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Competitor backlink analysis is my favourite link building strategy of all time.
I have been using it for the last 10 years and it’s the only link building method that has stood the test of time.
With a simple competitor backlink analysis you can:
- Uncover their link building strategies
- Find their most important backlinks
- See how many backlinks you need to build
And then use them in your own strategy to outrank them.
Here is how to do it…
What Will I Learn?
What Is Competitor Backlink Analysis?
Competitor backlinking is an SEO technique where you routinely analyse the backlinks of competing sites to see what types of links they have, how many, and the quality of links.
This is called competitor backlink analysis, and it helps you reverse engineer their link building strategy and use it for your own site. This will help your SEO and get you more traffic from Google.
Through this link profile analysis, you can get access to your competitor’s website performance from their number of external links and link metrics to their overall online authority – including page authority & domain authority.
A competitor backlink analysis helps you build (or improve) your strategy – the right way and allows you to:
- Uncover competitors link building strategies: During this process, you’ll review your competitor’s websites and performances to find out what they are doing differently and, eventually, you’ll come out with a bunch of new strategies to implement in your website.
- Find competitors most important backlinks: Identify which backlinks (Edu backlinks? Gov backlinks? Others?) help others to rank well in your niche. I recommend you to look at the number and the quality of sites linking to your competitor.
- Identify how you can replicate your competitors’ backlinks: By analyzing the backlink profile that makes your competitors rank, you’ll identify which backlinks are worth replicating and how to find backlink opportunities in the same sites.
Pretty cool, right?
Bellow, I’ll explain how to conduct this analysis to get great and fast results!
The Competitor Backlink Analysis Method
If you go to Google right now and search for your target keyword.
You’ll get on the first results page…
…The top 5x ranking sites that have all one important thing in common:
The idea of competitor backlink analysis is to-
- Look at each of these site’s link profiles
- Filter out the “junk”
- Replicate the best backlinks for your own site
Why waste time and money figuring out what works?
There’s already a proven link building blueprint out there waiting for you.
But to pull it off, you need a backlink analysis tool and you can get access to some incredible data without spending any money.
Top 3 Best Backlink Checkers You Shoud Be Using
Before we do anything else we need to find all of the backlinks that are pointing to our competitor’s site.
Doing that is easy because we can take advantage of a number of tools that allow us to download all of our competitor’s backlink portfolio easily.
The 3x best backlink analysis tools on the market right now are:
- Ahrefs (read my full Ahrefs review)
- SEMRush (read my full SEMRush review)
- SEO Spyglass (read my full SEO Powersuite review)
They will return high numbers of links for every competitor website that you run through them. This is important because the more quality links you find, the more you can replicate!
Let’s take a closer look…
1. Ahrefs
Ahrefs was the best tool on this list to find insight into competitors’ backlink profiles.
But in my more recent best backlink checker case study, they got absolutely blown away.
You can view all of your competitor’s backlinks (including their anchor text) in one dashboard thanks to Ahrefs Site Explorer.
You can then export them in a CSV file to form the foundation of your strategy.
Bonus: Ahrefs also allows you to monitor backlinks and set up backlink alerts so you can keep track of your competitor’s new backlinks!
2. SEMRush
The free SEMRush trial gives you access to a powerful tool with a very easy to use interface and relevant data sources that you can trust.
It’s certainly the best Ahrefs alternative out there to execute a backlink profile analysis.
But don’t be fooled by the high number of links it shows for my site.
SEMRush counts every link from a domain, but Ahrefs groups them together!
Either way, they give you a ton of data.
SEMRush has a freemium version of their tool that allows you to perform 10 data searches each day and you can also take advantage of a 100% free 14 day trial I set up for my readers.
Bonus: SEMrush offers the most comprehensive backlink audit you can find on the market.
See how Semrush stands against Ahrefs in my Ahrefs vs Semrush ultimate comparison.
3. SEO SpyGlass
SEO SpyGlass is the best desktop based backlink checker tool.
Although the link count is less than the last two tools…
It still gives you a significant number to work with:
However, their database is ever-growing with currently stands at 1.6x trillion links so it’s always going to find more than a handful for you.
SEO SpyGlass comes in two versions:
- Free: you can access data for 1,000x backlinks (but can’t export them)
- Paid: you can access data for unlimited backlinks and export them
But it doesn’t have an expensive monthly subscription like other tools.
Don’t worry, I understand these tools can be expensive if you’re starting out so feel free to take a look at my free seo tools list.
The Best Backlink Analysis Tools Compared
Honestly, you can’t make a wrong decision here. Each tool is going to provide you with more than enough backlink data to keep you busy.
And remember, if you are on a budget you can use the free trials to grab as much data as possible for your campaign.
| Ahrefs | SEMRush | SEO Spyglass | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $99/Month | $99.95/Month | $31.49/Month |
| Trial Available? | No. | Yes. 14 Day Trial & Freemium Model. | Yes. Freemium Model. |
| # Links Found | 69,600 | 1,600,000 | 35,500 |
But don’t do anything just yet!
