Free Guide · @vibha.in.progress
The Backlink Engine
Google does not just read your site, it counts who vouches for it. This is the whole system that finds who should be linking to you, drafts the outreach for you, reclaims the easy wins, and tracks every link you gain or lose, live. Every connector, every skill, every prompt to copy. No agency retainer.
Now live
No backlinks at all yet? The from-scratch playbook is live. This guide is for sites that already have the basics. Start from zero here →
What you're building
One loop that runs your backlinks
This is part two of the SEO system. Part one (the SEO + GEO Autopilot) fixes what is on your page. This fixes what points to it, the half agencies charge the most for.
Map → Land → Reclaim → Track → (repeat)
It runs on one Claude skill called seo-backlinks plus a few free data sources. You already have backlinks sorted at the basics? Good. This is how you find the high quality ones that actually move rankings.
What it costs
Free to start
₹0
seo-backlinks skill + Common Crawl + your Search Console + Bing
₹0
Moz authority scores (free tier, about 10 lookups a month)
~₹50
DataForSEO, optional, pay-as-you-go for depth and speed
The free route (Common Crawl plus your own Search Console) covers the whole loop. DataForSEO is the only paid piece and there is no subscription, you just top up a little when you want richer competitor data.
Step 1
Set up your project and connect your tools
- Open Claude and add the seo-backlinks skill in Settings → Capabilities (or your plugin marketplace). This is the brain of the whole system.
See exactly what the skill does, and copy it, on GitHub →
- Make a project, name it "Backlink Engine," and paste the instructions below into Project Settings → Instructions.
- Verify your site in Google Search Console (free, one time). This is what lets Claude see the links you already have.
- Add a free Bing Webmaster Tools account too, it reports backlinks Google misses and it is free.
- Connect the Google Search Console MCP (free, open source, one line, no coding). Same one used in the SEO + GEO guide.
- Get a free Moz Links API key for Domain Authority scores. Free tier is limited, plenty to start.
- Optional, for deeper competitor data: add the DataForSEO MCP (official repo, copy the install command from the README) and top up a little at dataforseo.com (pay as you go).
Paste into Project Instructions
You are my backlink analyst and outreach writer. You use the seo-backlinks skill to find who should be linking to me, score every site by authority, draft my outreach, and track the links I win or lose over time.
Rules:
- Pull my real existing links from Search Console and Bing Webmaster before guessing.
- Always tag a link do-follow or no-follow, and lead with the high authority, low effort wins.
- You find, score, draft and track. You never auto-send outreach, you give me paste-ready drafts and I send them.
- Free route first (Common Crawl + my Search Console). Only use DataForSEO when I ask for depth.
- Plain English. Tell me exactly who to send each draft to.
In plain English
Wait, what are these connectors and skills?
None of this needs code. Here is what each piece actually is.
🧠A skill is a set of instructions that teaches Claude one job really well. This one knows how to map, score, draft and track backlinks. You add it once in Settings.
🔌A connector (MCP) free unless marked
A connector is how Claude plugs into an outside tool to read real data, like your Search Console or a backlink database. You connect it once, then Claude can pull live numbers.
🌐Common Crawl free
A free, public map of who links to who across the whole internet. No account needed, the skill reads it for you. This is how it sees your competitors' backlinks.
📊Moz Links API free tier
Gives every website a Domain Authority score from 0 to 100, how much Google trusts it. The free tier is limited but enough to rank your shortlist.
🔍Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster free
Your own backlink records, straight from Google and Bing. This is what powers the live tracker so you see links you gain or lose.
⚡DataForSEO paid, cheap
A paid backlink and rank database for when you want more depth and speed than the free route. Pay as you go, no subscription. Totally optional.
Step 2
The four moves, and the prompt for each
1 · The Mapper
Finds every site linking to your top competitors, scores each by authority, and shows which ones link them but not you. Your hit list.
Prompt
Use the seo-backlinks skill. Map my backlink gaps for [yoursite.com]. Pull every site linking to my top 3 competitors [competitor1, competitor2, competitor3] from Common Crawl, score each by Domain Authority via Moz, tag do-follow vs no-follow, and check which already link me. Give me a ranked shortlist of the high-authority sites that link my competitors but not me, easiest to win first.
2 · The Acquirer the part nobody shows you
Finding sites is the easy half. This is how you actually land the link. Claude picks the path for each target and writes the outreach in your voice.
Prompt
For my top 15 backlink targets, pick the best acquisition path for each: a directory or listing, a guest post, digital PR (a roundup or journalist), or an unlinked-mention reclaim. Then draft the outreach for each one in my voice, short and human, paste-ready. Flag which links are do-follow, and tell me exactly who to send each note to.
Honest note: foundation links (directories, profiles, listings) are table stakes, they get you on the board but will not rocket you to page one alone. The editorial links (guest posts, press, roundups) are what climb. You need both.
3 · The Reclaimer easy wins
The fastest links you will ever get. Sites that already wrote your name and forgot to link you. They already like you.
Prompt
Find every place online that mentions [my brand] or [yoursite.com] without linking to me, my unlinked mentions. For each, draft a one-line note asking them to add the link, friendly and short. Sort them by the site's Domain Authority so I send the highest value ones first.
4 · The Ledger
A live report wired to your own Search Console and Bing, so every link you gain or lose updates itself. No more guessing if a link is working.
Prompt
Build me a live backlink dashboard artifact. Tabs for the Mapper, the Acquirer, the Reclaimer, and a Ledger wired to my Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster. Show backlinks gained vs lost over time, my Domain Authority trend, the do-follow vs no-follow split, and flag any link that disappears. Each time I open it, refresh the numbers from Search Console and Bing.
See the live backlink dashboard →
Step 3 · make it run itself
Put the tracker on autopilot
An artifact only refreshes when you open it. So schedule one tiny task to check your links every week, even when you are not looking.
Prompt
Every Monday at 8am, check my backlinks via Search Console and Bing Webmaster, log how many I gained or lost this week, update my Domain Authority, and message me only if I lost a link or won a high-authority one.
Now the ledger climbs on its own, and you get pinged the moment a link drops, which is exactly the "never guess if a link is working" part.
Every link in one place
Your toolkit
Starting from absolute zero?
No links at all yet?
This guide assumes you have the basics covered. If nothing links to you yet, that is a different starting line. The from-scratch playbook is live: Backlinks From Zero walks you through claiming your foundation links (Product Hunt, Crunchbase, G2, your niche directories), pitching your first editorial links, and hosting your own Backlink Board. Start there, then come back and run this loop.
Want me to set this up with you?
Not everyone wants to wire up connectors and projects themselves, and that is completely fine. If you would rather have it built for your brand, with the prompts tuned to your business and the live tracker running on your real site, book a paid working session with me. We set the whole loop up together.
Book a session → vibha.is/taking-meetings