Thresholds
Backlink checker severity table for the editorial calendar
Counts do not schedule work. Bands do. Here is a four-level table that converts link data into a queue your calendar can hold.
Four severity levels
| Level | Referring domains | Traffic trend, 90 days | Calendar slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1, urgent | 16 or more | Down more than 25% | This week; refresh only, keep URL |
| S2, soon | 3 to 15 | Down more than 25% | Next sprint |
| S3, scheduled | 3 to 15 | Flat | Quarterly refresh pass |
| S4, watch | 0 to 2 | Any | Annual prune review |
How to calibrate the bands
The numbers above are starting points. Sort your own posts by referring domains and note the median. If it is 1, your S2 band at 3 is already rare and the cut-off can drop. If it is 12, raise it.
Free tools get you started: the domain lookup costs nothing, and a back link checker free of charge is enough to place the whole site on a rating. The per-page columns need credits, and a full audit of 300 URLs is cheap at two credits per call, since one call returns up to 1,000 rows.
Write the thresholds at the top of the sheet. A queue nobody can explain gets overridden by the loudest stakeholder.
Review the bands once a year, ideally after the January traffic report lands. Sites grow, medians move, and a threshold that was sharp in 2025 may be dull in 2027. Put the review date in the calendar next to the queue so it is not a memory exercise.
One more habit helps. Keep the S1 list short, no more than five pages at a time, so the team can finish them. A red list of forty items becomes wallpaper by Friday, and a wallpaper list protects nothing, so cap it and rotate what rolls over into S2.
Three modifiers that bump a post up a level
A linker you would be proud of
One reference from a major publication moves the post up a level, whatever the count says.
An upcoming change
A law, price or product version about to change. Facts rot faster than links.
A Google update window
After the March 2024 core update or the August 2025 spam update, check pages that carry many weak links first.
Turning the table into a monthly report
- 1
Pull once, after the index refresh
Run the top-pages call at the start of the month. More often gives the same numbers.
- 2
Colour by level
S1 red, S2 amber, S3 and S4 grey. One screen is enough.
- 3
Report decisions, not counts
State what you will refresh and what you will protect. Leaders skip a PDF of totals.
Link data is an input, never a verdict. See the decision tree for the questions behind each level, or the mistakes list for what to avoid when you act on S4.
A worked queue, using invented posts
| Example post | Referring domains | 90-day trend | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice template guide | 34 | Down 30% | S1 |
| Shipping rates explainer | 9 | Down 40% | S2 |
| Holiday gift roundup | 6 | Flat | S3 |
| Office move announcement | 0 | Flat | S4 |
| Founder interview, 2022 | 2 | Down 10% | S4 |
It cannot judge quality, and it cannot see links added after the last monthly refresh. Ahrefs and Semrush offer fresher crawls and keyword history if you need them. Use this queue to order work you would do anyway, with the Search Console links report as a cross-check.