Competitor Link Analysis: A Definitive Guide

If you’re serious about improving your website’s SEO — no matter what niche you’re in — competitor link analysis is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. It’s not just about spying on your rivals (though that’s part of the fun); it’s about identifying what’s working for others, spotting link building opportunities, and crafting a backlink strategy that actually moves the needle.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to analyze your competitors’ backlinks step-by-step, with real-world examples, actionable advice, and tools you can start using today.

However, if you need some backlinks of your own, check out our link building services and get in touch!

What Is Competitor Link Analysis (And Why It Matters)

Competitor link analysis is the process of studying the backlink profiles of other websites that are ranking for the keywords you’re targeting. By understanding where their links are coming from — and what types of links they’re getting — you gain insights into how to compete.

Let’s say you’re trying to rank for “best email marketing tools.” You plug that into Google and find that the top results are from HubSpot, Mailchimp, and a few strong niche blogs. Instead of starting your backlink strategy from scratch, you can analyze these top-ranking pages and reverse-engineer what’s working.

Why does Competitor Link Analysis Matter:

• You identify high-authority sites that link to your competitors: These are sites you may also be able to earn links from, either through outreach, guest posting, or producing similar (or better) content. To find out how exactly you can get backlinks, check out our guide to the easiest link building methods.
• You discover backlink gaps — places where competitors have links and you don’t: This tells you exactly where you’re missing out and what link opportunities you should prioritize.
• You learn which types of content attract the most links in your niche: Maybe competitors get tons of links from data-driven content or ultimate guides — knowing this can shape your content strategy.
• You understand the ratio of dofollow vs nofollow, contextual links vs sidebar junk, and more: Not all links are equal, so knowing which types help rankings (and which don’t) can save you time and resources.

It’s about getting smarter — not just working harder.

Step 1: Identify Your Top Competitors

Before analyzing backlinks, you need to know who your real SEO competitors are. This isn’t always the same as your business or niche rivals — it’s the sites that currently rank for the keywords you want to rank for.

How to do it:

• Search your target keywords in Google and take note of the top 5–10 organic results: These are the sites that Google already trusts and is rewarding.
• Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush’s “SERP Overview” to pull this data faster: These tools give you an at-a-glance view of domain strength, referring domains, traffic, and more.

Example: If you’re targeting “best budget productivity tools,” you might find:

• Zapier – A well-established SaaS platform with strong editorial content.
• ProductivityHub.io – A niche blog focusing on productivity software.
• Medium blogs with high engagement – Often driven by personal experience and storytelling.

Ignore big outliers you can’t realistically compete with (like Wikipedia or Amazon) and focus on the tier just above your site.

Step 2: Pull Their Backlink Profiles

Once you’ve got your list, you’ll want to gather their backlink data using an SEO tool. I personally use Ahrefs, but SEMrush, Moz, and Ubersuggest can also get the job done.

Note that here we are looking for the high quality backlinks that our competitors have that are likely to move the needle for them in terms of their SERPs success.

To start investigating our competitors we first need to cover some basics. We need to understand what our competitor is essentially doing in terms of link building and where they get their “link juice” from.

What to look for:

• Referring domains: More important than raw link count. A site with 300 links from 5 domains is less valuable than 50 links from 50 domains.
• Traffic and authority of linking sites: Quality over quantity. A link from a high-traffic, real site matters more than 10 low-quality ones.
• Anchor text: This helps you understand how the link was earned and whether it passed SEO value. Look for natural, relevant anchors.
• Context: Is the link embedded in a useful blog post, resource page, or case study? Or is it buried in a sidebar, footer, or spammy blogroll?

Example breakdown: Say ProductivityHub.io ranks with 47 referring domains to their “Top Productivity Apps” article:

• 5 links from curated app lists on other blogs – These are listicles that you might also be able to pitch.
• 3 from SaaS review sites – Consider submitting your own product or reaching out to editors.
• 15 from forums and community roundups – Suggests they’re actively engaging in their niche’s community.
• 24 from random, low-quality blogs with no traffic – Not worth pursuing — learn what to avoid.

