BrisTechTonic is a Bristol SEO agency that helps UK businesses get found on Google, the local map pack and the AI assistants they now ask, like ChatGPT and Perplexity. A backlink audit is a careful review of every website that links to yours, judged on three questions: which links are genuinely helping you rank, which are risky enough to hold you back, and how far behind you are compared to the competitors already outranking you. Links are like votes of confidence from other sites, and this is not just a headcount of them. BrisTechTonic pulls together the full list of sites linking to you, sorts the harmful and irrelevant from the genuinely valuable, measures the gap to the sites you need to beat, and turns the whole thing into an ordered plan: which links to tell Google to ignore, which to protect, and where new links would actually move you up. Run by experienced people, based on real link data rather than one tool's harm score, and honest that most link problems are missed opportunities, not penalties.
A backlink audit exists to answer three questions honestly: which of the links pointing at your site are genuinely helping you rank, which are risky enough to quietly hold you back, and how far behind you are compared to the competitors already holding the positions you want. Most audits answer none of them. They run your links through one tool, sort by a harm score, produce a list to hand Google, and pass it over as though the length of the list were the point. That mistakes activity for judgement, and it routinely tells Google to ignore links that were doing real work while leaving the actual problem untouched: you simply do not have enough strong links yet to outrank the pages above you.
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The reason a headcount is a poor guide is that links are not all equal. A single genuine mention from a site your buyers already read can outweigh hundreds of scraped directory entries, and a big pile of low-relevance links can leave you unable to rank for anything competitive despite an impressive-looking number. How relevant, how respected, and how genuinely placed a link is are what decide whether it moves you up, and none of that survives being squashed into a single score. So we read your links the way a search engine weighs them, site by site, rather than trusting a percentage a tool assigned on its own.
There is also a widespread fear driving a lot of unnecessary clean-up. Google is far better at ignoring low-quality links than it used to be, and most sites that think they are being penalised actually just have a shortage of good links: the links are not hurting them, there simply are not enough of the right ones. We are honest about which of the two you are looking at, because telling Google to ignore links that were helping you is one of the more common ways businesses damage their own rankings while believing they are cleaning them up.
What makes the audit useful for the business is where it ends. We turn the review into a short, ordered plan: which links genuinely need telling Google to ignore, which to protect, and the specific, winnable links that would close the gap to your competitors. It is also how we scope honestly: sometimes the answer is a focused clean-up and a digital PR push, and sometimes it is that your links are fine and the problem lives somewhere else on the site entirely.
Rankings hold when the rest of the web vouches for you.
These are industry figures, not our own results, and we do not invent numbers. They show why authority earned from real publications outlasts anything bought, and why being trusted early decides who makes the shortlist. No placement is ever guaranteed.
Backlink audit, broken down.
Full referring-domain analysis
We pull together the full list of sites linking to you from several sources rather than one, because no single tool sees every link, and judge each linking site on how relevant it is, how respected it is, and how the link was actually placed.
Toxic and manipulative link review
The genuinely harmful links, paid schemes, spam networks, and links from sites built only to sell links, reviewed by hand and separated from the low-quality-but-harmless ones that Google already ignores and you should leave alone.
Anchor text and pattern analysis
We check the wording other sites use in their links to you. If too many use the exact phrase you want to rank for, it looks staged to Google, which is a clearer risk than most individual links and a common cause of stalled rankings.
Competitor link gap
The gap in link strength to the specific competitors ranking above you, measured and broken down into the links they have that you do not, with the winnable ones separated from the ones you realistically never will.
Lost and lost-value links
The links you used to have and have since lost, and the ones pointing at broken or moved pages that are leaking ranking strength, both of which are often quicker to recover than new links are to build.
Disavow decision and earn plan →
A clear recommendation on which links to tell Google to ignore, where that is genuinely needed, paired with a prioritised plan for the links worth earning next through digital PR and link building.
Some of our recent work.
More on backlink audit.
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What clients say about working with us.
