How to Build a Backlink Tracker Spreadsheet for SaaS Campaigns

Most SaaS teams track their link building the same way: a loose spreadsheet that started as a quick export from Ahrefs, grew into a tangle of unlabelled columns, and now nobody’s quite sure which links are live, which ones were lost three months ago, or whether last quarter’s campaign actually moved the needle on rankings.

A backlink tracker spreadsheet, built deliberately from the ground up, solves all of this. It gives you a single source of truth for every link you’ve prospected, pitched, placed, and monitored. It tells you which campaigns are converting, which links have gone offline, and whether your referring domain count is growing or stalling. And it costs nothing beyond the time to set it up properly.

This guide walks through every component of a production-ready backlink tracking spreadsheet built in Google Sheets, from the tab architecture to the specific columns, formulas, and conditional formatting rules that make it genuinely useful rather than just another data dump.

What this guide covers:

• Why a structured spreadsheet outperforms ad-hoc tracking
• The five-tab architecture every SaaS backlink tracker needs
• The Prospect Pipeline tab: columns, dropdowns, and formulas
• The Placed Links Log tab: the core record of every live link
• The Outreach Tracker tab: managing campaigns and follow-ups
• The Link Health Monitor tab: catching lost links before they compound
• The Campaign Dashboard tab: metrics that tell you what’s actually working
• Conditional formatting and data validation for consistency
• A monthly maintenance workflow to keep the system accurate

Why a Dedicated Backlink Tracker Outperforms Ad-Hoc Tracking

Before building anything, it’s worth understanding what a proper tracking system actually solves, because the problems with ad-hoc tracking are specific and costly.

The Four Failures of Unstructured Link Tracking

1. No visibility into link health

Links disappear. Sites go offline, editors remove external references, pages get deleted, and 301 redirects occasionally break. Without a system that monitors placed links on a regular schedule, you won’t know a link has gone until you notice a drop in rankings weeks later. By then, the window for easy reclamation has often passed.

2. No campaign conversion data

If you don’t track which outreach emails led to which placements, you can’t calculate your conversion rate by opportunity type. You can’t answer “is guest posting or niche edit outreach converting better for this client?” without that data, which means you can’t intelligently allocate effort.

3. Duplicate outreach

Without a centralised prospect record, team members contact the same editor twice about the same campaign. This damages your agency’s sender reputation and wastes outreach budget.

4. No reporting baseline

Clients and stakeholders want to know what progress looks like. Without a structured tracker, monthly reporting means manually pulling data from multiple sources and hoping the numbers are consistent. A well-built spreadsheet makes reporting a 10-minute task rather than a half-day scramble.

When a Spreadsheet Is the Right Tool

A purpose-built spreadsheet covers the full range of SaaS link-building operations up to roughly 100 to 150 active outreach contacts per month per client. Beyond that scale, a dedicated CRM like BuzzStream or Pitchbox becomes more efficient. But for most in-house SaaS teams and boutique agencies, a well-structured Google Sheets system is the right tool and the right cost.

The key principle: the spreadsheet should be the system of record, not just a place to dump exports. Every link, every outreach touch, and every status change should live there, updated in real time.

The Five-Tab Architecture

A production-ready backlink tracker uses five separate tabs, each serving a distinct function. Keeping them separate prevents data from becoming tangled and makes it easy for different team members to work in their relevant sections without disrupting others.

Tab	Purpose	Primary User
Prospect Pipeline	All discovered prospects, scored, and staged	Prospector
Placed Links Log	Every live link with full placement details	SEO lead
Outreach Tracker	Outreach emails, follow-ups, and responses	Campaign manager
Link Health Monitor	Monthly verification of live links	SEO analyst
Campaign Dashboard	Aggregated metrics and reporting	Manager/client

Create these five tabs in a single Google Sheets file. Use one file per client (or one file per campaign if a client has multiple distinct campaigns running simultaneously). Keeping client data in separate files prevents accidental cross-contamination and makes it straightforward to share a client-specific view without exposing other clients’ data.

Naming convention: Use a consistent naming convention across all client files. A simple format like [ClientName] - Link Tracker - [Year] Keep your Google Drive organised as the number of active clients grows.

Key insight: The five tabs are designed to flow in sequence. Prospects move from the Pipeline to the Outreach Tracker when they’re ready for contact, then to the Placed Links Log when a link goes live, then into the Link Health Monitor for ongoing verification. The Dashboard pulls from all four operational tabs to produce reporting metrics automatically.

