign-script anchors are the strongest warnings: casino or pharmacy anchors, or Japanese and Chinese anchors pointing at an English site, mean the domain was used for spam or hacked.
- Throwaway extensions. Links from free or very cheap extensions are often part of a spam network. It is a judgement — plenty of honest sites use them — so it is flagged, not condemned.
- Most-linked pages show what earned the links. For an expired domain they are usually gone; the archive link opens what was there.
The thresholds behind the flags — spam anchors on 5% of links, foreign-script anchors on 10%, throwaway extensions on 15%, the top ten domains sending 80% — are our judgement, and the numbers are shown so you can apply your own.
Where it fits when you buy an expired domain
Links are half of an expired domain’s value; its past is the other half. Run the domain spam history checker to see what the domain itself published, and the domain history checker for its timeline. A clean link profile on a domain with a spam past is still a spam domain.
What it cannot tell you
It sees only the links in your export, and every backlink tool finds a different subset. It cannot see whether a link is still live unless the export says so, whether Google counts it, or whether the domain carries a manual action. Treat it as a fast first read, not a verdict.