Kwebby's Link Building Checklist has 22 items in five groups, and 7 of them carry a High priority tag. The list follows a real campaign: build a page worth citing, audit the links you already have, earn new ones with broken link building, digital PR and unlinked mentions, stay inside Google's spam policies and verify every link you get. You tick each item once it is done, and a live score shows your progress.
No checklist or tool can guarantee that another site links to you or that your rankings rise. Links come from real people who find a page worth citing.
Key Takeaways
- The Kwebby Link Building Checklist has 22 items in five groups: Link-Ready Assets (4), Audit Your Current Links (4), Earning Links (6), Link Safety & Compliance (5) and Tracking & Verification (3).
- Seven items are High priority, twelve are Medium and three are Low. The High items are the asset, the audit and the safety rules.
- Google lists buying or selling links for ranking, excessive link exchanges and automated link creation as link spam.
- Paid links are not a violation when they carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Use rel="ugc" for comments and forum posts.
- Google says most sites never need the disavow tool. Use it only for a manual action or a clear risk of one.
- Your ticks are saved in your browser, so you can work through a campaign over several weeks. The Reset button clears them.
What the Kwebby Link Building Checklist Covers
The Kwebby Link Building Checklist is a free, interactive list of 22 steps, each tagged High, Medium or Low. Several items link to a free Kwebby tool that helps with the step. It sits in Kwebby's SEO Checklists hub.
| Group | Items | High | Medium | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Link-Ready Assets | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Audit Your Current Links | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Earning Links | 6 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Link Safety & Compliance | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Tracking & Verification | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Total | 22 | 7 | 12 | 3 |
How to Use the Interactive Checklist
Run the checklist for one campaign at a time, tick an item only after you have done it, and start outreach once the asset and safety items pass.
- Choose the page you want to earn links to, such as a guide, a free tool or a research post.
- Read the counters at the top: the Score, the "0 / 22 Complete" count and the High, Medium and Low totals.
- Clear the High items first. Seven of the 22 carry that tag.
- Open the linked Kwebby tool where an item has one.
- Tick the box when the step is done. Your ticks stay saved in this browser.
- Press Reset when you start the next campaign.
The Checklist Sections Explained
Each group answers one question about a link building campaign.
Link-Ready Assets (4 items)
This group asks whether the page deserves a link. Two of its four items are High priority.
- Choose the pages you want links to (High). Pick pages that serve readers and confirm they are indexed with the Google Index Checker. A link to a page Google does not index does little.
- Create a link-worthy asset (High). Original data, a free tool, a template or the clearest guide on a topic gives writers a reason to cite you.
- Add a quotable summary, method and date (Medium). State the key findings, how you got them, who wrote the page and when it was updated.
- Check the page loads fast on mobile (Medium). Test it with the Page Speed Checker before you send anyone there.
Audit Your Current Links (4 items)
This group asks what you already have and what you are losing.
- Review the Links report in Search Console (High). Google's Links report shows top linking sites, top linked pages and anchor text. It is a sample, so compare it with a backlink database.
- Redirect old URLs that still have links (High). A deleted page with external links wastes them. Redirect it to the closest live page with the .htaccess Redirect Generator.
- Benchmark domain authority against competitors (Low). The Backlink Checker shows a domain's Open PageRank score, age and DNS records. It does not list individual backlinks, and the score is not a Google metric.
- Study the pages that earn competitors links (Medium). Use a backlink database to see which competitor pages attract links, then build something better.
Earning Links (6 items)
This group covers the methods that earn links without breaking Google's rules.
- Run broken link building (Medium). Find resource pages in your topic that link to dead pages, then suggest your page as a replacement. The Broken Links Finder checks up to 100 links on a page and shows each status code.
- Reclaim unlinked brand mentions (Medium). Search for your brand and product names. Where a page names you without a link, ask whether a link would help their readers.
- Pitch digital PR stories (Medium). Offer journalists original data, expert comment or a clear story angle.
- Guest post only for real audiences (Medium). Google's spam policies list large-scale guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor links as link spam.
- Get listed on partner and association pages (Low). Suppliers, partners and associations often list members. Skip low-quality directory networks.
- Send short, personal outreach (Medium). Name the page, say what it adds for their readers and follow up once at most.
Link Safety & Compliance (5 items)
This group keeps the campaign from doing harm. Three of its five items are High priority.
