What to Do First: Audit or Links
A common question for beginners: where to start — with a technical audit or directly with links. The answer depends on one factor that is easy to check.
The Deciding Factor
Does the page have impressions in search? If the page is showing and has positions at least in the top hundred — the technical base is working, and links will have an effect. If there are no impressions at all, links won't help: first, you need to figure out why the page is not participating in search.
| Situation | Where to Start | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Page in top-50, impressions exist | Links | Lacking authority, everything else is in place |
| Page not indexed | Audit | Links to a non-indexable page are useless |
| Site is slow, markup errors | Audit | Technical issues hinder both users and bots |
| Traffic dropped suddenly | Diagnosis | See traffic drop |
| New site without history | Content, then links | Nothing to promote until there are pages under demand |
Reasonable Order for Most
- Check the indexing of promoted pages — this is free and takes minutes.
- Run a technical audit and fix only the level “error” issues: there are usually only a few.
- Ensure that the page matches the query in format.
- After that, launch links — and already meaningfully, for the page at the threshold of the top.
Where Shield Fits In
Security checks are a separate story, not directly related to ranking growth. They are needed when there is suspicion of hacking or when the site is critical for business: Security Shield. It indirectly affects ranking — through infection and dropping out of the index.
How Much Time Each Path Takes
A technical audit and fixing critical errors take days, rarely weeks, and the result is visible immediately: pages start to be indexed, speed increases. Link promotion takes months, and the result manifests gradually. Therefore, all else being equal, first do the quick and cheap, and then the long and expensive.
Common Mistake: Endless Audit
The audit report contains dozens of comments, and most of them are at the “note” level. Fixing everything indiscriminately can take months without gaining a single additional position. A reasonable approach: close errors that hinder indexing and speed, and postpone the rest. How to prioritize — how to read the audit report.