Competitor Backlink Analysis: How to Find Links Worth Earning

TL;DR: Competitor backlink analysis shows which sites link to your rivals, so you can find places that might also link to you. Prioritise sites that link to several competitors and are genuinely relevant.

Step 1: pull their links

Run a competitor through the backlinks tool to see the sites linking to them, ranked by authority.

Step 2: find the overlap

The link gap tool shows sites linking to your competitors but not to you. A site that links to two rivals already covers your topic, which makes it a better prospect.

Step 3: filter hard

Keep links that are relevant, editorial and from sites a real person reads. Skip directories that accept anyone, paid placements and anything that breaks search engine spam policies.

Step 4: earn the link

Give each site a reason: a better resource, original data or a useful correction. Our link gap outreach examples in the library show how others approached it.

When a bigger tool is the better fit

If link research is your main job, a specialist with its own crawler, such as Ahrefs, will go deeper. See our Ahrefs comparison. For the full process, see how to do competitor analysis.