Tab 1: The Prospect Pipeline

The Prospect Pipeline tab is where every discovered link opportunity enters the system. It’s the top of the funnel, capturing raw prospects from competitor backlink analysis, Content Explorer searches, Google Search Operators, and any other discovery method your team uses.

Required Columns

Set up the following columns across row 1, then freeze row 1 so it stays visible as you scroll:

Column	Field Name	Data Type	Notes
A	Domain	Text	Root domain only (no https:// or www)
B	Prospect URL	URL	The specific page where the link would appear
C	DR	Number	Domain Rating from Ahrefs at the time of discovery
D	Organic Traffic	Number	Monthly organic traffic from Ahrefs
E	Opportunity Type	Dropdown	Guest Post, Niche Edit, Broken Link, Resource Page, Brand Mention, Digital PR
F	Topical Relevance	Dropdown	High, Medium, Low
G	Quality Score	Number	Your 1-10 score from the qualification framework
H	Priority	Formula	Auto-calculated from score (see formula below)
I	Target Page	URL	The client URL the link should point to
J	Suggested Anchor	Text	One or two anchor text options
K	Contact Name	Text	Editor or content manager’s name
L	Contact Email	Email	Verified email address
M	Pipeline Status	Dropdown	Raw, Qualified, Contact Found, Outreach Sent, Placed, Declined, On Hold
N	Date Added	Date	When this prospect was first entered
O	Assigned To	Text	Team member responsible
P	Duplicate Check	Formula	Flags if the domain already exists in the file
Q	Notes	Text	Any relevant context from the site review

Key Formulas

Auto-Priority from Quality Score (Column H):

=IF(G2>=8,"High",IF(G2>=6,"Medium",IF(G2>=4,"Low","Discard")))

Duplicate Domain Check (Column P):

=IF(COUNTIF($A$2:$A$1000,A2)>1,"DUPLICATE","")

This formula flags any domain that appears more than once in the pipeline, preventing duplicate outreach.

Days Since Added (add as a helper column if needed):

=TODAY()-N2

Prospects sitting in the pipeline for more than 30 days without a status update should be reviewed. This formula surfaces stale records.

Setting Up Dropdowns

Use Google Sheets data validation to create dropdown menus for the Opportunity Type, Topical Relevance, and Pipeline Status columns. This prevents free-text entry errors that break filtering and reporting downstream.

To create a dropdown: select the column cells, go to Data > Data Validation > Criteria > Dropdown, and enter your options separated by commas. Consistent dropdown values are what make the Dashboard tab’s COUNTIF formulas work reliably.

Tab 2: The Placed Links Log

The Placed Links Log is the most important tab in the entire system. It’s the permanent record of every link that has gone live: where it is, what it points to, when it was placed, and whether it’s still active. This tab is what you reference for client reporting, link reclamation, and anchor text audits.

Required Columns

Column	Field Name	Data Type	Notes
A	Linking Domain	Text	Root domain of the site linking to you
B	Linking Page URL	URL	The exact URL where the link appears
C	Target Page	URL	The client URL is being linked to
D	Anchor Text	Text	The exact anchor text used
E	Link Type	Dropdown	Dofollow, Nofollow, Sponsored, UGC
F	Placement Type	Dropdown	Guest Post, Niche Edit, Resource Page, Broken Link, Brand Mention, Directory, Digital PR
G	DR at Placement	Number	Domain Rating at the time the link went live
H	Organic Traffic at Placement	Number	Monthly traffic at time of placement
I	Date Placed	Date	When the link went live
J	Verified Date	Date	When you last manually confirmed the link is live
K	Link Status	Dropdown	Active, Lost, Redirected, Broken, Nofollow Changed
L	Campaign	Text	Which campaign or outreach batch did this come from
M	Cost	Number	Cost of placement if any (for agencies tracking per-link spend)
N	Notes	Text	Any relevant context (e.g. editorial notes, link location within page)

The Verification Date Column

Column J (Verified Date) is the most important column for link health management. Every time you manually confirm a link is still live, update this date. Any link where the Verified Date is more than 30 days old should be checked in your next monthly maintenance session.

Formula to flag links due for verification:

=IF(TODAY()-J2>30,"CHECK","OK")

Add this as Column O. Sort by this column monthly to surface all links that need verification.

