How to Master Your Competitor Link Analysis (+Strategies & Best Practices)

Feeling frustrated because you are falling behind in the race for top search rankings against your competitors?

Do you want to know the secret sauce behind your competitor’s link-building success? 

This is where competitor link analysis comes in to help uncover opportunities and highlight weaknesses in your SEO strategy. 

With backlink analytics, you can improve your site’s rankings, spot trends, and identify potential link-building opportunities.

In this step-by-step guide, you will find actionable strategies and best practices for your assistance. 

What Is a Competitor Backlink Analysis?

A competitor backlink analysis involves studying where your competitors’ backlinks come from, the type of content attracting those links, and the authority of the linking domains.

By conducting this analysis, you can uncover:

• Link Opportunities: Websites that link to your competitors rather than to you.
• Content Gaps: Topics or formats that attract the most backlinks.
• Strengths and Weaknesses: What’s working for your competitors, and where do they fall short?

Competitor backlink analysis serves as a roadmap for refining your SEO strategy. As a result, you can build high-quality links, improve rankings, and outperform competitors. 

Why Conduct a Competitor Backlink Analysis?

Conducting a competitor backlink analysis can help you:

• Identify gaps in your link-building strategies
• Benchmark your backlink profile against your competitors and identify areas for improvement
• Develop a more effective link-building strategy and improve your search engine rankings
• Find competitor backlinks and spot gaps or weaknesses in a site’s backlink profile. You may find problems like reliance on low-quality sources or broken links that can help you capitalize on these areas by lifting those gaps with stronger partnerships or better content.

To outperform your competitors in the SEO game, you need personalized competitor link analysis services because cookie-cutter techniques won’t work. 

Professionals like those at GrowthOG can help you go beyond the metrics and uncover unique opportunities to build valuable backlinks. 

Finding and Analyzing Competitors’ Backlinks

Here’s a step-by-step guide to find competitor backlinks and analyze them effectively.

How to find competitors’ backlinks

In the first step, you should determine who are your competitors. It is the foundation of any backlink analysis. This can be broken into two types: direct and search competition. 

Direct competitors are businesses that offer the same products or services as you. Diret competitors: 

• target a similar audience
• compete in the same industry
• and often share overlapping business goals

For example, if you’re an online clothing retailer, your direct competitors are ASOS or Zara.

Search competitors are websites that rank for your target keywords, even if they aren’t in your industry or sell the same products. For example, a food blogger targeting the keyword “best kitchen tools” might compete with e-commerce stores like Amazon or specialized kitchen brands.

This process allows you to identify both product-based and content-driven competitors. As a result, you can refine your backlink and content strategies to outperform them both in search rankings.

Use Google search for keyword-based competitor discovery 

A simple Google search is one of the easiest ways to find your competitors’ websites.

Here, I’ve taken the example from the hospitality industry.

1. Enter Primary Keywords in the Search Bar: For example, these could be “Best organic skincare brands”, “Organic moisturizers for dry skin,” or “Natural face creams for glowing skin.”
2. Make a Note of Top-Ranking Domain: You should find your domain level competitors. For each keyword, observe which domains appear on the first page of the results.
   1. Keyword 1: “Best organic skincare brands”
      Top domains: www.honest.com, www.wellandgood.com, www.100percentpure.com
   2. Keyword 2: “Organic moisturizers for dry skin”
      Top domains: www.healthline.com, www.thegoodtrade.com, www.burtbees.com
   3. Keyword 3: “Natural face creams for glowing skin”
      Top domains: www.dermstore.com, www.100percentpure.com, www.honest.com
3. Observe Patterns: When analyzing the results, you may notice:

• Recurring brands like 100 Percent Pure and Honest appear consistently across multiple keywords. This indicates they’re strong competitors in the organic skincare niche.
• Content-Driven Competitors: Healthline and The Good Trade are content-heavy websites. These suggest that guides and reviews are crucial to ranking for these keywords.

4. Outcomes of Keyword Research: 

• Direct Competitors: 100 Percent Pure, Honest, and Burt’s Bees are selling similar products to yours.
• Search Competitors: Content sites like Healthline and Well+Good focus on informational content, which may inspire your own blog or guide creation. 

Tools for competitor backlink analysis

You can use any one of these trusted tools for competitor backlink analysis:

• Ahrefs is a powerful tool for backlink analysis.
• SEMrush is another comprehensive digital marketing tool offering robust competitor backlink analysis features.
• Moz Pro’s Link Explorer is a sophisticated tool that offers extensive capabilities for exploring the backlink profile of any website.

