Backlink tracking tool
Track Every Backlink From Opportunity to Acquisition
BacklinkDone is a backlink tracking tool for the work that happens before a link exists. It follows each opportunity from the moment it is discovered through seven stages to the day the link goes live and beyond, so you always know where a link stands and how it got there.
- QualifiedLinks to 2 of your 3 competitors
- Ready to contactNewsletter editor, offer an expert quote
- RepliedEditor asked for a two-line quote
- Link acquiredLive, pointing to /features/
Tracking vs monitoring
A backlink tracking tool is about the path to the link
The two words get used interchangeably, but they describe different jobs. BacklinkDone keeps them separate so each one is clear.
Tracking Before the link exists
- Where is each opportunity in the workflow right now?
- Who is the right contact, and has outreach gone out?
- What did we offer, and which target page is it for?
- Which opportunities turned into links, and which stopped?
Monitoring After the link exists
- Is the acquired link still on the page?
- Has the anchor, target or nofollow status changed?
- Is the source page still available?
- Covered on the backlink monitoring tool page.
How it works
Seven stages, one history per opportunity
Every opportunity moves through the same stages, and each stage carries the context the next one needs. That is what turns a status column into real backlink tracking.
- Discovered
- Qualified
- Ready to contact
- Contacted
- Replied
- Link acquired
- Monitoring
| Stage | What it means | What is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Discovered | BacklinkDone found the site through competitor links or a backlink gap. | Source of the signal, which competitors it links to |
| Qualified | The site is relevant and has a credible reason to link to you. | Why relevant, reason to link, priority |
| Ready to contact | You know who to write to and what to offer. | Who to contact, what to offer, target page |
| Contacted | Outreach has gone out from your inbox or outreach tool. | The outreach status and the offer that was made |
| Replied | The site answered, positively or not. | The reply, as the next outreach status |
| Link acquired | The link is live on the source page. | The acquired backlink and the target page it points to |
| Monitoring | The link is now watched for changes. | Hands off to backlink monitoring |
The order matters. An opportunity is only ready to contact once it has a contact, an offer and a target page, so nobody sends a pitch that has not been thought through.
Track backlinks in progress
See where every opportunity stands
The value of a backlink tracker shows up in the middle of a campaign, when dozens of conversations are open at once. BacklinkDone shows the current stage of every opportunity next to the plan for it, so nothing depends on memory.
- The current stage of every opportunity, from Discovered to Monitoring.
- Priority, so the opportunities most worth the effort are worked first.
- The plan on the record: who to contact, what to offer and the target page.
A practical rule from outreach work: follow up once, with something new to offer, rather than repeating the first pitch. For the whole pipeline in one place, see backlink management software.
- foundernoteshq.comOffer: original dataReplied
- saasstackhq.comOffer: replacement entryContacted
- stackcompare.comOffer: updated resourceReady to contact
- devresourceshq.comOffer: free templateQualified
Learn from the history
Link tracking that keeps the reasoning with the result
A status on its own tells you little. In BacklinkDone the stage an opportunity reached sits on the same record as the case for pursuing it: why the site is relevant, the reason it could link, who you contacted, what you offered and which page it was for.
Once a few dozen opportunities have run their course, those records are the best guide you have. Our advice: before the next round, compare what you offered on the opportunities that ended in a link with the ones that did not, and lean the next backlink opportunity finder shortlist toward what worked.
Worked example
Tracking one backlink, start to finish
The opportunity from the top of this page, step by step, with example data.
Discovered and qualified
growthweeklyhq.com links to two of your three competitors from a weekly tool roundup. BacklinkDone qualifies it with a clear reason to link and a P1 priority.
Ready and contacted
It finds the newsletter editor as the contact, recommends an expert quote as the offer and /features/ as the target page. You send the pitch from your inbox and it moves to Contacted.
Replied
The editor asks for a two-line quote. The opportunity moves to Replied, with the contact, offer and target page still on the record.
Acquired, then monitored
The roundup goes out with your link. The opportunity reaches Link Acquired and then Monitoring, where the link is watched for losses and changes.
Why BacklinkDone
Why a backlink tracker needs to start before the link
Not a "new backlinks" report
Backlink data tools report links after a crawler finds them. That tells you nothing about the opportunities you are still working on, or why a pitch stalled.
Context, not a single status
Each stage sits next to the reason to link, contact, offer and target page. Months later you can still see why an opportunity was pursued and what won it.
Connected to what came before
Tracking starts with the reason the site was worth pursuing, so you can judge outcomes against the original case. Contacts and past conversations live in the link building CRM.
FAQ
Backlink tracking FAQ
What does a backlink tracking tool do?
A backlink tracking tool follows each link you are working on through the stages of link building: discovered, qualified, ready to contact, contacted, replied, link acquired and monitoring. In BacklinkDone every opportunity sits in one of those seven stages, next to its reason to link, contact, offer and target page, so you can see where it stands and how it got there.
What is the difference between backlink tracking and backlink monitoring?
Tracking covers the work before and up to the link: the path from opportunity to acquisition. Monitoring starts once the link is live and watches what happens to it, such as removal, a changed anchor or a switch to nofollow. BacklinkDone does both: Monitoring is the last stage of the tracking workflow, so an acquired link carries straight on into it. See backlink monitoring for the second half.
Can I track backlinks in a spreadsheet instead?
You can keep a status column, but a spreadsheet only stores whatever was last typed in. The reason the site was worth pursuing, the contact, the offer and the target page end up in other columns or other files, if they are written down at all. A backlink tracker keeps the stage and that context on the same record, from the first signal to the monitored link.
Does BacklinkDone send the outreach it tracks?
No. Outreach happens where you already do it: your email, LinkedIn, CRM or outreach tool. BacklinkDone covers the work before it (discovering, qualifying and preparing each opportunity) and tracks what happens after it: Contacted, Replied, Link Acquired and Monitoring.
How does tracking help the next round of link building?
Every opportunity keeps its reason to link, offer and target page next to the stage it reached. Our advice is to look back at those records before each new round: which kinds of sites replied, which offers ended in a link and which reasons to link did not land. Prospecting gets more realistic when it starts from what has worked for your site.
Backlink Monitoring
Watch the links you earned and get told when one is lost, changed or made nofollow.
Learn morebacklink management softwareBacklink Management
One pipeline for every opportunity, contact, offer, target page and acquired link.
Learn morelink building CRMLink Building CRM
A CRM shaped around opportunities, sites, contacts, offers and relationships, not generic deals.
Learn more14-day free trial
Know where every backlink stands
Add your domain and competitors. BacklinkDone finds the opportunities worth pursuing and tracks each one from discovered to link acquired, with the context of every stage kept.
No credit card required.