Anchor Text Audit Formula

To understand your anchor text distribution across all placed links, use a COUNTIF formula in a separate summary section at the bottom of the tab or in the Dashboard:

=COUNTIF(D:D,"your brand name")

Run this for each anchor text category (branded, naked URL, partial match, exact match, generic) to calculate the percentage distribution of your profile. This is the same analysis covered in the Ahrefs anchor text audit guide, but built directly into your own tracking data.

Tab 3: The Outreach Tracker

The Outreach Tracker tab manages the active outreach phase: which emails have been sent, when follow-ups are due, what responses have come in, and what the outcome was. This is the operational hub for whoever is running the day-to-day campaign.

Required Columns

Column	Field Name	Data Type	Notes
A	Domain	Text	Matches the domain from Prospect Pipeline
B	Contact Name	Text	Person being emailed
C	Contact Email	Email	Verified email address
D	Opportunity Type	Dropdown	Same options as Prospect Pipeline
E	Campaign Name	Text	The campaign batch this belongs to
F	Initial Email Date	Date	When the first email was sent
G	Follow-up 1 Date	Date	When the first follow-up was sent
H	Follow-up 2 Date	Date	When the second follow-up was sent
I	Follow-up 3 Date	Date	When the third follow-up was sent
J	Last Contact Date	Formula	Most recent email date across all touch columns
K	Next Follow-up Due	Formula	Calculated from the last contact date
L	Response Status	Dropdown	No Response, Opened, Replied, Interested, Negotiating, Placed, Declined
M	Response Notes	Text	Summary of any reply received
N	Outcome	Dropdown	Placed, Declined, No Response After Full Sequence, On Hold
O	Assigned To	Text	Team member managing this contact

Key Formulas

Last Contact Date (Column J):

=MAX(F2,G2,H2,I2)

This returns the most recent date across all four email touch columns, giving you a single “last contacted” date regardless of how many follow-ups have been sent.

Next Follow-up Due (Column K):

=IF(L2="No Response",J2+7,IF(L2="Opened",J2+5,""))

This calculates when the next follow-up should be sent based on the response status. Adjust the day intervals to match your outreach cadence. Prospects with no response get a 7-day follow-up window; prospects who opened but didn’t reply get a 5-day window.

Conditional Formatting for Follow-up Due Dates

Apply conditional formatting to Column K:

• If the date is today or earlier and the Outcome column is blank: highlight red (follow-up overdue)
• If the date is within 2 days: highlight yellow (follow-up due soon)
• If the Outcome column shows “Placed” or “Declined”: grey out the entire row

This visual system means the campaign manager can open the Outreach Tracker each morning and immediately see which contacts need attention without reading every row.

Tracking Reply Rates by Opportunity Type

At the bottom of the Outreach Tracker, add a summary table:

=COUNTIF(D:D,"Guest Post")          // Total guest post prospects
=COUNTIFS(D:D,"Guest Post",N:N,"Placed")  // Placed from guest post

Divide the placed by total to get your conversion rate by opportunity type. If guest posts are converting at 12% and broken link pitches at 28%, that data should directly influence how you allocate outreach effort next month.

Tab 4: The Link Health Monitor

The Link Health Monitor tab is dedicated to verifying that your placed links are still live. It’s a simplified view of the Placed Links Log, filtered to show only the information needed for monthly verification checks, with status fields that make it easy to log what you find.

Why a Separate Tab for Health Monitoring

The Placed Links Log is a permanent record. You don’t want to clutter it with monthly verification notes. The Link Health Monitor is a working document that gets updated each month, with its findings feeding back into the Link Status column in the Placed Links Log.

Required Columns

Column	Field Name	Notes
A	Linking Page URL	The exact URL to check
B	Target Page	The client URL the link should point to
C	Anchor Text	Expected anchor text
D	Link Type	Dofollow or Nofollow
E	Date Placed	Original placement date
F	Last Verified	Date of most recent check
G	Current Status	Active, Lost, Broken, Redirected, Nofollow Changed
H	Action Required	None, Reclaim, Redirect Check, Contact Editor
I	Action Taken	Notes on any follow-up action
J	Action Date	When the follow-up action was taken

The Monthly Verification Workflow

Once a month, work through the Link Health Monitor tab in order:

1. Open each linking page URL in your browser and confirm the link is still present and pointing to the correct target URL
2. Check the anchor text matches what’s recorded
3. Check the link attribute (right-click the link, inspect element, confirm dofollow vs nofollow)
4. Update the Current Status and Last Verified date
5. Flag any changes in the Action Required column

For teams with more than 50 placed links, this process takes approximately two to three hours per month. For larger link profiles, use the free Check My Links Chrome extension to scan pages quickly rather than inspecting each link manually.