You now have a map of what kinds of links are helping that page rank.

Step 3: Filter Out the Junk

Not all backlinks are created equal. Some links help you rank. Others are just noise — or worse, toxic.

Therefore, when conducting competitor link analysis, you need to filter out all the useless links and capture the links that your competitor has, that actually will make a positive difference to their rankings, as well as yours once you get those links for yourself of course!

When you’re analyzing a competitor’s profile, focus on:

• Dofollow links from niche-relevant sites: These pass SEO value and are often contextual, which Google favors. Prioritize these in your outreach.
• Sites with organic traffic: Use tools to see how much traffic a linking domain gets. Prioritize links from sites with real, active readership — 1,000+ monthly visits is a solid threshold.
• Avoid links from spammy directories, unrelated PBNs, or spun content blogs: These links can harm rather than help your site and often have no engagement or authority.

Pro Tip: Use filters in Ahrefs to exclude:

• Nofollow links – Generally don’t pass SEO value.
• DR < 20 – These sites typically offer low authority.
• Traffic < 500 – Indicates little to no real audience.
• UGC or Sponsored attributes – User-generated content or paid links are usually less valuable.

This will leave you with a clean list of quality backlinks worth studying. Now you’ll be able to streamline your analysis and link building efforts, focusing solely on the sites that move the needle.

Step 4: Identify Link Building Opportunities

This is where competitor link analysis really pays off.

You’re not just looking at where competitors got links — you’re figuring out how to replicate or improve on them.

Types of opportunities to watch for:

• Guest post contributions: Did a competing site contribute to a blog you haven’t reached out to yet?
• List placements: Are there “Top SaaS Blogs” or “Best Tools for Remote Teams” lists that link to your competitors but not you?
• Mentions without links: Search the competitor’s brand or article title in quotes. If they’re being mentioned but not linked, you could be as well.
• Dead links: Find broken links pointing to competitors and pitch your content as the replacement. In fact, we prepared a guide that explains exactly how to execute a broken link building strategy.
• Forum and community threads: If they’re active in Reddit threads or Slack communities that link to their site, join the discussion and drop your link (naturally).

Example: You find your competitor has a link from a blog post titled “25 Must-Read SaaS Blogs in 2025.” That blog accepts suggestions via email. You pitch your site, get included — and gain a strong contextual backlink.

Step 5: Use Link Intersect Analysis

One of the most powerful yet underused tactics in competitor backlink research is link intersect analysis. This technique shows you which websites are linking to multiple of your competitors — but not to you.

These “common link sources” are high-potential targets. If they’ve linked to others in your space, there’s a good chance they’d be open to linking to your content too — especially if yours is more comprehensive, up to date, or provides a fresh angle.

How to run a link intersect analysis:

• Use Ahrefs’ Link Intersect tool or SEMrush’s Backlink Gap tool.
• Enter 2–3 of your top-ranking competitors.
• Exclude your own domain from the results.

You’ll get a list of domains that are linking to multiple competitors but not you — these are your biggest opportunities.

What to do next:

• Visit the linking page and understand the context.
• Ask yourself: why did they link to your competitor? Can you offer something better or more relevant?
• Reach out with a personalized pitch offering your content as an additional or updated resource.

Example: You discover that three competing productivity blogs all have links from a resource roundup titled “25 Tools to Streamline Your Remote Workflow.” You visit the page and see that it was published last year and still maintained. You email the site owner, mention your recent article on “Remote Work Automations in 2024,” and ask if they’d consider adding it as a helpful update.

Link intersect analysis helps you target link prospects who are already warm — they’re proven to link to your type of content. All you need to do is make the case.

Step 6: Analyze Competitor’s Internal Linking Structure

While external backlinks play a huge role in SEO, internal links are just as important — and often overlooked in competitive analysis. Reviewing how your competitors structure their internal links can give you a roadmap for improving your own site’s authority flow and content discoverability.

