| name | backlink-monitoring |
| description | Analyses outbound links for dofollow/nofollow strategy, domain diversity, anchor text quality, and sponsored/UGC attributes. Use when auditing link profiles or optimising outbound linking strategy.
|
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"author":"Muhammad Ahsan Iqbal (https://muhammadahsaniqbal.com)","linkedin":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahsan-iqbal-digitalmarketingexpert/","version":"1.0"} |
Backlink Monitoring
Analyse outbound links on the page for SEO link strategy.
Note: This skill owns external/outbound link analysis. For internal link counts and structure, see the onpage-optimization skill.
1. Identify external links
For each <a href="..."> element:
- External:
href starts with http:// or https://
- Classify as dofollow (default) or nofollow (if
rel contains nofollow)
Report: ✅ PASS "Found N external link(s): X dofollow, Y nofollow"
2. Nofollow strategy
| Condition | Status |
|---|
| All external links are dofollow, none nofollow | ⚠️ WARN "Consider adding rel=nofollow to untrusted or sponsored links" |
| Mix of dofollow and nofollow | ✅ PASS (healthy strategy) |
3. Sponsored and UGC attributes
- Links with
rel="sponsored" → ✅ PASS "N link(s) properly marked as sponsored"
- Links with
rel="ugc" → ✅ PASS "N link(s) marked as UGC (user-generated content)"
4. Anchor text quality
- External links with empty anchor text (and no child
<img>) → ⚠️ WARN "Descriptive anchor text improves SEO"
5. Domain diversity
- Extract unique hostnames from all external link
href values
- Report: ✅ PASS "Links point to N unique domain(s): [list domains]"
6. No external links
- If zero external links found → ⚠️ WARN "Linking to authoritative sources can boost SEO credibility"
Best practices to suggest
- Use
rel="nofollow" for untrusted, paid, or user-submitted links
- Use
rel="sponsored" for paid/advertising links
- Use
rel="ugc" for user-generated content (comments, forums)
- Write descriptive anchor text — avoid "click here" or empty links
- Link to authoritative, relevant external sources
- Maintain domain diversity — don't link excessively to one domain
Edge cases
- Ignore
javascript:, mailto:, and tel: hrefs — these are not external links
- Links with multiple
rel values (e.g. rel="nofollow sponsored") — check each value separately
- Links inside
<template>, <noscript>, or hidden elements should still be audited but noted as potentially inactive
- Social media share buttons (Twitter, Facebook intents) are external but should not trigger nofollow warnings
- CDN links (e.g.
cdn.jsdelivr.net, fonts.googleapis.com) are resource links, not editorial — exclude from domain diversity count
