blog/guides
category

guides.

tactical walkthroughs you can do in an afternoon

24
posts
211
min total
42,950
words

categories group posts by format. to read by subject instead, browse the backlink guide by topic.

24 posts in guides

diagram: a linking page checked in order. link on live page: yes. page indexable: yes. index status: unknown. ranking credit: not observable.

how to check if a backlink's source page is indexed

verify one linking page in order: link present, page indexable, google index status. record what you cannot see as unknown instead of guessing.

Oct 25, 2026·10 min·2,210 words
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how to track chatgpt traffic in ga4

how to track chatgpt traffic in ga4

Build a session-based AI referral report, review source aliases, and keep visits separate from citations, first touch and purchase attribution.

Oct 3, 2026·10 min·1,887 words
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backlink api rate limits: safe retries

backlink api rate limits: safe retries

Handle monthly quotas, Retry-After headers and ambiguous timeouts with a bounded Python retry planner that avoids duplicate backlink jobs.

Oct 3, 2026·9 min·1,696 words
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competitor backlink analysis template

competitor backlink analysis template

download a 35-column CSV worksheet, qualify competitor link gaps, and use five hypothetical examples to choose the next research action.

Oct 3, 2026·9 min·1,722 words
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export backlinks to csv without losing context

export backlinks to csv without losing context

save a useful backlink dataset, distinguish domain rows from page links, and convert api json to csv with a provenance sidecar.

Oct 3, 2026·9 min·1,625 words
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link reclamation: repair earned backlinks

link reclamation: repair earned backlinks

Verify the original link, diagnose the break, then choose a content repair, equivalent redirect or specific editorial correction.

Oct 3, 2026·10 min·1,890 words
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backlink monitoring: a change ledger workflow

backlink monitoring: a change ledger workflow

Compare named snapshots, verify important source pages, and turn backlink changes into a review queue with an auditable change ledger.

Oct 3, 2026·9 min·1,732 words
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lost backlinks: verify before reclaiming

lost backlinks: verify before reclaiming

a missing backlink row can mean a crawl gap, an inaccessible page or a removed link. use an evidence ladder to decide what to fix.

Oct 3, 2026·6 min·1,102 words
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backlink crawling tools: choose the right one

backlink crawling tools: choose the right one

site crawlers audit your pages. backlink indexes find domains linking to a target. choose between them and understand Common Crawl's limits.

Sep 29, 2026·8 min·1,346 words
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what is link building - the honest, short version

what is link building - the honest, short version

getting other sites to link to yours, why the count stopped mattering, and the three approaches that still work sorted by how much of your time they waste.

Sep 10, 2026·6 min·1,350 words
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toxic backlinks and the disavow file - the unpopular, accurate version

toxic backlinks and the disavow file - the unpopular, accurate version

toxic is a vendor word, not a google one. what the score actually is, the narrow case where disavow is correct, and why the default answer is to do nothing.

Sep 10, 2026·7 min·1,550 words
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nofollow links - what they are, whether they help, and why some tools cannot see them

nofollow links - what they are, whether they help, and why some tools cannot see them

rel=nofollow became a hint in 2019, not a directive. what that changed, when to use sponsored and ugc instead, and the layer problem behind link-attribute reporting.

Sep 10, 2026·7 min·1,500 words
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anchor text, explained - what it is, what it signals, and where it actually pays

anchor text, explained - what it is, what it signals, and where it actually pays

the clickable words of a link are an independent description of your page. here is why that matters, what a natural profile looks like, and why internal anchors are the half worth working on.

Sep 10, 2026·8 min·1,700 words
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how to find keyword cannibalization in search console (with a real diagnosis)

how to find keyword cannibalization in search console (with a real diagnosis)

the aggregate report cannot show it. query+page pairs can. here is the query that finds it, and 44 cannibalized queries found on our own site.

Sep 10, 2026·9 min·1,850 words
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diagram: one self-contained passage on your page is quoted in an ai answer with a source citation, beside four outcomes tracked separately: eligible, cited, clicked, converted.

answer engine optimization: what makes a page citable

aeo is mostly seo with different measurement. what google, openai and bing document, a page audit, and four outcomes to track separately.

Sep 10, 2026·10 min·2,250 words
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moz's crawler explained: dotbot, rogerbot, and the crawled flag

moz's crawler explained: dotbot, rogerbot, and the crawled flag

moz runs two crawlers: dotbot builds the link index behind DA, rogerbot runs site crawl in a moz pro campaign. what crawled means and why DA moves.

Sep 4, 2026·14 min·2,740 words
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programmatic backlink research: 5 api recipes

programmatic backlink research: 5 api recipes

crawlgraph's backlink API returns referring domains from named Common Crawl graph snapshots. A free key includes 15 backlink lookups and 0 gap analyses per UTC month; paid core plans include 1,000 backlink calls and 50 gap analyses. The API supports backlink lookup, gap analysis, outreach targets, release metadata, CSV and JSON workflows, and hosted MCP access.

Jul 12, 2026·8 min·1,300 words
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● guides

watch: steal your competitor's backlinks (free 2-minute walkthrough)

a short walkthrough of crawlgraph's free gap analysis: find every site linking to your competitor but not you, pull the contact email, and send the pitch - without an ahrefs or semrush subscription.

Jun 17, 2026·4 min·850 words
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ahrefsvscrawlgraph
● guides

find link building prospects with ai

connect an ai assistant to a live backlink data source over mcp and let it run gap analysis, rank outreach targets, and draft angles - no spreadsheet wrangling.

Jun 2, 2026·9 min·1,850 words
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diagram: a field of linking sites with a capped window of about 1,000 sites feeding the links report panels top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text. sites outside the window are not shown.

google search console backlinks: what it shows

gsc is google's free backlink report for sites you verify. it shows a sample capped near 1,000 linking sites. here's how to read it and its limits.

May 23, 2026·9 min·1,960 words
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bing webmaster tools backlinks (free, no signup)

bing webmaster tools backlinks (free, no signup)

bing webmaster tools shows backlink data for free - and unlike google search console, it surfaces backlinks for sites you don't own through the similar sites report. here's the full walkthrough, the gsc comparison, and the export workflow.

May 23, 2026·9 min·1,980 words
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diagram: three separate, unconnected questions about one backlink. has google crawled the linking page: crawl evidence. is the linking page indexed: index evidence. does this link affect rankings: not observable.

how long does google take to count a backlink?

google gives no guaranteed timeline for backlink discovery, reporting or ranking impact. separate the evidence and choose your next check.

May 2, 2026·8 min·1,730 words
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referring domain vs backlink - the difference

referring domain vs backlink - the difference

a backlink is one link. a referring domain is one site - it can give you ten thousand links and still count as one. the two counts describe different aspects of a link profile; neither alone establishes link quality or ranking impact.

May 2, 2026·7 min·1,280 words
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how to get backlinks for free in 2026

how to get backlinks for free in 2026

free options for surveying a backlink profile - gsc, bing webmaster, crawlgraph's free tier - and what each one actually shows. for full lists, paid once.

May 2, 2026·16 min·3,850 words
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