Lost Link Tracker: Automatically Monitor Your Valuable Backlinks

Getting Started

This step-by-step guide will walk you through setting up and using the Lost Link Tracker to protect your link-building investments.

Using the Lost Link Tracker

Adding Your Links to Track

In your Google Sheet, replace the example data with your own backlinks:

• Column A: The full URL of the page containing your link — e.g., https://example.com/blog-post
• Column B: The exact anchor text of your link — e.g., affordable web services
• Column C: The full URL that your link points to — e.g., https://yoursite.com/services
• Add as many rows as needed, with one backlink per row

Running Manual Checks

After adding your links, click Link Tracker → Check Links Now. The script will scan all the linking pages and update columns D and E with the results:

• Column D shows the timestamp of when the check was performed
• Column E shows the link status

Setting Up Automatic Daily Checks

• Click Link Tracker → Setup Daily Trigger
• You should see a toast notification: "Daily link check scheduled successfully!"
• The script will now automatically check your links every 24 hours
• You'll receive email alerts only when a link's status changes

Removing Automatic Checks

If you want to stop the automatic daily checks:

• Click Link Tracker → Remove Daily Trigger
• You should see a toast notification: "Daily trigger removed"

Understanding the Email Alerts

The Lost Link Tracker sends email alerts only when there's a change in the status of your links. Each email includes details about:

• LINK REMOVED: A link that previously existed is no longer found
• LINK RESTORED: A link that was previously missing is now found
• ANCHOR TEXT CHANGED: A link exists but its anchor text has been modified
• ANCHOR TEXT RESTORED: Anchor text returns to your expected text
• PAGE ERROR: A linking page becomes inaccessible (e.g., returns a 404 or 500 error)

Each alert includes the URL of the linking page, your target URL, the expected anchor text, and the current status with specific details about the change.

Tips for Effective Link Tracking

• Use complete URLs: Always include the full URL with https:// or http://
• Be exact with anchor text: Enter it exactly as it appears on the linking page
• Check regularly: While automatic checks run daily, you may want to run manual checks after important updates
• Act quickly: When you receive an alert, contact the website owner promptly to resolve issues

Troubleshooting

Script Not Working

• Make sure all URLs include the protocol (https:// or http://)
• Verify you've granted all necessary permissions
• Try running a manual check to ensure everything is set up correctly

False Positives / Negatives

• Ensure the linking page doesn't use JavaScript to load content (the script can't detect dynamically loaded content)
• Check that the anchor text exactly matches what's on the page (including capitalization)
• Verify that the target URL exactly matches the href attribute in the link

Email Alerts Not Arriving

• Check your spam folder
• Verify you're logged into Google with the correct account
• Ensure you've granted the script permission to send emails

Conclusion

The Lost Link Tracker is an invaluable tool for maintaining the health of your backlink profile. By monitoring your backlinks regularly, you can quickly identify and resolve issues — protecting your link-building investments and the value they bring to your website.

Start using the Lost Link Tracker today to ensure your backlinks remain intact and continue driving value to your website.