Zeo delivery method

Backlink & Authority Audit

One link inventory everyone can trust, and a reclaim, earn, or let-go decision behind every link that a vendor score never made alone.

A backlink profile built up over years mixes links that carry real authority with dead weight nobody has checked, and a vendor toxicity score just hands you a number to argue about instead of a reason. We map the full link graph, confirm which links are still live, judge risk the way a person actually would, and decide link by link whether to reclaim it, leave it, or let it go. We identify the links carrying authority, separate the noise, and pursue recoverable losses and confirmed risks with evidence.

See what links to youSEO Audit
Two Zeo figures inspect an oversized chain of links individually and place the broken and suspicious links in a separate pile.

Some of the 500+ brands we've worked with

See all references
  • Shell
  • Kuveyt Türk
  • Red Bull
  • Domino’s
  • Babylon
  • Hisar
  • Amazon
  • BMW
  • Hyundai
  • PepsiCo
  • Decathlon
  • MediaMarkt
  • Bayer
  • Sanofi
  • EY
  • KPMG
  • GE
  • 3M
  • Lexus
  • Trendyol
  • Hepsiburada
  • Yandex
  • Pegasus Airlines
  • LC Waikiki

Stages and gates

How we do it

We work through four stages in order. A vendor score alone is never enough to reclaim or disavow a link.

  1. Map the whole link graph

    We merge every backlink export into one graph, same source definitions, same timestamps, duplicates and redirects resolved, so nothing gets double-counted or quietly dropped. A specialist sets the source list, timestamp window, and exclusions before the merged graph becomes the audit's baseline.

    One inventory with a clear scope, exclusions, and an owner.

  2. Check what's still live

    We sample live pages, historical destinations, referral context, prior outreach, and manual-action evidence to distinguish confirmed changes from tool noise. A specialist confirms each flagged gap against the actual live page before it earns a place on the authority gap map.

    An authority gap map where every entry traces back to a page you can still visit today.

  3. Judge risk the way a person would

    A specialist classifies suspicious patterns by context, source, intent, scale, history, because no single toxicity score gets to be the verdict on its own. A specialist weighs the intent, ownership, and precedent behind each cluster before any link earns the risk label.

    A short list of genuine risks with reasoning attached.

  4. Reclaim, earn, or let go

    For each supported opportunity we approve the fix, the outreach, or the disavow request with evidence and a named owner, and we say no to the rest. A named owner signs off on every reclaim, outreach, or disavow action, including the condition that would reverse it.

    A backlog of link moves worth doing, each with a condition for pulling it back out if it doesn't pan out.

AI merges the exports; a specialist decides what the evidence means.

AI reconciles overlapping backlink exports from different tools into one graph, pulls live-page and historical snapshots so nobody opens thousands of URLs by hand, groups suspicious link patterns by source, scale, and history, and drafts the outreach note and disavow-candidate list from confirmed evidence. No vendor toxicity score decides a disavow or removal on its own: a specialist checks the live page first, and a link whose status stays genuinely unclear is recorded as unclear.

Deliverables and acceptance

What you get

Four things you can act on today.

  • Link ledger

    Normalized link inventory

  • Decision matrix

    Authority gap map

  • Prioritized backlog

    Reclaim & earn backlog

  • Audit report

    Risk evidence record

We call it done when: The link inventory, gap map, backlog, and risk record are done when every link traces to a source and a date, every finding traces to a live page or dated record, and every confirmed risk carries the action taken and the reasoning behind it.

Fit and readiness

When you need this

This is for teams who need to know which links carry value and which ones are noise.

A good fit when

  • You want one team responsible for telling meaningful authority signals apart from noise across your link profile.
  • You have lost links that may be recoverable and want to know which ones justify the time and effort of outreach.
  • You don't have a clean, current picture of what's linking to you and why (exports from three tools disagree and nobody's reconciled them).

Better handled as other work when

  • You want a single authority or toxicity score and a matching disavow file, without manually reviewing what is still live.
  • You're trying to buy, swap, or manufacture links instead of earning new ones or recovering links you lost.

If one of these is closer to your situation, start here instead: SEO Audit

We call it done when: A clean link inventory, a sourced authority gap map, an owned reclaim-or-earn backlog, and a record of what happened to the confirmed risks (nothing decided behind a score).

The specialists behind this SEO work

Zeo's SEO work goes back to 2006, when we started what we call the first SEO blog in the MENA region. The consultants shown here are doing that work today, matched to what this page covers.

Tools we use

Tools behind this work

  • Ahrefs

    exports live, lost, and redirected backlinks with destination history

  • Semrush

    adds a separate backlink source and competitor authority comparison

  • Moz

    checks link discoveries omitted or dated differently elsewhere

  • Majestic

    cross-checks referring domains and shows how authority flows between them

  • LinkResearchTools

    groups suspicious link patterns for manual context and risk review

  • Linkody

    monitors approved reclaim targets and records whether links return

  • Google Search Console

    compares vendor exports with Google's own sampled links report

Next step

See which links still carry weight

Bring your backlink exports, even the messy ones. We'll help separate confirmed risks from noise and find the first recoverable win.
See what links to you

Before we start

Questions we hear

Why not just use a toxicity score and move on?

Because those scores flag patterns. They don't prove anything on their own. Legitimate links can be flagged, and genuinely risky ones can be missed. A specialist checks the actual page before we act on anything.

Which backlink exports and history should we provide?

Bring exports from at least two backlink tools, along with any records you have for lost links, redirects, previous disavow requests, or link-removal requests.

Can you guarantee lost links come back?

No. We can tell you which losses are genuinely recoverable and pursue those with direct outreach. Whether a publisher restores the link is entirely their call.

We already have a manual action for unnatural links (does this change the approach)?

No, it's the same evidence work, just under a deadline. We still verify the live page before any link goes on the disavow file, because a rushed submission is exactly how legitimate links get disavowed by mistake.