First I want to show you precisely how we are going to use this data to grow our own search traffic!
The Best Way To Steal Your Competitors Best Backlinks
Using the tools above I’m going to show you exactly how to steal your competitor’s links.
This is the proven repeatable method I’ve been using for years.
Better still:
Here’s what you need to do…
Step #1 – Find Your Competitors Ranking URL’s
Your starting point is to get a list of the top #5 ranking URLs for your target keyword.
Select the keyword you want to target.
Then do a search in Google and make a list of the first 5x organic search results:
Your final list of URL’s should look something like this:
- https://backlinko.com/ecommerce-seo
- https://ahrefs.com/blog/ecommerce-seo/
- https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-seo/
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-for-ecommerce-websites/
- https://www.shopify.com/blog/ecommerce-seo-beginners-guide
Step #2 – Download My Free Backlink Analysis Tool
Head to this page to download my free competitor backlink analysis spreadsheet.
This is the intelligent sheet I have developed over the years for this specific task – you are going to love it!
Just paste the 5 links from step #1 above into column A on the first sheet-
Step #3 – Find Your Competitor’s Backlink Data
Click on the “Click Here” links to automatically open the right report you need.
Export the data as a .CSV file.
You can export as much data as the tool will allow.
The more, the better!
Once exported, let’s put it into the tool…
Step #4 – Load The Data
Head over to tab #2 – Data in the sheet to Import each of the files you just exported.
The quickest way is to:
- Open one of the files from step #2
- Delete the first row of data
- Highlight all of the remaining data and copy it
- Then paste it into Tab #2 of the google sheet
- Repeat the process adding each report you exported in step #3 to tab #2
This is how you should do it:
Once you have loaded all the data you are ready for…
Step #5 – Competitor Backlink Analysis
Head to Tab #3 – Plan Of Attack.
You’ll see a table of links.
These are the best competitors backlinks for you to target.
The tool has already:
- Filtered out harmful spammy links
- Removed weak links you should ignore
- Prioritised which links you should focus on first
That means in just a small amount of time you can put together a near-perfect link building strategy for your site.
(There’s that “keep it simple” motto in action again.)
That means it’s time to put your balaclava on and…
Step #6 – Steal Those Links!
You have all of the actionable data you need to get started.
What you’re looking for in your Plan Of Attack tab is:
For example…
…If the link came from a blog comment, you’ll just need to write your own:
…if it was a forum post or a blog post, join the discussion and include links in relevant places:
…if it was a guest post, you’ll need to pitch your own for publication:
Take a look at each link and reverse engineer the process to figure out how to do it.
Just work through the Plan Of Attack tab and replicate each link – it really is that easy!
Wrapping It Up
Stealing your competitors backlink strategies is one of the most effective ways to boost rankings and increase your traffic – including organic traffic & referral traffic.
It can save you:
- Time – so you can focus on other aspects of your SEO strategy such as content marketing and keyword research.
- Money – you’ll save in link building tools.
- Effort – you’ll get a bunch of backlink opportunies in just a few minutes.
By giving you an easy-to-follow blueprint that is proven to rank for your keyword.
To quickly recap:
- Find the 5x top ranking sites for your keyword
- Run them through your powerful new (free) backlink analysis tool
- Steal those links
- Watch how Google reacts
- Rinse and repeat
This is the only link building strategy that has stood the test of time and it’s the first link building strategy I have applied on all of my sites for the last 10 years.
If you have any questions/thoughts about this strategy or if you need any SEO tips, please leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to help!
Just remember… Before starting building links, make sure you have read the full link building checklist that explains all the link building process.
Or, if you want to outsource it, check out my review of the top link building services.
Next I want to introduce you to resource page link building.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Page title
- Anchor text
- Internal linking
- Website's speed
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What Are Your Thoughts?
1,022 Responses
Thank you Matthew for sharing this. Precise & concise exactly the way it should be.
Cheers George! Hope you found it useful.
Nice shots, i’m also following the same thing but not in a proper manner. So i will try this.
Let me know how you get on with it 🙂
Great! Amazing tips, thank you Matt.
Hey Fernando, no problem. It’s proven my all-time favourite strategy so glad I could share it.
Hi Matthew,Thanks for sharing this valuable small guide to build links. Thanks -Aksshit Wadhwa
No problem Aksshit – gimme a shout if you have any questions.
Best tutorial to work.
I certainly hope so.
Thanks for this informative content. With your blog, I came to know the best ways to build quality backlinks.
Glad I could help 🙂
Hi,Dont need to approve this post.Your post has a typo. “expesnive”Regards.
Thanks for the heads up – I’m sure there are hundreds of typos across my blog 🙂
Great article and tips.. gonna try this method. Many thks for sharing and contribute to the community..
Happy to help Dave – let me know if you have any questions
Do you have any posts or videos that shows what you determine as a good backlink? I know you mention your sheets does this work for you. I would like to see and learn what people determine as a good backlink or not.
The higher the authority of the link (linking site) the better the backlink. However a good backlink profile should be made up of a range of authority with do follow and no follow links so that in Googles eyes it looks natural.
