Getting your web content found is a crucial element of launching a successful SEO campaign. Without a large number of eyes coming across your various web pages on Google, it can be hard to bring in enough organic web traffic to generate more leads and convert more businesses.
However, simply creating more content and trying to improve your search engine result page (SERP) rankings is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need to know who you’re up against. To achieve this goal, you’ll want to set aside some time and resources to perform a thorough competitor link analysis.
In this article, we’ll discuss what competitor link analysis is and why it’s essential for your SEO. We will also provide step-by-step instructions on how you can conduct it.
What Is Competitor Link Analysis?
Competitor link analysis involves a deep look into the backlink profile of competitive websites. The goal is not just to see the number of links these sites generate from other sources, but also the context in which they’re being acquired.
Taking this step gives businesses a clearer picture of the general strength or authority these sites have and can help them structure an SEO plan to compete against them.
Why It Matters for SEO
There are plenty of reasons why competitor link analysis is important when planning your own SEO initiatives. Some of these include:
- Uncover New Backlink Opportunities - Looking through your competitor's own list of backlinks can help you locate a number of high-authority sites worth reaching out to. This preliminary research can save you a lot of time doing your research.
- Understand What Types of Content Attract Links - Competitor link analysis can give you a glimpse into the type of content that’s likely to generate more interest from other website owners. This can give you some more insight into how to improve your content.
- Identify Link-Building Gaps and Advantages - The more information you can gather outside your SEO metrics, the more potential link-building gaps or advantages your site currently has.
- Reverse Engineer Successful Strategies - Reverse engineering successful SEO strategies can save you valuable time and resources when planning various search engine marketing initiatives. By tracking your competitors and seeing what works best for them, you can start replicating some of their tactics to create a more comprehensive SEO strategy.
Step-by-Step Guide to Performing Competitor Link Analysis
Step 1 – Identify Your SEO Competitors
The first step in conducting competitor link analysis is to identify your competitors. While this may seem like it’s the same as traditional business competitor analysis, there are actually some important differentiators.
When you’re conducting standard SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for your business, you’ll also identify specific competitors to keep an eye on that offer similar products or services. However, when you’re conducting SEO competitive analysis, your competition can be much broader and not just isolated to one industry.
Identifying all of your key SEO competitors can take time, but there are various online tools available from some well-known SEO services that can make this process much easier to manage:
- Ahrefs Site Explorer - The Ahrefs Site Explorer tool features an “Organic Competitors” report that makes it easy to discover websites ranking for the same keywords you currently do. It also provides you with a clear look at each competitor’s Domain Rating (DR) as well as the estimated traffic they bring in each month.
- Semrush (Organic Research / Backlink Analytics) - Semrush’s “Domain Overview” and “Top Organic Competitors” views provide helpful analysis on top-ranking brands and websites, as well as a detailed breakdown of their backlink profiles and Authority Scores (AS).
- Moz Link Explorer - Moz’s Link Explorer tool is a powerful feature that provides users with clear backlink profile metrics and can help you discover new link-building opportunities for your own campaigns.
- SpyFu RivalFlow - SpyFu’s RivalFlow feature provides analytics on both free and paid keywords and historical insights on how rankings have changed over time.
Step 2 – Gather Backlink Data
After you’ve narrowed down your main SEO competitors, the next step is to start collecting all the relevant information related to their current backlinks. Once you do this, you’ll be able to gain important insights about their authority and find new opportunities for your own site.
It’s important when taking this step that you leverage more than one tool during your research. Since each platform builds its database using different techniques, it can be really helpful to combine multiple results to give you a more complete picture of what your competitors are doing.
Consider leveraging some of these tools together during this process, and depending on your available budget:
- Ahrefs Backlink Checker - Provides details across massive backlink databases, including the anchor text used to redirect to competitors.
- Moz Link Explorer - Gives helpful competitor insights, including Domain Authority (DA), Page Authority (PA), and spam scores, to help you identify the quality of linking websites.
- Semrush Backlink Analytics - Another backlink analysis tool similar to Ahrefs that also includes features like “toxicity scoring” to compare the integrity of links across different competitors.
- Ubersuggest - An easy-to-use tool that provides domain authority metrics and backlink histories.
- OpenLinkProfiler - A free online tool that lets you see the backlink data of various sites, including the ones that have been recently lost or flagged as potential spam.
After you’ve pulled similar reports from each of these tools, a good practice is to move all the information onto a spreadsheet so you can filter results and remove duplicate data. Some of the things you’ll want to focus on in this sheet include the referring domains, any anchor text used, whether or not the links are “dofollow” or “nofollow,” and any other link authority metrics.
By focusing on each of these metrics, you’ll get a more complete picture of the competitive landscape and have enough data to start doing deeper analysis.
Step 3 – Run a Link Gap Analysis
Once you have all your competitor link data in one place, you can start running a link gap analysis. This is a useful technique designed to identify opportunities to acquire additional links for your own site that you may be missing.