“I've had the pleasure of working with Chris on several SEO projects for my websites in the health field. He was definitely been able to demystify things so that I felt able to make decisions with him and feel confident they were the right ones. For a non-techie, that is worth gold! I look forward to working with Chris again and warmly recommend him to anyone who - like me - is unsure about all things SEO.”
“I was recommended by my branding partner to use Chris and his team last year. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are very responsive , easy to communicate with and great at translating techy stuff when needed. They are now an essential part of my business model”
“We've been working closely with Chris, Hannah and the team for over 12 months now. As a small company with ambitious growth plans, it was incredibly important that we made the right choice on who to trust with our SEO. 18 months later, we're totally thrilled with our experience so far and our growing online presence within our market. We'd happily recommend BTT and their services to other SMEs. Drop them an enquiry!”
Real people on your account, not a faceless agency.
You work directly with the senior people who do the work, a small Bristol team you will actually get to know, not a call centre or an account manager relaying messages.
Meet the team →
The way we run Backlink audit.
Scope and access
We agree what the audit needs to settle, a suspected penalty, a stalled campaign, or a check before you invest in links, and get view-only access to Google Search Console so the analysis rests on Google's own link data alongside the outside tools.
Pull the full profile
We gather the sites linking to you from several sources rather than trusting one tool, because each tool sees a different slice of the web, and no single one is the complete picture of who links to you.
Assess quality and risk by hand
An experienced person works through the list judging how relevant, respected and genuinely placed each link is, and reviews anything flagged as harmful one by one, so no link is handed to Google to ignore on a score alone.
Measure the competitor gap
We compare your link strength against the competitors ranking for your priority searches, and work out which of their links are ones you could realistically get too, and which are one-offs you cannot.
Build the ordered plan
We turn the findings into a short sequence: which links to tell Google to ignore where needed, which to protect, and the specific links worth earning next, ranked by what would actually move you up.
Walk you through it
We talk you through the findings and the reasoning in a working session, so your team understands why a link is one to keep, one to tell Google to ignore, or one to leave alone, and can challenge the calls before any action is taken.
How do we approach Backlink audit?
Quality and relevance, not raw volume
We judge every site linking to you on how relevant it is, how respected it is, and whether the link was placed for genuine editorial reasons, because ten genuinely relevant links from sites your buyers trust do more than a thousand scraped directory entries, and a headcount on its own tells you nothing about whether you can rank.
Risk judged by a person, not a score
Automatic harm scores flag links that are perfectly fine and miss ones that are not. We review the flagged links by hand, so the decision to tell Google to ignore a link rests on whether it is genuinely dodgy and harmful, not on a tool's percentage.
The competitor gap, quantified
We measure your link strength against the specific competitors ranking for the searches you want, so you can see the real distance to close and, more usefully, which of their links you could realistically earn and which you never will.
An ordered plan, not a raw export
The findings are put in order: which links to tell Google to ignore, which to protect, and where to earn new ones next, so you leave with a short list you can act on rather than a spreadsheet of every link you have ever received.
Real people doing the work, and putting their name to it.
You deal with our small, experienced Bristol team directly, from the first call to every monthly report.
Meet the team →What Backlink audit puts on your desk.
Are we the right fit for you?
Thinking of switching from another agency?
Moving your Backlink audit to us is more straightforward than staying somewhere that is not working. You keep everything you already own, we pick up without a gap, and we can run the whole thing for you or work alongside your team and your developers, whatever suits.
A free look first
We review what your current agency has done, tell you straight what is worth keeping and where the quick wins are. No obligation to move.
You keep what's yours
Your site, content, Google Business Profile and analytics stay in your name. We work with what you already have; nothing is held hostage.
A clean handover
We map the work across, set a plain-English baseline in the first few weeks, and carry on from there. No starting from zero, no quiet ranking gap.
Three-month minimum, then rolling monthly on 30 days’ notice. No long lock-in, no exit fees.
Judged by the people who earn the links, not a tool's toxicity score?
