bklink docsRunning an audit
What an audit takes as input, what it checks for every link, and how long it runs.
An audit is one list of placements, checked and valued together. It belongs to a campaign inside a project.
Inputs
You can start an audit in three ways:
- Upload a CSV or PDF of placements, such as the report a vendor or PR distributor sent you.
- Drop in a vendor spreadsheet.
- Scan a domain. bklink finds the backlinks already pointing at a site so you can audit them. A scan is priced per 1,000 backlinks found, and a scan answered from a recent scan of the same domain is not charged again.
One audit covers up to 5,000 links.
One campaign per vendor list
Each list a vendor or PR distributor delivers should be its own campaign, so every vendor's placements get their own report and verdict. Links are not attributed to a seller automatically: the campaign you create is the grouping.
What is checked for every link
| Check | How |
|---|---|
| The link is on the page | The linking page is fetched live and its links read. |
| Follow state | Followed, nofollow, sponsored or ugc, as the page marks it. |
| The page is alive | The HTTP status; dead pages and pages that are gone are named. |
| Where the publication runs | Its address (A record), hosting network (ASN) and country. |
| Shared servers | Publications sharing one address are grouped. Where ten or more distinct domains share one, the server is checked for footprints of one owner before it is called a network. |
| Syndicated copies | Copies of one article republished on many sites are recognised, and every copy but the declared original keeps a small share of its value. |
| Value | Each link's BV. See How bklink values links. |
Networks, not just shared hosting
Shared hosting is ordinary, so a shared address alone is not a verdict. A server is called a network only when footprints of one owner agree: private nameservers, registrations inside one 90-day window, one registrar, one theme, identical purchases. CDN addresses, which front unrelated sites, are never grouped. Links placed across one network are one relationship, not many.
Time
The median audit finishes in about two minutes for roughly 100 links. Lists of over a thousand take up to half an hour. You can leave the page; the report fills in as it runs, and you are emailed when it completes.
Price
$1.00 for up to 400 links. A longer list costs more, following how many links it holds and how many sites they are on, but never more than $6.32. The price is shown before the audit runs. See Wallet and pricing.