This is done by comparing your current backlink profile with your competitors while looking for ones you may be missing or that could provide additional value to your brand. The good thing about this process is that it helps you avoid spending too much time reaching out to other websites that aren’t interested in linking out to other brands. Since you’ll be analyzing links already achieved by your competitors, there's a good chance that you’ll also be able to acquire those links with the right approach.
To perform a thorough gap analysis, you can use a variety of specialized link-intersect tools found on platforms like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz. These will allow you to directly compare your own site against one of your competitors, making it easier to see where you have advantages and where you might be falling behind. Many of these tools will also provide various filters you can use so that you can refine your results as needed.
When conducting this type of analysis, look for things such as:
- Common links that your competitors have, but you’re still missing or haven’t finalized yet.
- Stronger authority links that can provide your site with higher value over time as opposed to lower-quality links.
- Websites that are willing to link out to multiple competitors showing a strong willingness to work with other brands.
Step 4 – Analyze Competitor Link-Building Strategies
After you’ve identified relevant link gaps, you should start to understand the ways each of your competitors gained the links they have. This can help to inform your own link-building strategies moving forward.
To get started with this process, begin by shortlisting results to the most linked-to competitor pages. Look into the type of content they’re currently creating that’s gaining the most attention from other websites. See if there are any consistent themes between some of their more popular pages. Do they often use infographics, imagery, walkthrough guides, or other content formats? This can give you an idea of the type of content you’ll want to try to produce to get the same level of attention.
Another thing to take note of is the anchor text these links often use. While anchor text doesn’t always have keyword-specific terms, in most cases, you’ll be able to see some similarities that show you the type of phrases or relevant keywords they’re targeting for each of their pages.
Once you have an idea of the type of links they’re receiving, you should focus your attention on how they acquired them. Some websites may have exclusive partnerships in place with some of your competitors, but in many cases, you should be able to tell if you’re also able to become a guest contributor on some of these sites. Also, see if there are any reciprocal links that your competitors are providing to give you an idea of how flexible each backlink source likely is.
Step 5 – Develop Your Link-Building Strategy
The next step is to make a priority list of websites to reach out to for link-building opportunities. Try to focus your initial efforts on “easy wins.” These are typically the businesses that link out to more than one of your competitors, making them much more likely to also link out to your blog.
Following this process, decide on different ways you’ll be able to acquire new links. This can include:
- Guest Post Opportunities - By offering to provide helpful content to site owners, you can potentially get links back to your own site as a reward for your efforts.
- Getting Featured in Roundups - Look to see if your competitors are appearing on various “best of” or “top #” lists. You could then contact them to inquire about having your brand referenced in these types of articles.
- Capitalizing on Broken Links - By analyzing the sources that link to your competitors’ sites, you could potentially identify broken site links on behalf of the website owner. You could then create content designed to support the anchor text being used and reach out to them while suggesting your content as a relevant (working) redirect alternative.
Regardless of what type of link-building strategy you want to use, it’s important that you focus your attention on creating link-worthy content. This means you should make sure all the content you create is well-researched and contains relevant, accurate information for readers. It’s also essential to prioritize the use of shareable visuals that appeal to a wide audience type.
Step 6 – Execute Outreach and Monitor Results
When you start your outreach program, it’s important to make sure all of your efforts really count. Part of this process is never forgetting that you’ll want to focus on creating real, long-term relationships with blog owners. To do this, try to avoid just sending out generic, spammy emails asking for partnerships.
Instead, make sure that each of your outreach emails is well-formatted and customized to each website owner. Tools like BuzzStream, Pitchbox, Hunter.io, or Milkshake can help you with this effort. Many of these platforms make it easier to create outreach campaigns while tracking each correspondence throughout the pitch lifecycle.
After you reach out to each target website, you’ll want to track your success over time. You’ll likely have a number of sites that get back to you and let you know they’re if they’re interested or not. Make sure you mark the status of these in your chosen campaign tracking tool and ensure you’re following up regularly.
As you start building new links, make sure you track them, along with any new referral traffic or domain and page authority improvements they’re providing.
Bonus Tip – Check Competitors’ Most Linked Content
Instead of just focusing on who’s linking to your competitors, it's even more important to know what type of content they prefer. This will give you valuable insights into how you can improve your own content.
You can use tools like Ahrefs' “Best by Links” report or Semrush’s “Top Pages” feature to find these star pieces of content. Look for things like their most successful downloadable resources, any helpful tools or templates they offer, original data reports they've published, or those really thorough "evergreen" guides that stay relevant long term.
Understanding what truly clicks with their audience and earns them valuable links gives you a pretty clear idea of what kind of "link-worthy" content you could create yourself.
Final Thoughts
Looking closely at your competitors’ backlinks is a critical part of creating a much stronger SEO strategy. It provides you with a number of opportunities you can use to develop long-lasting relationships with other site owners willing to link to your site and help you build more authority on your site.
By following the strategies discussed, you’ll be able to conduct your competitor link analysis while gradually building a strong backlink profile for your business. This will help you bring in a steady stream of referral traffic while improving your SERP rankings.