These tools provide comprehensive data on backlinks, referring domains, and anchor text patterns. However, effectively interpreting and applying this data requires expertise and a strategic approach.

This is where GrowthOG comes in. We use advanced tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to perform detailed competitor backlink audits and uncover high-quality linking opportunities. With our expert assistance, you can design your personalized link-building campaign.

Identifying competitors and quality websites

Identify websites to link to your own content. It is necessary to build a strong backlink profile. Here’s how you can identify these opportunities effectively:

1. Use a backlink gap tool

A backlink gap tool helps pinpoint websites linking to your competitors but not to you. Tools like Ahrefs Link Intersect, SEMrush Backlink Gap, or Moz Link Explorer make this process straightforward.

Once you do this, input your competitors’ domains as well as yours to compare backlink profiles.

Identify domains that link to multiple competitors but not your site. These are prime opportunities for outreach.

2. Analyze referring domains

Once you’ve identified potential linking domains and websites, evaluate their quality:

• Domain Authority (DA): Use tools like Moz or Ahrefs to check the site’s authority score. Aim for sites with a DA of 40 or higher for impactful links.
• Relevance: The linking website should be relevant to your niche or industry. For example, a fitness blog linking to a gym equipment store is more valuable than a general news site.
• Traffic Metrics: Look for sites that generate consistent traffic, as they’ll drive both link equity and potential visitors.

3. Identify high-quality backlink opportunities

Not all backlinks are created equal. Focus on these types of opportunities:

• Guest Posting: Look for blogs or sites that accept guest contributions and align with your expertise.
• Resource Pages: Seek websites with “Best of” or resource lists relevant to your niche and pitch your content for inclusion.
• Broken Links: Identify broken links on these domains and offer your content as a replacement.
• Unlinked Mentions: Find mentions of your brand or product that aren’t linked and request a proper backlink.

Tools like the Backlink Gap Tool are powerful but overwhelming for beginners. 

For this reason, hire a professional link builder, such as GrowthOG. We use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to identify these quality websites and execute outreach strategies effectively. 

Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles

Here are the steps to follow to analyze a competitor’s backlink profile.

1. Enter the Competitor’s Domain: Evaluate the URL of competing websites using a backlink checker tool.
   
2. View Backlink Data: Examine critical details such as:

• Total Backlinks: The number of links pointing to their site.
• Referring Domains: The number of unique websites linking to them.
• Top Linking Pages: Identify web pages on their site that attract the most links.
  

3. Identify High-Quality Backlinks: Focus on acquiring backlinks from:

• Authoritative Sources: Look for high Domain Authority (DA) website links. For example, a backlink from Forbes.com carries more weight than one from a low-traffic blog.
• Relevant Websites: Ensure links come from sites from the same niche or industry. For example, a skincare competitor earning links from healthline.com or dermstore.com would be relevant.
• Diverse Sources: Check if the backlinks come from various domains rather than a single source to ensure natural linking patterns.
  

4. Analyze Anchor Text: Anchor text reveals what keywords your competitors are targeting. Look for: 

• Exact-Match Keywords: Do their backlinks contain relevant keywords for which they’re ranking? For example, “Best organic moisturizers” can be used as anchor text.
• Branded Anchors: Are they building brand recognition? Example: “Shop at Honest.”
• Generic Anchors: Links with “Click here” or “Learn more” indicate less optimized strategies.
  

5. Examine Linking Patterns: Look for trends in your competitor’s backlink profile. This could include:

• Content-Driven Links: Are they getting backlinks from blog posts, reviews, or infographics?
• Guest Posts: Do they have links from blogs where they might have contributed guest content?
• Recurring Sources: Are they getting repeat links from the referring domain?

Turning Insights into Action

Once you finish the competitor’s backlink analysis, you should work on those insights to strengthen your SEO strategy. Here’s how to turn your findings into actionable steps.

Replicating competitor content and links

Use your competitor backlink analysis to pinpoint:

• High-Performing Content: Identify pages on competitor websites that earn the most backlinks. This could include blog posts, guides, infographics, or case studies.
• Top Referring Domains: Note which authoritative websites link to their content.

Develop competitor-informed content strategies

Use competitor insights to create superior content that appeals to both readers and backlink sources:

• Add Value: Expand on the competitor’s topic with additional data, visuals, or expert opinions.
• Improve Quality: Make your content more engaging with better formatting, multimedia, or updated information.
• Target Similar Keywords: Focus on keywords their high-performing content ranks for and optimize accordingly.

Replicate backlink sources

You can leverage the competitor’s backlink sources to build your own link profile in the following ways: 

• Direct Outreach: Contact websites that link to your competitors’ content. Pitch your improved version, explaining its added value.
• Offer Alternatives: Use broken link building to replace competitor links pointing to outdated or non-existent pages with your content.
• Guest Posting: Identify domains that accept guest posts from your competitors and pitch your expertise.