- Never buy or sell followed links (High). Google counts buying or selling links for ranking as link spam. Paid placements must carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
- Qualify your own outbound links (High). Google's guidance on outbound links says to use sponsored for paid and affiliate links, ugc for user-generated content and nofollow for other links you do not want to vouch for. The Website Links Count Checker counts followed, nofollow, sponsored and ugc links on any page.
- Avoid link schemes (High). Excessive link exchanges, private blog networks and automated link creation all appear in Google's spam policies.
- Keep anchor text natural and descriptive (Medium). Google's crawlable links guidance calls good anchor text descriptive, concise and relevant. Do not ask every site for the same keyword anchor.
- Disavow only for a manual action or a clear risk (Low). Google's disavow guidance says most sites will not need the tool. If you do, the Disavow File Generator turns a list of URLs and domains into a disavow.txt file.
Tracking & Verification (3 items)
This group confirms each link exists and is worth keeping.
- Confirm each new link is live and crawlable (Medium). Google crawls an a element with an href attribute. Check the rel value matches what was agreed.
- Track new and lost links every month (Medium). Log each link with its source, target and date, and ask for a fix when a valuable one disappears.
- Measure referral traffic from links (Medium). Analytics referral reports show which links send real visitors.
Mistakes to Avoid
The biggest mistake is chasing link volume. Google's spam policies list practices that count as link spam, and any of them can undo the work.
- Buying followed links. Paid placements need a sponsored or nofollow value.
- Excessive link exchanges and link networks. Pages made only to cross-link are on Google's list.
- Automated link creation. Google names using programs or services to create links as link spam.
- Keyword-stuffed anchors. Generic or over-optimized anchor text helps no one.
- Disavowing by reflex. Disavowing good links can remove value. Most sites never need the tool.
- Pitching before the asset is ready. Clear the Link-Ready Assets group first.
Free Kwebby Tools for Each Stage
Kwebby covers the checking steps. It cannot choose targets or write your pitch for you.
| Stage | Tool | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing | Google Index Checker | Shows whether a domain's pages are indexed |
| Authority benchmark | Backlink Checker | Open PageRank score, age and DNS records |
| Dead links | Broken Links Finder | Status codes for up to 100 links on a page |
| Redirects | .htaccess Redirect Generator | Builds 301 and 302 rules |
| Link types | Website Links Count Checker | Followed, nofollow, sponsored and ugc counts |
| Disavow | Disavow File Generator | Builds a disavow.txt file |
| Share cards | Open Graph Checker | Previews how a page looks when shared |
Browse every option in the Free SEO Tools hub.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a link building checklist?
A link building checklist lists the steps that help your pages earn links from other sites. It covers making a page worth linking to, auditing current links, earning new ones, following Google's link rules and checking the result. Kwebby's version has 22 items in five groups.
How many items are on the Kwebby link building checklist?
The Kwebby Link Building Checklist has 22 items in five groups: Link-Ready Assets (4), Audit Your Current Links (4), Earning Links (6), Link Safety & Compliance (5) and Tracking & Verification (3). Seven are High priority, twelve are Medium and three are Low.
Is buying backlinks against Google's rules?
Google lists buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. Paid placements are not a violation when the link carries a rel attribute of sponsored or nofollow. Do not rely on bought links to rank, and do not use services that create links automatically.
When should I use the disavow tool?
Google says most sites will not need it. Use it when many spammy or artificial links point to your site and they have caused a manual action, or are likely to. Disavowing links that help you can remove their value.
Does the checklist save my progress?
Yes. Your ticks are saved in your browser's local storage, so they are still there when you return on the same device and browser. Nothing is sent to Kwebby. The Reset button clears them.
Can a tool guarantee links or rankings?
No. No checklist or tool can guarantee that another site will link to you or that your rankings will rise. Tools help you find opportunities and check results. Links come from real people who find your page worth citing.
Final Thoughts
Link building starts with a page worth linking to. Use Kwebby's Link Building Checklist to clear the 7 High priority items, then earn links through broken link building, digital PR and unlinked mentions, and mark any paid placement correctly. Skip shortcuts that create links at scale. For broader on-page and content checks, open the SEO Checklist, or run the Technical SEO Checklist to confirm the page can be crawled and indexed.