Handling Lost Links

When a link shows as “Lost” in the Current Status column:

• Same page, link removed: Contact the editor. Reference the original placement and ask if the link was removed intentionally. Conversion rate on these reclamation emails is typically 25 to 40%.
• Page returns 404: Check Wayback Machine to confirm the page existed. If it did, the site may have restructured. Contact the editor to ask if the content was moved.
• Entire domain offline: The link equity is gone. Add a similar site to your Prospect Pipeline as a replacement target.

Key insight: A link that goes from dofollow to nofollow is a silent loss. The link still appears in GSC and third-party tools, but it’s no longer passing equity. The Link Health Monitor is the only way to catch this without a paid monitoring tool.

Tab 5: The Campaign Dashboard

The Campaign Dashboard tab pulls aggregated data from the other four tabs to produce the metrics that matter for reporting and strategic decisions. It’s built entirely from formulas referencing the operational tabs, which means it updates automatically as the other tabs are updated.

The Core Metrics to Display

Structure the Dashboard as a summary table at the top, followed by breakdown sections for each metric category.

Pipeline Summary (pulling from Prospect Pipeline tab):

Metric	Formula
Total prospects in pipeline	=COUNTA('Prospect Pipeline'!A:A)-1
Qualified prospects	=COUNTIF('Prospect Pipeline'!M:M,"Qualified")
Ready for outreach	=COUNTIF('Prospect Pipeline'!M:M,"Contact Found")
Declined or dead	=COUNTIF('Prospect Pipeline'!M:M,"Declined")

Outreach Performance (pulling from Outreach Tracker tab):

Metric	Formula
Total outreach sent	=COUNTA('Outreach Tracker'!F:F)-1
Total replies received	=COUNTIF('Outreach Tracker'!L:L,"Replied")
Total placed	=COUNTIF('Outreach Tracker'!N:N,"Placed")
Overall conversion rate	=COUNTIF('Outreach Tracker'!N:N,"Placed")/COUNTA('Outreach Tracker'!F:F)

Link Profile Summary (pulling from Placed Links Log tab):

Metric	Formula
Total placed links	=COUNTA('Placed Links Log'!A:A)-1
Active links	=COUNTIF('Placed Links Log'!K:K,"Active")
Lost links	=COUNTIF('Placed Links Log'!K:K,"Lost")
Dofollow links	=COUNTIF('Placed Links Log'!E:E,"Dofollow")
Average DR of placed links	=AVERAGE('Placed Links Log'!G:G)

Monthly Trend Tracking

Add a separate section to the Dashboard for month-by-month tracking. Create a manual table with columns for Month, New Links Placed, Lost Links, Net New Links, and Total Active Links. Update this table at the end of each month.

Over time, this table becomes your link velocity chart. If you’re placing eight links per month but losing three, your net growth is five. If you’re placing eight but losing six, you have a link retention problem that needs investigation.

Visualising the data: Select the monthly trend table and insert a line chart (Insert > Chart). Set the X axis to Month and add series for New Links and Total Active Links. This gives you a visual of whether your link profile is compounding or plateauing, which is the single most useful chart to share in client reporting.

Conversion Rate by Opportunity Type

Add a breakdown table showing outreach sent, placements, and conversion rate for each opportunity type:

Guest Post:    =COUNTIFS('Outreach Tracker'!D:D,"Guest Post",'Outreach Tracker'!N:N,"Placed")
               / COUNTIF('Outreach Tracker'!D:D,"Guest Post")

Niche Edit:    =COUNTIFS('Outreach Tracker'!D:D,"Niche Edit",'Outreach Tracker'!N:N,"Placed")
               / COUNTIF('Outreach Tracker'!D:D,"Niche Edit")

Repeat this pattern for each opportunity type. The resulting table tells you exactly where to focus your prospecting effort based on what’s actually converting for this specific client.

Conditional Formatting: Making the Spreadsheet Self-Managing

Conditional formatting is what turns a data repository into an operational tool. Without it, you have to read every row to find what needs attention. With it, the spreadsheet surfaces priorities visually the moment you open it.

Essential Conditional Formatting Rules

Apply these rules across the relevant tabs. In Google Sheets, go to Format > Conditional Formatting and set rules using “Custom formula is” for the more complex conditions.

