Reporting standards
A useful backlink report shows where each link is, where it goes and when it was checked. Keep delivered work separate from changes in traffic or rankings.
Overview
Start with live evidence. A spreadsheet of authority scores cannot show whether a link exists, points to the right page or appears in a relevant article.
This guide explains campaign reporting. It isn't a backlink-checker tool: discovering links across the web requires a crawler or third-party index, and different tools will find different sets of links.
What should a backlink report include?
For each placement: source URL, destination, anchor text, link attributes, current status and date checked. Explain how totals are counted. Screenshots and domain scores don't replace live URLs.
Guide sections
Record the source article URL, destination URL, visible anchor text, link attributes, current status and date checked. Add the publication date when known. A tool's first-discovered date is not necessarily the date an article was published.
Useful extras include publication name, campaign, placement type, any payment or sponsorship, and notes on relevance. Screenshots support the record. If you include DA or DR, name the tool and measurement date.
Imagine two linked articles on publication A, one linked article on publication B and an unlinked mention on publication C. That is four articles, three linked articles and two distinct linking websites. The unlinked mention does not add a referring domain.
This example is fictional. Identify any syndicated copies separately. Explain how subdomains and redirects are grouped so monthly totals remain comparable.
Open the source page and locate the link. Check its destination, surrounding paragraph and attributes. Record redirects, missing links and page errors separately. A temporary access error does not prove a link has permanently disappeared.
Searching Google for a URL is not a definitive indexing check. Google explains that site search results are not exhaustive. Search Console’s URL Inspection tool provides indexing information for properties you can access, not unrestricted access to a publisher’s private data.
Search Console reports Google Search clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. It does not report sessions. Use analytics such as GA4 for recorded referral visits, sessions and conversions, subject to tracking and consent settings.
Compare the same country, device, query or page filters and similar date ranges. Record content changes and other marketing activity. A backlink and a ranking improvement happening close together doesn't prove causation.
Use a consistent review schedule and retain the last successful check date. Separate newly discovered links from newly published ones. Keep lost or changed links in historical totals, marked as such, so nothing silently disappears.
Ask what reporting frequency, monitoring period and remedy for removed links are included. These are contract terms, and they vary by provider. Use our quality checklist to inspect the placements themselves.
Questions
For each placement: source URL, destination, anchor text, link attributes, current status and date checked. Explain how totals are counted. Screenshots and domain scores don't replace live URLs.
They crawl different pages at different times and may group redirects, subdomains and repeated links differently. Use a consistent method when comparing trends.
No. Its Links report is a sample, not a complete real-time inventory. A missing row does not prove that Google cannot find a link or that the link has no value. Check the live page too.
It can include relevant search trends, with dates and filters stated. Keep those observations separate from the delivery record. Do not assign a ranking gain to a particular link without evidence.
Start here
Ask about live placement evidence, reporting frequency and the checks included in your proposed campaign.