A backlink audit is a judgement job, and judgement is exactly what an automatic harm score cannot supply. Ours is run by experienced people rather than left to a scan, because the difference between a link worth keeping and one worth telling Google to ignore comes down to context a tool routinely gets wrong in both directions. BrisTechTonic is an experienced team with years of combined agency experience, and the person who reviews your links is the same one who does the digital PR and link building that closes the gap the audit finds. We pull link data from several sources and cross-check Google Search Console, so findings are backed by evidence rather than assumed, and we are honest when the truth is that your links are fine and the problem lives elsewhere.
We earn links, so we know what they are worth
The same people who audit your links run our digital PR and link building, so the review is shaped by what actually earns strong links now, not a generic template. We judge a link the way we would judge one we were trying to win.
Evidenced from real data, not one tool
We pull your links from several sources and cross-check them against Google Search Console, because no single tool sees every link. Every decision to keep a link or tell Google to ignore it can be traced back to the evidence behind it rather than a score you have to take on trust.
Honest about penalties versus opportunity
Most sites that fear a link penalty actually just have a shortage of good links. We tell you plainly which you have, because telling Google to ignore links that were helping you is a common and avoidable way to damage your own rankings.
How much does Backlink audit cost?
All + VAT · 3-month minimum, then 30-day rolling| What's included | Lite £299 + VAT / month | Max Most chosen £449 + VAT / month | XL £849 + VAT / month | Custom Contact us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical & on-page SEO | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AEO / AI-search layer (found in ChatGPT, AI Overviews) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Local map-pack optimisation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Page creation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blog posts / month | Add-on | Add-on | 2 | Tailored |
| AI Authority building | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plain-English monthly report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Best for | Getting the foundations right | Competing on your key terms | Going after it hard, incl. AI authority | Shaped around your goals |
Backlink audit: common questions.
What is a backlink audit?
A backlink audit is a careful review of every website linking to yours, judged on three things: which links are genuinely helping you rank, which are risky enough to hold you back, and how far behind you are compared to the competitors above you. It ends in a plan, which links to tell Google to ignore, which to protect, and where to earn new ones next, rather than a raw list of every link you have received.
Do I need a backlink audit if I have never bought links?
Often yes, but not for the reason people expect. If you have never bought links your risk is usually low, so the value of the audit is the opportunity side: it measures the gap in link strength to your competitors and shows exactly where new links would move you up. A clean set of links that simply is not strong enough is the most common finding we see.
Will a backlink audit tell me if I have a Google penalty?
It will tell you whether your links show the patterns that attract a penalty from Google, and whether Google Search Console shows an actual penalty. In practice most sites that fear a penalty do not have one, Google ignores far more low-quality links than it acts on, so the honest answer is often that your links are fine and the problem is elsewhere on the site.
Should I disavow toxic links found in the audit?
Only where it is genuinely needed, which is rarer than most tools imply. Google is good at ignoring low-quality links on its own, and telling it to ignore links that were quietly helping you can damage your rankings. We recommend telling Google to ignore a link only for genuinely dodgy links, spam networks and paid schemes, and we say so plainly when the right action is to do nothing.
How is your backlink audit different from running a tool myself?
A tool gives you a harm score and a list. It cannot tell you whether a flagged link is actually harmful, whether an unflagged one is quietly valuable, or which of your competitors' links you could realistically earn. An experienced person reads your links the way a search engine weighs them and turns it into an ordered plan, which is the judgement the tool cannot supply.
How does the audit measure the gap to my competitors?
We compare your link strength against the specific competitors ranking for the searches you want, then break the difference into the links they have that you do not. Crucially, we separate the winnable ones from the one-off links you will never get, so the plan targets links you can actually win rather than an unreachable number.
How often should I run a backlink audit?
A full backlink audit is not a monthly job. For most businesses once a year is right, with lighter checks in between, and a fresh audit whenever you take over a site whose link history you do not know, suspect a penalty, or are about to invest seriously in link building and want a clean starting point first.
What does a backlink audit cost?
Experienced work starts from £299 a month, and we scope the audit properly on a call rather than quoting a headline number that changes later. Because the same people run the digital PR and link building that acts on the findings, the audit usually leads into ongoing link-building work rather than sitting as a standalone report.
Book the call, or see the evidence first