Finding the Competition's Backlinks: Here's How!
In our guide, we show you how to analyze the backlinks of your competitors and build your own link-building strategy based on that analysis.
Do you want to overtake your competition in terms of search engine optimization? Then you should know which backlinks your competition uses. Because linking from external sources to your own page is an important factor for ranking on the search result pages. But how do you find out which backlinks your competition uses? In this guide article, we show you how to find the backlinks of your competitors* in a few steps and use them for your own strategy.
Why is it important to monitor the backlinks of others?
Backlinks serve almost as recommendations from other websites and signal to Google that the linked website is relevant and trustworthy. The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the higher its authority and the likelihood of good visibility in the search results.
In order to successfully optimize your own website, it is therefore important to develop a good backlink strategy. This also includes the analysis of the competitors' backlinks. Because if you know which websites link to your competitors*, you can gain valuable insights for your own strategy.
Thus, you can not only identify potential link sources as part of your analysis, but also find out which type of content is well received by other websites and which topics are particularly relevant. In addition, you can see which backlinks the competition has received from high-quality and trustworthy websites and which backlinks may be harmful.
5 tools to find the backlinks of the competition
In advance we present you 5 tools with which you can analyze the backlink profiles of your competitors*. Backlink tools are often modules of more comprehensive SEO software. But there are also stand-alone solutions that are specifically tailored to this task. On OMR Reviews you will find in addition to the tools mentioned here many other providers of programs that are suitable for this. Here is our small selection:
Step 1: Identify the competition
Before you can analyze the competitors' backlinks, you first need to identify which providers are competing with you at all. This is about finding out who is competing with you for backlinks and what type of content they are presenting on their websites.
The identification of the competition can be done in various ways. Surely you can instantly think of a few providers of similar products and services that compete with you. However, you should not rely solely on your intuition when identifying your competition. One possibility is for example to search your relevant keywords in Google and analyze the top results.
Another option is to use tools. The SEMrush Backlink Tool, for example, offers a competitor report that shows who is competing with you and ranks these by a competition score. This score gives information about how many backlinks are leading to the sites of the other providers.
Once you have created a corresponding list, you should also look at the websites. The goal is to find out what type of content they present, how their websites are structured, and which keywords they use. The technical implementation of the websites should also be analyzed to identify possible weak points.
Step 2: Find out high-quality backlinks of the competition
After you know who your competitors* are, the second step is to find out the backlinks and check their value:
Which metrics help with the analysis?
The individual tools offer different data and metrics, based on which you can assess what the backlink profile of your competitors looks like. Often these are information about the domain authority and page authority, the trust flow and the citation flow, to name just a few.
Ahrefs, for example, not only shows the number of backlinks, but also the number of used domains, the domain authority (DA) and the page authority (PA) of the linking websites. With Ahrefs you can also identify potentially harmful backlinks.
SEMrush also offers similar metrics. In addition, the tool has a feature called Backlink Gap. This allows you to compare the backlinks of your competitors* with your own. This way, you can quickly find backlinks that the competition is using, but you are not yet. This works on whole domains, but is also intended for the analysis of individual URLs. In other words: This feature shows you where potential is still sleeping, which you are not using yet.
Majestic is another tool that specializes in the analysis of backlinks. It analyzes the quality of backlinks based on the Trust Flow and Citation Flow. These metrics indicate how trustworthy and influential a website is. With Majestic you can also show the number of used domains and the top backlinks of the competition.
To evaluate which backlinks are high quality, you should pay attention to various factors. These include the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) of the linking websites, the relevance of the linked content, the number of used domains, and the quality of the linking websites. Also the number of social signals like likes and shares can be indicators for the quality of a backlink.
Step 3: Use the knowledge of the competition's backlinks
After you have identified and evaluated the backlinks of your competition, it is time to consider how you can use this knowledge to improve your own backlink strategy:
Ideas for using the found backlinks
One way to use the backlinks of your competition is to identify topic-relevant websites and offer guest contributions or request links to your own content. For example, if you run a website on the topic of "healthy nutrition" and find that your competitors* have received many backlinks from topic-relevant websites, you could create a list of these websites and specifically offer guest contributions or ask for links to your own content.
Another idea is to check the backlinks for outdated or faulty links and offer an updated version or better content in order to direct the linking to your own website.
Tips for your backlink strategy
Quality content: It is important to have your own backlink strategy in order to be successful in the long term. A first step is to create high-quality and relevant content that stands out from the competition. The better your contents are, the more likely it is that other websites will link to them.
Networking: Another important point is networking with other website operators* and offering guest contributions or linking to relevant content. A good way to build your network is to participate in industry events and network with other webmasters via social media.
Stay away from bought links: You should also make sure that your backlinks come from high-quality websites that are thematically relevant. Avoid buying or exchanging backlinks from websites, as this can be penalized by search engines.
By the way: We cover the topic of link building even more comprehensively in our articles, where we show you how to find and replicate your own backlinks and how to create a sustainable link building strategy.
Conclusion
Overall, it can be said that finding and using the competition's backlinks can be an important step in improving your own backlink strategy. By analyzing and evaluating the backlinks of your competitors, you can gain valuable insights and specifically target high-quality backlinks. In addition, it is important to develop your own high-quality backlink strategy in order to be successful in the long term. Admittedly, link building is not the most fun thing when it comes to optimizing your pages. In fact, building backlinks takes some time and resources. But ideally, your efforts will be rewarded with high-quality links and better placement in the SERPs.
Nils ist SEO-Texter bei OMR Reviews und darüber hinaus ein echter Content-Suchti. Egal, ob Grafik, Foto, Video oder Audio – wenn es um digitale Medien geht, ist Nils immer ganz vorne mit dabei. Vor seinem Wechsel zu OMR war er fast 5 Jahre lang als Content-Manager und -Creator in einem Immobilienunternehmen tätig und hat zudem eine klassische Ausbildung als Werbetexter.