Build a robust outreach plan

To increase the impact of your link building efforts, follow a personalized approach. Craft tailored emails to contact competing sites. Your email should refer to specific content on the target site, showing you’ve done your research. Mention how your content aligns with your audience’s needs.

• Example: “I loved your article on organic skincare and wanted to share my in-depth guide, which could offer additional value to your readers.”

Explain why linking to your content adds value for their audience, enhances their existing resources, and boosts their SEO.

• Example: “My guide provides fresh insights and can enrich your content, improving the user experience for your readers.”

If there’s no response, send a polite follow-up after 5-7 days. Keep it respectful and add any new relevant updates to your content.

• For example: “Just following up on my previous email regarding my skincare guide. I believe it would be a great fit for your site.”

Partner with the experts 

You need time and a strategic approach to replicate competitor content and valuable backlinks. Choose experts like GrowthOG who excel in:

• Crafting competitor-informed content strategies that attract natural backlinks.
• Building outreach plans tailored to high-authority websites.
• Using advanced tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to uncover the best replication opportunities.

With experts by your side, you can transform competitor insights into a winning SEO plan, driving more traffic and authority to your site.

Guest blogging opportunities

You can use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to identify the best guest blogging opportunities. 

For example, imagine you’re running a digital marketing agency, and your main competitor is Agency X. Using Ahrefs or SEMrush, you can analyze their backlink profile and see which sites are linking to them.

If Agency X has backlinks from well-established marketing blogs like Moz or Neil Patel, these sites are likely high-quality sources. If these sites are linking to Agency X, they could also be interested in linking to you.

After identifying potential backlink sources, evaluate the quality of these websites:

• Domain Authority (DA): Websites with high DA are more valuable for link-building.
• Relevance: Check if the website’s content is relevant to your industry.
• Traffic: High-traffic sites are likely more authoritative and can bring more visibility.
• Engagement: Websites with high engagement (social shares, comments) are better platforms for guest blogging.

Don’t just aim for a one-time guest post. After your initial submission, contact the website owner or editor and look for opportunities for future collaborations.

Engage with their content regularly by sharing, commenting, or promoting their articles on social media. This builds rapport and increases your chances of being invited for more guest posts.

Track the results and continuously improve 

Once you’ve secured guest posts, monitor the following metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy:

• Backlinks: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to track new backlinks and check their quality.
• Referral Traffic: Monitor traffic from guest post links to see how much exposure your website is getting.
• Keyword Rankings: Track how your rankings improve for target keywords after gaining backlinks from guest blogs.

If the strategy is successful, you can scale it by targeting more high-authority websites linking to your competitors, refining your outreach methods, and producing more guest posts.

SEO Competitive Analysis

An SEO competitive analysis is a process where you evaluate your competitors’ online presence to understand their SEO strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. It takes into considerations additional factors than a backlink analysis. 

Why an SEO competitive analysis is essential

It helps you: 

• Understand what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO. You will get a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses. This insight allows you to adjust your strategy to exploit areas where they are underperforming.
• Compare your website’s performance with that of your competitors to see where you stand in terms of organic traffic, rankings, inbound links, and relevant backlinks. This comparison acts as a benchmark for setting realistic goals and measuring progress.
• Identify the keywords that your competitors rank for but you aren’t. By uncovering these gaps, you can target additional keywords that will help drive traffic and improve rankings.
• Open the door for your outreach and link-building efforts by analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles.
• Look at the types of content your competitors create, the frequency of their updates, and the topics they target to understand what resonates with their audience. This knowledge can guide your own content creation efforts to ensure you address suitable issues and provide value.

For beginners, competitive analysis can be a difficult task. Turning to professional service providers like GrowthOG can get you the ongoing SEO analysis you need to keep you ahead of the curve.

How to perform an SEO Competitor Analysis

To conduct an SEO competitive analysis, you should evaluate the strategies of your competitors to gain actionable insights.

It will help you improve your own search engine rankings. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you understand the process.

Step 1: Identify your top competitors

Start by identifying your main competitors. These can be both direct competitors offering similar products or services targeting the same audience or indirect competitors targeting your audience but with slightly different offerings.

Tools to Use:

• Google Search: Search your primary keywords to see who ranks on the first page.
• SEMrush or Ahrefs: Enter your website to discover competitors based on shared keywords.

