Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. Simply put, backlinks are links from other websites pointing back to pages on your site. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your site will rank in search engines like Google.
But getting powerful backlinks takes effort. An effective way to shortcut your link building is by analyzing and replicating your competitors’ backlinks. This competitor backlink analysis reveals the strongest websites linking to rival sites, allowing you to model and even outperform them.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore:
- What competitor backlinks are and why they matter
- Different types of competitor sites
- Metrics for analyzing backlinks
- Tools to identify link building opportunities
- Tactics to replicate quality links
- Developing your own robust backlink strategy
Let’s start with understanding what competitor backlinks are.
What Are Competitor Backlinks?
Competitor backlinks refer to the external websites linking back to your rival websites. These are the quality referral links that top ranking competitors have earned, which you can leverage for your own SEO.
Specifically, competitor backlink analysis involves using SEO tools to review metrics like:
- Total number of backlinks
- Referring domains pointing to a site
- Domain authority of referral links
- Anchor text trends
- Prominent link placement spots
Reviewing this data equips you to emulate successful link building patterns, steal opportunities, and expose potential weaknesses.
Why Competitor Backlink Analysis Matters
Competitor backlink analysis is important for several reasons:
Sets a Link Building Benchmark
The websites ranking above you have clearly mastered both on-page and off-page SEO. By analyzing their backlinks, you establish goals and benchmarks to model for your own strategy across metrics like:
- Target number of referring domains
- Minimum domain authority of links
- Ideal anchor text mix
Matching and exceeding their links builds your credibility and authority.
Reveals New Link Opportunities
Discovering sites linking to rivals uncovers opportunities you may be missing, like:
- Guest posting – Identify blogs competitors have written for and pitch superior articles to them
- Relationship building – Connect with webmasters and influencers driving links to competitors
- Broken links – Claim lost links pointing to dead competitor pages with your content
This additional visibility compounds over time.
Exposes Potential Weaknesses
Analyzing poor quality links, like spammy directories, helps avoid ineffective tactics. You also spot opportunities from:
- Toxic links – Disavow toxic links damaging SEO
- Irrelevant links – Judge relevance to your brand and audience
Optimization prevents poor links from diluting your progress.
Identifying Competitors for Analysis
When analyzing competitor backlinks, you need to categorize rivals into two buckets:
Domain-Level Competitors
These are entire websites that compete with you directly across various topics, pages, and target keywords. For example:
- Business consulting sites if you run an agency
- Review sites if you are an ecommerce store
- News outlets reporting on similar topics
These share very similar audiences and search visibility as you. Analyze backlinks pointing to their whole domain.
Page-Level Competitors
These are specific web pages, often from indirect competitor sites, targeting the exact same keyword as one of your pages. For instance:
- A blog article on the same topic
- Forum discussion around your key term
- News story focusing on your keyword
So while the website itself is not a rival, that particular page competes for your target traffic. Analyze backlinks only to the URL, not the entire domain.
Metrics to Analyze in Competitor Backlinks
When reviewing your competitors’ backlink profiles, you need to dig deeper than just the total number of links. Assess both quality and quantity factors like:
Backlink Volume Metrics
- Total backlinks – The more links to a site, the more powerful the domain. But focus on quality too.
- Referring domains – More valuable metric than total links. Counts number of unique domains pointing to site.
- Sudden growth trends – Spikes may indicate undeserved links which could drop. Monitor gains/losses.
Backlink Quality Metrics
- Domain authority – DA scores site’s power on 0-100 scale. Higher = better. 30+ is good.
- Page authority – Like DA, but 0-100 score is for strength of specific linking page.
- Link relevance – How useful and topically related the link is for your brand and audience. Context matters.
- Link placement – Where link is placed on page (header, content, footer etc.). Above the fold is best.
- Anchor text – Visible clickable text. Variety brings stability, but optimize for focus keywords.
Ideally, utilize backlink analysis tools to review competitor links across all these parameters.
For example, a site may have a high volume of links, but upon deeper analysis you may find:
- Many links from irrelevant niche websites
- Links using over-optimized anchor text
- Links only present in footers
This qualitative assessment balances the quantitative view. Analyzing multiple competitors exposes common patterns and differences to exploit.
Tools for Competitor Backlink Analysis
Specialized SEO tools automate competitor backlink analysis to efficiently reveal opportunities.
