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:
And then use them in your own strategy to outrank them.
Here is how to do it…
What Will I Learn?
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:
Pretty cool, right?
Bellow, I’ll explain how to conduct this analysis to get great and fast results!
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-
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.
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:
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…
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!
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.
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.
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!
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…
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
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-
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…
Head over to tab #2 – Data in the sheet to Import each of the files you just exported.
The quickest way is to:
This is how you should do it:
Once you have loaded all the data you are ready for…
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:
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…
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!
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:
By giving you an easy-to-follow blueprint that is proven to rank for your keyword.
To quickly recap:
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.
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Ahrefs Pro is my favorite backlink checker tools. Smallseotools is best for beginner. Thanks for sharing Great Idea :))
Ahrefs all the way 🙂
Its most valuable information. I think you are an expert in this field. I have read a lot of your article to open my small knowledge. Hopefully to visit my little website. Thanks Matt
Glad to be of service, let me know if you have any questions!
thanks for this article
No problem =D
Hi, thank you very much for this info. Now I’m going to outrank everybody in my niche…
Good luck =D
Thanks Matthew my spidey sense is indeed tingling. No more of those blog comments. I’m glad I didn’t do any keyword rich anchor text. The fact that I used brand/url/generic shoildnt get me penalized. I hope not.
Hi Matthew,I want to rank a blog post #1 in Google for a low competition keyword but seems pretty tough for a newbie like me. Should i build backlinks pointing on my main website or to my blog post?
You should do both, put about 70% to the post
Matthew, I did what you said in this tutorial and checked my competitor backlinks and started going through the list of only indexed links and also had PR from the Page Level. What I found was a lot of blog comments from non relevant niches, most likely some automated tool. I started going through the list and basically putting in blog comments with brand/url/generic anchor text. Do you think this a good strategy even if these links come from non relevant niches?
If when you are going through things your spidey sense is tingling, listen to it 🙂
Amazing post. This might help me in increasing my site ranking. Thank you..
Good luck 🙂
Great post, I find most of my competitors spend lots on Adwords to get there ranking and over time they have got strong Google pr.As a new site we don’t have the funds to throw at Adwords and this technique looks great. Do you recommend paying for the site links and is it better to do keyword search backlinks or just look at the competitors site linksThanks James
Adwords spend has nothing to do with organic rankings
thanks for ur such kind of post…but it shows few backlink results. how can i find all backlink of competitors site?
Use Ahrefs
Hey Matthew, Ive been following your blog posts for over a year now, I can honestly say compared to all the other seo blogs you stand on top of the mountain.Top man
Thanks for your kind words!
It takes me SOOOOOOO long to go through each link from every website. Is there a faster way to do it:)?
Use my free tool linked in the post
A very informative guide on SEO. I hope to follow some of the tips you outlined on my websites.
Hope it helps Alan!
Hey great post Matt:)I have a question?If I am scraping my competitor’s backlink for the keyword which I wanted to rank. So, should I take my competitor’s home page backlink or only the internal page backlink (keyword which I want to rank)??
Which ever page is ranking
Thanks Matt for this how to guide to get my competitors backlinks!I have been watching 2 of my competitors and they rank for 1st and second spot on Google for a high searched keyword.My site is very new, so much so it is not even showing up in Sem Rush, or even in the top 50 in Google, but with this method (that i am going to start this weekend) i am hoping it will help me get there eventually, well at least into the top 20’s lol.If i have any problems can i ask here for help at all?Thanks,Nic
No problem at all – feel free to ask any questions you have as you go!
Agreed with Matthew. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. This tactic always works wonders for all niches.
Exactly 🙂
Thank you sir for this post.
No problem 🙂
Does your tactic still work? Or do you have to update it? (Your programm).
Still working fine!
Hi Matt:Great post though I have question. I am new to SEO, is this still relevant ?Some of the folks are saying link building is not that Important with Panda release now. Thanks
Panda has precisely nothing to do with backlinks so whoever is tell you that doesn’t even have the most basic understanding of SEO.
wow ya really good, you can try one by one how to get backlinks. but sometimes there is a backlink that is difficult to know the property of others. sorry if my english is bad.
waw this information very important, thanks for sharing.
No problem
Great post and the references to the tools are really useful.In recent days, as Google shifted it’s focus away from backlinks and pageRanks, I wonder if we need some other means to rank better now. I’ve heard that Google now considers the CTR more than anything else for ranking better. Shall we get some tools to work in this direction?
You mean like Adwords? 😛
Awesome tutorial, despite of its useful information I really enjoy reading it.
Hope it helps!