Hey, matt.I tell you that when I try to download the backlink analysis example sheet sends me the landing of the keyword research example sheet, I attach url (https://searchlogistics.com/steal-your-seo-strategy/), I don’t know if I’m wrong about something but I can’t find where to download the backlink analysis example sheet.Greetings
HiJust a quick heads upTypo under step 4 “sheete”
Cheers Reece 🙂
Good info, how to filter out spammy and weak links which metrics should check?
My sheets do that automatically for you on the 3rd tab
So from what I understand. This link building strategy is mostly good for building links from comments?
No you use it to replicate every type of backlink that is working for your competitors.Sometimes that might be a blog comment – but it could also be a guest post, a link from a charity (donation), a directory, a business listing or whatever it might be thats powering their rankings.
What if competitors hide their backlinks? PBN for example
Yes its possible for someone to completely lock it down but that is in the super rare 0.01% of cases because even if they have blocked some bots, less popular ones have usually penetrated the fortress.
Thanks Matthew for sharing. At first glance this looks amazing. I will be putting aside an hour or two this evening to work through methodically, probably using SEO SPYglass. Great info…
No problem Lee, let me know if you have any questions
Looking at what’s ranking as a sign is always our starting point. Great recap on how to do it effectively!One thing that happens often using Ahref’s, Semrush, MOZ and other larger tools, is that some sneaky links get hidden by the webmaster blocking those crawlers. Using a smaller tool that’s less popular for a quick comparison from time to time can point out some “sneakier” links.
Yes not just from a link building perspective but from a content and context perspective as well.Good extra tip! Not many people are blocking serpstat or se ranking!
Thanks. This is what I need right now. My blog is still new and I am still trying to figure out SEO so this is very helpful.
This is the perfect strategy for you – just work through at the fastest pace you can and you will get your first wins!
Hi Matthew,Could you recommend a good internet marketing training program for a newbie in her 50s?
To achieve what? Please provide more details of your situation and what you want to achieve
Excellent tutorial and I have bookmarked…Thanks much and I will be using this methodology and the tools you have mentioned as well. Thanks!
No problem Dave let me know if you have any questions!
Great Article
Hope you found it helpful.
great post
Hope you found it helpful.
The website ranks by creating high quality backlinks. You can help me a bit about it. This has become a lot of trouble for me a lot later.
Yep that’s right, high-quality backlinks are a very important ranking factor!
Nice post Thanks for the sharing
No problem!
Great and so helpful Blog for getting Quality back-links thanks for the great blog
No problem – glad you are taking link building seriously 🙂
Wow! What great information and so easy to understand! Came across this read by accident but glad I did. You have a tone of comments and I can see why.
Thanks Mitch! Hopefully you’ll be heading to the blog on purpose from now on.
Totally what really i want , i will try your tutorial , im just a newbie in seo 🙂
Welcome to the world of SEO, you’re in a good place to start!
good one
Cheers Ayush.
very valuable article. i find each and every thing very important in terms of backlinks and seo tools. thanks for this guidance.
No problem at all. Best of luck with your project!
You give new information regularly through your blogs that regularly updates me on relevant topics
I sure do!
Great news thanks a lot
You’re welcome Fabio!
Your information is good.
Thanks Leena 🙂
SEO is a long time process. And google is changing is policy. Not only five but also everything .
someone suggested me to do this but I was confused that how will this help? but your post has cleared my all doubts. Thanks a lot for this useful information.
No problem, this is one of my favourite methods for backlinks 🙂
That was helpful for me
Great news
I am glad to see this. This is really interesting to be read. Thanks for sharing.
No worries, I’m pleased it was an interesting read for you.
Thanks a lot for your detail explanation. Hope this will be effective for me.
Let me know how you go
nice sir, thanks for sharing
It’s not a problem, thanks for visiting
Great Article with great Insights. I will start using Ahrefs to spy my competitors backlinks. Thanks for sharing.
No worries Steve, you won’t regret it.
Thanks a lot Sir For Sharing this amazing article.
No problem Ajarn
nive and helpful tank you
No probs
Thanks 🙂
Exactly what I needed for my new blog, thanks for sharing
You’re welcome!
Nice one
Thanks Danyal
It is Pretty Good Article For Beginner Blogger Like Me.Thanks a Lot.
No problem, if you are a beginner blogger then I have loads of articles that will help you out, just browse through my blog. Best of luck
thank you for this valuable information
No worries 🙂
WOW it is Amazing
Cheers 🙂
Hi there very nice blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your web site and takke the feeds also?I’m happy to find numerous useful info right here within the submit, we need develop more strategies in this regard,thanks for sharing. . . . . .
Hey there, no problem, I’m happy you’re happy 🙂
Great article Matthew. Your article inspired me a new one is learning about SEO.Thanks.
Hi there, I am glad to have been of help, now the hard work is on you 🙂
Thanks for providing the information on getting free backlinks. I found social media do-follow backlinks to be very powerful and fast google ranking.
HI Joel, no worries, good feedback
Its a great blogs. Thanks for give us for informational article.