Step 2: Analyze keywords your competitors rank for

Examine the keywords your competitors rank for, especially those driving significant traffic. Look for:

• Keyword gaps: Terms they rank for that you don’t. Use a keyword gap tool. 
• High-value keywords: Keywords with high search volume and relevance to your business.

For example, Imagine you run an e-commerce site for sustainable clothing, and a competitor like Everlane ranks for “best sustainable winter coats.” Upon analysis, you find:

• Keyword Gap: “Sustainable winter coats” is driving significant traffic to Everlane, but your site does not rank for it. This indicates an opportunity to create optimized content targeting that keyword.
• High-Value Keywords: The term “eco-friendly outerwear” has a high search volume and aligns with your brand identity. It’s a perfect candidate for blog content or product page optimization.

Tools to Use:

• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
• SEMrush Organic Research

Step 3: Study their backlink profile

Backlinks are a major ranking factor, so analyzing your competitors’ backlink profile can help you discover where they’re gaining authority.

1. Identify referring domains: Find sites linking to your organic competitors.
2. Assess link quality: Look for backlinks from high-authority domains in your niche.
3. Spot opportunities: Reach out to websites linking to your competitors and propose your content.

Tools to Use:

• Ahrefs Backlink Checker
• Moz Link Explorer

Step 4: Evaluate their content strategy

Good content completes SEO. Analyze the types of content your competitors produce and assess:

• Topics they cover: Are they targeting evergreen or trending topics?
• Content depth: Do they provide in-depth guides or surface-level articles?
• Engagement metrics: How many shares, comments, or backlinks does their content get?

For example, If HubSpot consistently publishes in-depth marketing guides that rank well, it signals the importance of long-form, research-driven content in its strategy. You can adopt a similar approach for your own marketing blog.

Tools to Use:

• BuzzSumo: Analyze top-performing competitor content by shares and engagement.
• SEMrush Content Analyzer

Step 5: Assess their on-page SEO practices

Examine the on-page SEO of your competitors’ top-ranking pages to learn from their optimization tactics:

• Title tags: Are they keyword-rich and compelling?
• Meta descriptions: Do they entice users to click?
• Internal linking: How do they link between pages?
• Use of visuals: Are images, videos, or infographics enhancing engagement?

For example, If Shopify uses well-optimized title tags like “How to Start an Online Store (2024 Guide)” for high-ranking blog posts, you can adopt a similar structure for titles targeting competitive keywords.

Tools to Use:

• Screaming Frog: To analyze page structure and metadata.
• Google SERPs: Review how competitors’ titles and descriptions appear.

Step 6: Analyze technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures your website is crawlable and fast. Investigate your competitors’ technical SEO practices:

• Page speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to see how fast their site loads.
• Mobile-friendliness: Is their site optimized for mobile devices?
• Site structure: How is their content organized?

If Amazon outranks other eCommerce sites for product pages, part of its success lies in technical factors like lightning-fast load times and a clear, hierarchical site structure.

Tools to Use:

• GTmetrix
• Google Search Console

Step 7: Monitor their social media and local SEO

Check if competitors’ content performs well on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Are they using influencers or ads?

If applicable, analyze how competitors rank in local search results using Google My Business profiles and customer reviews.

For a local coffee shop competing with Starbucks, focus on building Google My Business reviews and optimizing for “coffee shops near me” target keywords.

Tools to Use:

• Hootsuite: To monitor competitors’ social media activity.
• BrightLocal: For local SEO insights.

Competitive Analysis Success Story: Neil Patel Digital

Neil Patel competes with companies like Moz and Ahrefs. See how it happens:

1. Keyword Analysis: Neil Patel often targets “best SEO tools” and outranks competitors by creating comparison guides and review content.
2. Backlink Strategy: He earns more backlinks by offering free tools like Ubersuggest, which competitors link to as a resource.
3. Content Excellence: His site publishes in-depth, actionable guides that rank for high-volume keywords like “SEO strategies 2024.”
4. Technical SEO: His website is fast, mobile-optimized, and uses schema markup for enhanced SERP features.

By studying Moz and Ahrefs, Neil Patel has refined his strategies to target overlapping audiences with unique angles. It ensures his site remains competitive.

Over to You

A competitor link analysis is essential for outpacing your rivals in the digital space. By closely analyzing your competitors’ SEO strategies, identifying opportunities for improvement, and building a winning link-building strategy, you can boost your search engine rankings and drive sustainable SEO success.

At GrowthOG, we deliver expert-driven, results-focused competitor link analysis services. Our team uses cutting-edge tools and proven strategies to uncover actionable insights that help you dominate your niche.

Ready to take your SEO game to the next level? 

Schedule a consultation with GrowthOG today don’t just compete—outperform your competition with us!