Hi Matt, have been searching the web for a problem we have and wonder if you have a solution.we employ a guy to do our SEO, been doing well, we were ranking #1 and #2 for our key words.”chair repairs” and ” chair repairs Sydney” and othersthe within a week we just vanished from Googles search engine, at first I thought we had been penalized by Google black hat or something but no, that is not the problem.could this be done by one of our competitors?we are desperate to get our key words pointing to us.our SEO guy can’t help he says he has just been doing his stuff and has no explanation.BTW i am a total novice and just need a solution to a problem I really don’t understand.Thanks for you time
Hi,Sounds like you got hit with an algorithm update which I would suspect to be the new update of Penguin 3.0Take a look at https://searchlogistics.com/seo/tools/google-penalty-checker/ and https://www.searchlogistics.com/services/penalty-removal/
Great post Matthew, in-depth and very informative. The step-by-step explanation of how to go about finding backlink was amazing and easy to understand. I am so surely going to try it out !! Thanks for sharing your views 🙂
No worrys 🙂
Thank you. It was so helpful 🙂
No problem 🙂
Many thanks for your suggestions. I will try to apply also on my site.
Good luck =D
Ahrefs still #1 Matthew? Or you use other tools nowadays to spot competitors link profile? Please share them. Thanks!
I still rely on them
Nice shared Matt, and you bring the post with excellent, I like the strategy steal backlinks from competitors, it will reduced the time hunting quality backlinks. Thanks a bunch…, you’re my favorite
No worrys 🙂
Wow, this is incredible. Pretty much exactly what I am looking for. Can’t wait to give this a shot!
Let me know how you get on!
Hi Matthew, I’m glad find this article! This strategy is work for me, By using paid subscribe of one of tools you mentioned above, I can read some backlinks of my competitors. Your postings are awesome Matt!
No worrys glad to help!
Great post Matthew, I’ll try this strategy now.
No worrys 🙂
What a fantastic resource Matt.I love how you went through each of the tools and pointed out the best. Thanks so much!
No worrys!
Hi Matt, i’m new in your blog and I’m really happy with the information you share here, I’m going to follow step by step your recomendation for my new proyect, thanks a lot from Colombia 🙂
Thanks – Good luck =D
I talked about the velocity Matt; should I steady build these links 4-5 a day or just finish them up within a week?
Hi Matt,I’ve gone through the whole process you’ve described here and collected 350+ unique backlinks that my top 10 competitors are using.But I’m pretty much skeptical about replicating them for my own site. If not all, but a great majority of them is pure spam even if they are on high PA/DA sites.I never want to point spam over my site, but I really want to leverage my competitors backlinks.Is there any checklist I can go through before replicating any of these links? Is it good enough if a backlink URL has high PA/DA?And, most importantly, what would be a natural velocity to replicate all these? I haven’t built a single backlink to my site since it went live last year. If I suddenly throw out hundreds of backlinks, will it affect my sites credibility? If yes, how should I correctly replicate them while keeping the risk at bare minimum?Thanks a lot!
Hi,Not a checklist as such but use your common sense a bit, and don’t worry if they are spam you can get away with some spam – its only when your profile is mostly spam you have an issue.
Thanks Matt! This is exactly what I needed to read! I have for years written quality content and try to make each post very structured as far as onsite factors. I have never been able to figure out how I was being beat and now I have the tools to take my companies farther! Thank you so much. I am now a new subscriber and am looking forward to reading your posts.
No worrys I’m glad to be of service 🙂
very nice information, can’t wait till I can apply this to my company web site
Good luck Ron =D
Great article Matthew. Thanks for information
Thanks Stefan!
This is very useful article for me and i’ll use.Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Adam 🙂
Hi Matt, if for example a competitor has 30k backlinks but only 600 unique referring domains, would it make more sense and save time to just check the domains?and in general, why not just check the unique referring domains? or is there an advantage in checking every single backlink that matches a criteria
I would still spot check them just to see why that is
You don’t need a paid yahoo listing to rank
Well I would start with https://searchlogistics.com/seo/tools/google-penalty-checker/
Yes ! if you please check out what’s going on.?
Wouldn’t worry as in don’t bother taking the paid Yahoo Local listings? Or don’t worry because these links are effective?
Thanks for a very thorough article. I have a question for the author and this community: does anyone know if a link from UK Yahoo Local is still valuable? These are the paid directory links in Yahoo Local. I’m not sure because:a. they are paid linksb. the web link is masked within some kind of redirect tracking URLAnyone have any idea on the effectiveness of these links?
I wouldn’t worry about it myself!
Great write up!
Glad you enjoyed it Ben
Really Helped me ..By the way I had a Problem recently my site traffic gone down suddenly …what should be the reason …i tested everything working fine but search engine result are disappointing now…
Down from search engine traffic sources?
I want to know how can i find all the backlinks against any specific link with 100% guaranteee ? is it possible ? because some of the links are hidden behind anchor texts ?
These tools find the backlinks and the anchor texts used!
Hi,Can you give me detailed information on offsite SEO? Level should be intermediate.
Take a look around the blog