Moreover, you will also be able to understand if competitor focused on link building to a single piece of content, or whether they built a content cluster and carried out link building on multiple pieces of content in the cluster, or if they ranked based on content cluster alone. This kind of understanding can help you devise your own strategy to outrank them.

Internal links help:

• Distribute page authority (link equity) throughout the site
• Improve crawlability and indexing of deeper pages
• Enhance user experience and session duration
• Support topical relevance and content hierarchy

How to Perform Internal Link Analysis on Competitor Pages:

Essentially, here we are looking to understand what our competitor is doing with internal linking to help them be successful in search results for your target keyword.

• Use tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs’ Site Audit to crawl a competitor’s site.
• Identify which pages have the most internal links pointing to them (these are often their most valuable pages).
• Look at how they’re using anchor text. Is it keyword-rich, branded, or generic?
• Observe the placement — are internal links placed contextually within body content, or limited to menus and footers?

What to look for:

• Do they have content clusters? Are guides or tools acting as “pillar” pages linked to from related blog posts?
• Are they linking deeply into the site, or just to category pages?
• Which articles or tools receive the most internal links, and why?

Example: Your competitor has a guide titled “The Ultimate Remote Work Toolkit” that’s linked from over 20 other posts using keyword-rich anchors like “productivity tool comparison” and “remote team software.” That tells you two things:

1. This guide is likely their cornerstone content.
2. You can model your own internal structure around a similar pillar page — and improve on it.

Pro Tip: Use internal link analysis to find neglected pages on your own site. If a key article isn’t getting many internal links, update related posts to include natural links with relevant anchor text.

Internal linking isn’t just for SEO robots — it makes your site easier to navigate, keeps users engaged longer, and gives your best content the spotlight it deserves.

Step 7: Build a Better Backlink Profile

Once you’ve mapped out your competitors’ backlink sources and spotted some gaps, your goal should be more than just copying their links — it should be building a better, stronger backlink profile.

This means replicating their best links, skipping the bad ones, and pursuing link opportunities they haven’t yet uncovered.

Here’s how to level up your backlink game:

• Match their top links
  • Identify their best-performing backlinks — the ones from high-authority, niche-relevant domains.
  • Try to earn a similar link by pitching updated or more valuable content, contributing a guest post, or offering expert insight.
  • If they got on a “Top Tools” list or “Best Blogs to Follow,” reach out to the same editors and offer your resource.
• Avoid low-quality or irrelevant backlinks
  • If you notice a competitor has a lot of links from spammy directories or sites with no real traffic, steer clear. Those links can dilute your profile and don’t provide long-term value.
  • Focus your efforts where they’ll actually move the needle — real sites, real audiences.
• Earn links from sources your competitors missed
  • Look into emerging blogs, podcasts, niche communities, or local associations where your competitors aren’t visible yet.
  • Run a fresh round of outreach with new angles, like pitching original data, industry stats, or comparison guides.
  • Build something unique — like a free tool, template, or quiz — and promote it to journalists or other content creators.

Example: Your competitor earned a backlink from a blog post reviewing “Top Productivity SaaS Tools.” Instead of trying to land the exact same link, you find a lesser-known reviewer or newer listicle and pitch your own SaaS product with a compelling case. Less competition = higher chance of success.

Pro Tip: Use Ahrefs’ “Best by links” and “Content Explorer” to spot pages across the web that frequently link out to content like yours — and reach out with a relevant pitch.

A strong backlink profile isn’t about sheer volume — it’s about quality, relevance, and diversity. Focus on the links that truly matter, and you’ll build lasting authority that outpaces your competition.

Final Thoughts

Competitor link analysis isn’t a one-and-done process. It’s a method you can use every time you create new content, every time a ranking slips, or when you’re planning a new link building campaign.

It’s a way of learning from what’s working — then doing it better. By breaking down your competitors’ backlinks, filtering out the noise, and targeting the best opportunities, you can out-rank even the strongest players in your niche. With the right tools and strategy, you can build a backlink profile that helps your site dominate search — one link at a time.