Before and after
Inbound link check for a store: a hypothetical before and after
Before you buy anything, count what you already have. This sketch uses an imaginary candle shop to show what an inbound link check looks like on paper, and what changes after a small order.
LinkSell editorial team ·
The candle shop, its numbers and its links are invented to show the method. They are not a result from any real store, and yours will look different.
The candle shop, before
| Item | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domains | 14 | Mostly directories and social profiles |
| Links to the home page | 11 | Brand name anchors |
| Links to product pages | 2 | Both from the owner's own blog |
| Links to the soy candle collection | 0 | The page the owner wants to push |
How to do the check yourself
Start with Google Search Console. Its links report lists top linked pages and top linking sites for free.
Add a second view from a backlink tool such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz or Majestic if you have one, since each tool has its own crawler and finds a slightly different set. Export both and merge them in a sheet.
Then sort by target page. You are looking for gaps, which here means a collection or product page with no links at all while the home page has most of them.
What the sketch leaves out
No sketch can show your real profile. Tools disagree, crawls lag, and Google rarely lists every link it knows.
Treat the figures as a template for your own sheet. Replace each number with your own, and keep the notes column honest.
Read about dofollow and nofollow if the rel values in your export confuse you.
The candle shop, after a small order
| Item | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domains | 17 | Three new placements |
| Links to the soy candle collection | 3 | From home and lifestyle blogs |
| Orders spent | $34 | About $11 per placement |
| Status in ordered links | 3 live | Within the usual window |
How to read a result like this
Count is not the goal
Three links to the right page tell you more than thirty to the home page. Look at where they point.
Wait for a crawl
A link has to be found before it can count. Check Search Console after some weeks, not the next morning.
Compare one page only
Measure impressions and clicks for the collection you pushed, not the whole site, to keep the signal clean.
Keep what you learn
Write the donor, price and date in the sheet. Next month you will decide faster.
Audit steps for a small store
- Export links from Google Search Console
- Merge with one other tool's export
- Group by target page
- Mark pages with zero links
- Decide the one page to push this month
Where to go from the audit
If the gap is a collection page, take the order walkthrough and add two or three rows to the basket.
If you do not know where competitors get theirs, the overlap example shows a way to find out. Each placement you buy stays in your ordered links list, so the next audit starts from a clean record.
Inbound link questions
How often should I run an inbound link check?
Monthly is plenty for a small store. Weekly adds noise, because new links take time to be found and counted. Run one before every new order and one a few weeks after it.
Which tool should I trust?
None alone. Search Console is free and comes straight from Google, while Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and Majestic run their own crawlers. Use two and treat disagreements as normal.