If you’re looking to physique much backlinks to your website, checking however your competitors built and earned their backlinks is simply a bully starting point.

That’s due to the fact that knowing however they got links tin assistance pass your nexus gathering strategy. 

In this post, you’ll larn however to find, replicate, and larn from your competitors’ backlinks.

You request an SEO instrumentality similar Ahrefs to bash this, which is consistently voted apical canine successful SEO manufacture polls. 

Free method (top 100 backlinks)

Head implicit to our escaped backlink checker and plug successful your competitor’s domain oregon URL. You’ll spot the full fig of backlinks and referring domains (linking websites) and the apical 100 backlinks (referring page, anchor, and people URL).

Paid method (all backlinks)

Sign up for Ahrefs, plug your competitor’s domain oregon URL into Site Explorer, past spell to the Backlinks report. You’ll spot each their backlinks. In this case, implicit 80,000 of them. 

If you privation to hone successful connected circumstantial backlinks, specified arsenic those from English pages connected websites with traffic, usage the filters.

Not definite who your competitors are?

Enter your website oregon webpage’s URL into Site Explorer and spell to the Organic competitors report. You’ll spot a database of websites oregon webpages that fertile for the keywords arsenic your target.

It’s intolerable to replicate all of your competitors’ backlinks, but determination are ways to get immoderate of them (or akin ones) for yourself:

1. Find and transcript their replicable links
2. Find and transcript the nexus gathering tactics that are moving for them
3. Find links that you tin loot from them

Let’s instrumentality a person look astatine however to bash these 3 things.

Finding your competitors’ replicable links

Most of your competitors’ backlinks volition beryllium highly hard to replicate similar for like, but it’s usually imaginable to replicate immoderate of them. Let’s look astatine a fewer ways to do this.

Find competitors’ directory links

Directory links are acold from the astir almighty links, but they’re casual to replicate. Many SEOs believe they assistance with “map pack” rankings for section businesses too.

Here’s the easiest mode to find them:

1. Enter your homepage into Site Explorer
2. Go to the Link Intersect report
3. Enter a fewer competitors’ homepages successful blank fields
4. Set the hunt mode for each pages to “URL”
5. Hit “Show nexus opportunities”

This volition amusement you the websites linking to 1 oregon much of your competitors’ homepages, but not to yours. It’s past conscionable a lawsuit of eyeballing the database for sites that look similar niche and section directories. 

If you’re not definite whether a tract is simply a directory, click the caret successful 1 of the competing leafage columns to spot the referring page, anchor, and backlink. You tin usually archer from this.

If you’re inactive unsure, click connected the leafage to cheque manually. 

Replicating these links is usually arsenic elemental arsenic signing up for an relationship and adding your business. 

Find listicles wherever competitors are mentioned, but not you

If competitors are mentioned successful listicles of the champion tools/restaurants/whatever your concern does, there’s a accidental you whitethorn beryllium capable to get mentioned successful that aforesaid listicle (and a notation usually comes with a link).

These kinds of listicles are usually casual to spot successful a competitor’s Backlinks report. 

However, the champion opportunities travel from listicles mentioning aggregate competitors due to the fact that the taxable of the leafage is much apt to beryllium applicable to your business.

Here’s an casual mode to find these:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Search for “competitor 1” “competitor 2” “competitor 3” -“your concern name”

It’s past conscionable a lawsuit of sifting done the results and pitching the authors of listicles wherever it makes consciousness to adhd your business. 

Here’s what that transportation mightiness look similar for Aweber:

Hey [Name],

Just came crossed your database of the champion email selling tools and noticed Aweber wasn’t included. Is that due to the fact that you didn’t similar our level oregon haven’t tried it?

If it’s the latter, I’d emotion to hook you up with a escaped relationship truthful you tin springiness it a shot.

What bash you think?

Note that the email doesn’t explicitly inquire the writer to adhd thing to their list. It conscionable asks if they’re acquainted with the sender’s tool. This is intentional. It’s easier to inquire for inclusion aft you triumph folks over. 

Find competitors’ links from interviews and podcasts

Interview and podcast links are much communal successful immoderate industries than others, truthful you whitethorn not find immoderate among your competitors. But arsenic they lone instrumentality a infinitesimal to hunt for, it’s good worthy a quick check. 

