Checklist and template
A link audit is not a big project. For a launch-stage SaaS it is a sheet with one row per placement and a short monthly note. This page gives you both.
QuietLinks research team ·
Without a log you cannot tell which order did what. That makes every later budget decision a guess.
Our store keeps an ordered links list with each placement's status, which gives you the dates. The rest, such as Search Console impressions and signups from the target page, lives in your own tools.
Ahrefs, Semrush or Majestic can show new referring domains if you already pay for one, though a free Search Console links report is enough for a young site.
Export the links report from Google Search Console and add every placement from your ordered links. One sheet, one row each.
Mark links from unrelated niches, duplicated anchors or pages that cannot be indexed. Three flags are normal, twelve are a pattern.
Look up a competitor's referring domains in Ahrefs or Semrush if you hold a licence. Do their numbers dwarf yours, or sit close?
Finish with a single sentence on what you will do next month. If you cannot, the audit was not specific enough.
| Field | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | Total paid this month, in dollars | Ties links to the budget in the budget page |
| Placements live | Count, with donor names | Shows delivery against the plan |
| Target pages | Which URLs received links | Reveals if one page absorbs everything |
| Impressions and clicks | For those URLs, from Search Console | The early signal, before signups move |
| Signups or trials | From those URLs, in your analytics | The reason you spend at all |
| Notes | Anything odd: a lost link, a penalty-like drop, a rival launch | Keeps the story honest in three months |
| Decision | Keep, raise, lower or stop | Forces a call each month |
If you also care about being named in ChatGPT or Perplexity, add one line to the report: where you appear for five questions your buyers ask. Nobody can promise that links influence it, so log it as an observation.
Do not judge on one month. Google crawls and reconsiders at its own pace, and a core update such as March 2024 can move a whole niche regardless of your links.
Look for direction over the quarter. Rising impressions on targeted pages with flat spend is the pattern you want.
If nothing moves in twelve weeks, go back to the 12-week plan and ask whether the page or the plan is the bottleneck.
Share the sheet with whoever owns growth, even if that is you wearing another hat. A report only one person reads tends to get skipped in the busiest month, which is exactly when the data matters.