Moz
Moz offers a free and paid solution for checking competitor links:
- MozBar – Browser plugin showing high level domain authority and page authority
- Link Explorer – Enter any domain or URL to view full list of referring domains, Domain Authority, Spam score, followed links and other details for qualitative analysis
Though the free Link Explorer only shows 10 links, this gives a snapshot of top quality backlinks.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer is perfect for analyzing competitor links:
- Domain and URL rating on 0-100 scale
- Total backlinks and referring domains
- Top linking domains and pages
- Anchor text usage trends
- Recommendations for undiscovered link opportunities
Filters provide a nuanced analysis of links.
SEMrush
SEMrush also offers extensive backlink data:
- Backlink numbers over time
- Breakdown by type, attribute, placement etc
- Domain and page authority
- Anchor text phrases
- Backlink gap analysis
Historical graphs show potential risks from artificial links.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest focuses on page-level analysis:
- Backlink details for a specific URL
- Domain authority filters
- Data exports to focus on quality links
The tool integrates well with other Neil Patel SEO tools.
Each tool analyzes domain and page specific metrics to gauge link quality beyond just volume. These insights shape your outreach.
Finding Link Building Opportunities
Armed with competitor link data, you can now discover smart opportunities to improve your own profile.
Analyze Strongest Competitor Links
Prioritize replicating links earning rivals the top spots. Sort by:
- High domain authority – 50+
- Recent links – Updated within last 3-6 months
- Keyword relevancy – Optimized anchor text
These point to influential sites interested in your niche.
Identify Common Quality Referrals
Review multiple competitors to highlight crossover links to authoritative industry publications, bloggers and resources.
The shared presence indicates an important player for visibility.
Assess Related Keywords
Expand beyond your core keywords when analyzing competitors.
SEMrush and Ahrefs link opportunity tools also uncover prospects targeting related keywords. Cast a wider net.
Perform Backlink Gap Analysis
SEMrush compares your profile with competitors to reveal missed high-quality links. Directly surfaces referral sites you should pitch for links.
Together these approaches efficiently showcase links you must emulate or outbid rivals for.
Tactics to Replicate Competitor Backlinks
With smart data-driven insights in hand, here are proactive tactics to replicate quality links:
Technically Outrank Competitors
- Fix broken links – Claim lost links from errors like 404 pages
- Update outdated content – Replace stale data with new resources
This directly overlays your better content.
Strategically Build Relationships
- Guest post outreach – Pitch contributors driving competitor links
- Influencer marketing – Connect with leaders in your industry
- Revamp and repurpose content – Make it 10x better through updates, graphics, videos etc to get the links they did
Produce content so good that you become the source.
Monitor and React
- Link alerts – Be the first to know of new competitor links
- URL tracking – Monitor page level ranks to complement domain tracking
Overtake rivals by keeping pace with or exceeding their efforts.
Executed thoroughly, these approaches compound your progress over the long term. But replication alone is not enough…
Developing a Robust Backlink Strategy
The most successful companies don’t just replicate competitors. They analyze links to inform an expanded strategy that outranks rivals.
Judiciously Replicate Links
Assess potential links on merits – domain authority, relevance, theme etc. Not all links deserve replication. Audit efficiently.
Employ More Tactics
- Content upgrades to build email lists
- Guestographics for infographic links
- Link inserts in existing resources
- More advanced outreach campaigns
Diversify efforts for stability and synergy between tactics.
Monitor and Optimize
Continuously check new links, fix toxic links, refresh old links and improve poor links. Competitors start slipping? Gain an edge.
Focus on User Experience
At the end of the day, links serve to improve audience experience. That gives Google signals for actual search performance beyond backlinks. Keep users first.
With a sound strategy incorporating the best of competitors’ successes, you sustainably build credibility and authority over the long run.
Conclusion | Leveraging Competitor Backlinks
Competitor backlink analysis is a game changer for accelerating your SEO strategy. By discovering the sites driving visibility for top rivals, you uncover proven link building blueprint to emulate.
Key highlights include:
- Analyze domain and page-level competitors to find all visibility threats
- Use Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush and Ubersuggest to automate analysis
- Assess backlinks by volume, domains, placement, relevancy other quality signals
- Tactically replicate the best competitor links through outreach campaigns
- Complement with more advanced organic link building tactics
- Continuously optimize your mix of links
Keep sight of the long term by not over-optimizing links. Focus on informational relevance and audience needs. Ethically build your presence with original, empowering content that earns links naturally.
Competitor links provide the blueprint. An expanded organic strategy sustains your advantage. Combining these approaches, you can outperform rivals in a scalable way.