Here’s an casual mode to find them:

1. Go to Site Explorer
2. Enter the Twitter illustration URL of your competitor’s CEO, CMO, oregon whoever the astir prolific marketer is wrong the company
3. Go to the Backlinks report
4. Filter for results wherever the referring leafage URL contains “podcast,” “episode,” oregon “interview”

You past conscionable request to transportation the aforesaid interviews and podcasts. 

Find competitors’ guest posts

Guest posting is the 3rd astir fashionable nexus gathering tactic, according to Aira’s 2022 State of Link Building report, truthful it’s astir apt a maneuver that astatine slightest immoderate of your competitors are using. 

However, portion you tin find them successful a competitor’s Backlinks report, they tin beryllium hard to spot. 

For example, 1 of the links beneath is from a impermanent station and the different isn’t. But there’s nary mode to archer this from the nexus illustration itself.

With that successful mind, here’s an easier mode to find a competitor’s guest posts:

1. Go to Content Explorer
2. Search for taxable + author:“name of your competitor’s prolific marketer”
3. Filter for 1 leafage per domain

Most of the results should beryllium impermanent posts by that person. Replicating them is arsenic elemental arsenic reaching retired and pitching the aforesaid websites.

Finding and copying nexus gathering tactics that enactment for competitors

If your competitors person tons of backlinks from directories, podcasts, interviews, oregon impermanent posts, these nexus gathering tactics are intelligibly moving for them. So don’t bounds yourself to replicating lone the nonstop links they got. Pursue different links from these tactics too.

Here are immoderate tutorials to help: 

• How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities connected Active Websites [Video]
• How to Find Podcasts to Get Interviewed On [Video]
• How to Build Local Citations* [Blog Post]

However, determination are 2 much commonly utilized tactics worthy checking for. 

Check for links from writer requests

Bloggers and journalists often usage services similar Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and MuckRack to root quotes for upcoming stories—and they usually nexus to their sources.

For example, here’s idiosyncratic from “Martha Stewart Living” asking for a punctuation astir however plumbing leaks hap successful the home.

Max Rose from Four Seasons Plumbing was 1 of the radical to respond to this, and helium received a punctuation and backlink from the nonfiction successful return.

Here’s however to cheque if your competitors are gathering backlinks this way:

1. Go to Site Explorer
2. Enter a competitor’s homepage
3. Set the hunt mode to “Exact URL”
4. Go to the Backlinks report
5. Look for quotes successful the “Anchor and people URL” column

If you spot a fewer quotes from the aforesaid person, similar “Max Rose” successful this case, filter for that sanction successful the anchor and surrounding substance to hone successful connected these kinds of links.

If you spot a just fig of links from quotes, there’s a bully accidental your rival is actively responding to writer requests—and that it’s working. So it’s astir apt worthy responding to requests via HARO and akin platforms yourself too.

Check for passively earned links from linkable points

Linkable points are things similar facts, statistics, and unsocial ideas that resonate with the linkerati and pull backlinks. Even if your competitors aren’t consciously utilizing this maneuver to gain links, it could inactive beryllium 1 of the ways they’re earning them—so it’s worthy checking.

Here’s however to do that:

1. Go to Site Explorer
2. Enter 1 of the top-ranking pages for your people keyword
3. Go to the Anchors report
4. Look for anchors relating to facts, figures, oregon unsocial ideas

For example, the Anchors study for a leafage ranking for “seo copywriting” mentions the “APP” method/formula a few times:

This is simply a word coined by the post’s author, and it has earned him immoderate decent links.

Because of this, erstwhile we wrote our ain usher to SEO copywriting, we decided to coin a akin word successful an effort to gain immoderate passive backlinks.

If we cheque the Anchors study for our page, we tin spot it’s earned america a mates of links so far: 

This is not astonishing by immoderate agelong of the imagination, but they’re 2 links we wouldn’t person unless we included proven, linkable points.

We had much occurrence with this method erstwhile creating our database of SEO statistics (we documented that process successful this nexus gathering lawsuit study), which has earned links from implicit 1,700 referring domains successful nether two years.

Finding links you tin loot from competitors

Your competitors whitethorn person links that nary longer marque consciousness for them to have. If you tin supply linkers with a amended alternative, you tin often instrumentality these links for yourself.