Prospect Pipeline: Pipeline Status colour coding

Select the entire Pipeline Status column (Column M) and apply:

• “Raw” or “Qualified”: light grey background (not yet actionable)
• “Contact Found”: yellow background (ready for outreach)
• “Outreach Sent” or “Followed Up”: blue background (in progress)
• “Placed”: green background (complete)
• “Declined”: red background (closed)
• “On Hold”: orange background (parked)

Outreach Tracker: Overdue follow-ups

Select Column K (Next Follow-up Due) and apply:

• Custom formula: =AND(K2<TODAY(),N2="") → red background (follow-up overdue, no outcome recorded)
• Custom formula: =AND(K2<=TODAY()+2,K2>=TODAY(),N2="") → yellow background (follow-up due within 2 days)

Placed Links Log: Link status

Select the entire row and apply:

• Custom formula: =$K2="Lost" → light red row background (lost link needs attention)
• Custom formula: =$K2="Nofollow Changed" → orange row background (equity change)
• Custom formula: =$K2="Active" → no formatting (default)

Link Health Monitor: Links overdue for verification

Select Column F (Last Verified) and apply:

• Custom formula: =TODAY()-F2>30 → yellow background (verification overdue)
• Custom formula: =TODAY()-F2>60 → red background (critically overdue)

Locking Header Rows and Protecting Formulas

Freeze row 1 on every tab (View > Freeze > 1 row) so column headers remain visible as you scroll.

For formula columns (Priority, Duplicate Check, Last Contact Date, Next Follow-up Due), protect those columns from accidental edits by going to Data > Protect Sheets and Ranges and restricting edit access to yourself or the team lead. Formula columns that get overwritten with manual text break the Dashboard calculations silently, which is one of the most common reasons spreadsheet systems fail over time.

The Monthly Maintenance Workflow

A backlink tracker is only as accurate as the data in it. Without a regular maintenance routine, stale records accumulate, lost links go unnoticed, and the Dashboard metrics drift away from reality. The following monthly workflow keeps the system current in under two hours.

1 Week of Each Month: Link Health Verification (60 minutes)

1. Open the Link Health Monitor tab
2. Filter Column F (Last Verified) to show all links not verified in the past 30 days
3. Work through each URL, checking that the link is present, pointing to the correct target, and still dofollow
4. Update Column G (Current Status) and Column F (Last Verified) for each link checked
5. For any links showing “Lost” or “Nofollow Changed”, add the appropriate action to Column H and initiate reclamation outreach

2 Week: Pipeline Review and Prospecting (30 minutes)

1. Open the Prospect Pipeline tab and filter by Pipeline Status = “On Hold”
2. Review each on-hold prospect and decide whether to reactivate or archive
3. Check the Outreach Tracker for any prospects that have been in “Outreach Sent” status for more than 21 days with no response. Move these to “No Response After Full Sequence” and close the record
4. Identify any clients with fewer than 20 qualified prospects in the pipeline and flag for additional prospecting sessions that week

3 Week: Dashboard Update and Reporting (20 minutes)

1. Update the monthly trend table in the Dashboard with the current month’s figures (new links placed, lost links, net new, total active)
2. Review the conversion rate by opportunity type table. If any opportunity type has a conversion rate below 5%, note it for strategy review
3. Export the Dashboard tab as a PDF for client reporting (File > Download > PDF)

4 Week: Data Quality Check (10 minutes)

1. Run a filter on the Prospect Pipeline for the Duplicate Check column showing “DUPLICATE”. Resolve any duplicates by archiving the lower-priority record
2. Check that all formula columns are returning values correctly. If any formula cells show errors (#REF!, #DIV/0!, etc.), investigate and fix before they cascade into the Dashboard
3. Archive any rows in the Outreach Tracker where Outcome is “Declined” or “No Response After Full Sequence” and the record is more than 90 days old. Move these to a separate “Archive” tab to keep the active tracker clean

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A well-maintained backlink tracker spreadsheet is the operational foundation of any serious SaaS link-building programme. It’s the difference between knowing your campaign is working and hoping it is. The investment in building it properly, setting up the formulas, and maintaining it monthly pays back in faster reporting, earlier detection of lost links, and clearer visibility into which tactics are actually driving placements.

For SaaS teams ready to take their link building further, the effective SaaS link building tips guide covers the strategic layer that sits on top of this tracking infrastructure, and the advanced SaaS link building techniques guide goes deeper into campaign structures for scaling acquisition. If you’re evaluating whether to manage this in-house or partner with a team that already has the systems, publisher relationships, and processes in place, the SaaSLinks.io link building services page outlines how a managed programme works.