Here are a fewer tactics that revolve astir this idea:

Broken nexus building

Broken nexus gathering is wherever you find a dormant leafage with backlinks, make your ain assets connected the topic, past inquire linkers to nexus to that instead.

For example, this leafage astir SEO tips can’t be found:

If we plug that URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, we spot it has backlinks from 177 referring domains:

If we were to make our ain database of SEO tips, we could scope retired to these 177 websites and suggest replacing that dormant nexus with a nexus to our list. 

But however bash you find your competitors’ breached pages with backlinks successful the first place?

If you person a circumstantial rival successful mind, do this:

1. Go to Site Explorer
2. Enter your competitor’s domain
3. Go to the Best by links report
4. Add a “404 not found” HTTP codification filter

You’ll spot a database of dormant pages connected their website, sorted by the fig of referring domains pointing to them. 

If you don’t person a circumstantial rival successful mind, do this:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
2. Search for a topic
3. Filter for breached pages only
4. Filter for pages with referring domains (the minimum fig is up to you)

You’ll spot a database of breached pages related to the taxable with astatine slightest the minimum acceptable fig of referring domains.

Regardless of which method you use, the process from determination is the same: 

• Check what the leafage utilized to beryllium – To bash this, plug the URL into the Wayback Machine. It needs to beryllium thing you tin make akin contented about.
• Check the prime of the page’s backlinks – To bash this, tally a backlink audit in Site Explorer. If it doesn’t person bully links, it’s not the champion accidental for a breached nexus gathering campaign.
• Reach retired to linkers and suggest they swap the link – To bash this much easily, usage an outreach instrumentality similar Pitchbox oregon BuzzStream.

301 redirect nexus building

301 redirect nexus gathering is wherever you look for your competitors’ irrelevant redirects, past transportation a replacement to linkers.

For example, this leafage astir the Google Penguin Update connected Search Engine Land has backlinks from 1.2K referring domains:

But, for immoderate reason, it redirects to a leafage astir “Google SEO”:

This is simply a occupation due to the fact that radical clicking done from those 1.2K websites volition extremity up connected a wholly unrelated page. For that reason, there’s an accidental present to transportation a nexus swap to linkers (same arsenic with breached nexus building).

But however bash you find your competitors’ irrelevant 301 redirects successful the first place?

1. Go to Site Explorer
2. Enter a competitor’s domain
3. Go to the Best by links report
4. Add a “3XX redirect” HTTP codification filter

It’s past conscionable a lawsuit of double-checking what the leafage utilized to beryllium successful the Wayback Machine, auditing the prime of the page’s links, creating a applicable replacement, and suggesting it to linkers. 

Run a rival nexus analysis

Some of your competitors’ “lootable” links won’t autumn neatly into the container of a known nexus gathering tactic. The process of uncovering them is rather nuanced and takes immoderate experience, but you’ll often find unsocial pitches this way.

For example, accidental we wanted to physique links to our database of Google ranking factors. If we cheque the top-ranking results for this keyword successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, we spot that galore of them person hundreds of (potentially “lootable”) backlinks from hundreds of domains: 

When I plugged 1 of those competing URLs into Site Explorer and checked the Backlinks report, alarm bells started to ringing erstwhile I saw the anchor and surrounding substance for this link:

It claims that bounce rate, dwell time, and repetition visits are ranking factors.

Not true.

Given that this nexus indispensable beryllium based connected proposal from the linked (competing) page, I decided to instrumentality a look myself. What I recovered was a leafage giving lots of dangerously atrocious advice: 

The highlighted ranking factors are not ranking factors at all.

I’m not definite however overmuch linkers would care, but I deliberation there’s an accidental present to scope retired to each worthwhile prospects, explicate that they’re linking to an inaccurate post, and suggest linking to our database of ranking factors instead. 

Even if lone a fraction of them care, we triumph a fewer links portion combating misinformation. It’s a win-win. 

Final thoughts

Finding your competitors’ backlinks is easy. Getting the aforesaid ones to your tract is less easy. 

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. Start by replicating the casual ones, past find and transcript the nexus gathering tactics that enactment for them, and yet instrumentality immoderate links they nary longer merit for yourself.

Got questions? Ping maine on Twitter.