How to Find Your Competitors Backlinks In 4 Simple Steps?

Backlinks help you to be the first result on Google SERP. That’s why backlink outsourcing is efficient, as it creates a strong backlink portfolio with relatively affordable prices. 

But do we want to make sure that we are outperforming our competitors? Of course, we want to outperform and get on the 1st page of Google SERP.

This is when we need competitor backlink analysis to understand the quality, type, and quantity of the backlinks you need.

The primary purpose is to determine the quality and relevance of the backlinks. It helps to find potential sites for acquiring new backlinks.

Another purpose is to understand how competitors gain their backlinks and track the growth and health of a website’s backlink profile over time.

It allows us to identify harmful backlinks that could negatively impact SEO. GoPeak.io has a team of professionals who complete competitor analyses and create a strong backlink portfolio.

When doing competitor backlink analysis, it’s important to identify and research different types of competitors to gain comprehensive insights.

 There are two main types of competitors you should focus on:

1. Direct Competitors
2. Indirect Competitors

🎯Direct Competitors

Direct competitors are businesses or websites in the same niche as yours. They offer similar services and products, so they are your direct competitors. These competitors target the same audience and have similar goals as your company. 

🎯Indirect Competitors

Indirect competitors are websites or businesses offering different products or services but targeting a similar audience or the exact audience you plan to reach.

As you can see here, Semrush and Hubspot are indirect competitors. They have different products, but they attract the same audience. They have similar articles with matching keywords and appear on the first pages of Google SERP.

We learned that competitor backlink analysis is crucial to any SEO strategy. By identifying your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can gain valuable insights to inform your link-building efforts and improve your website’s search engine rankings.

We want to share a detailed guide on conducting competitor backlink research using Ahrefs👇🏻

Step 1: Identify Your Competitors

Before creating a backlink analysis, it’s essential to identify your main competitors in your niche. These are the websites that are competing with you for the same target audience. 

Your direct competitors plan to reach precisely the same level as you. You need strong backlink profiles and link building strategies to outperform your competitors and get more traffic to your website.

Start by brainstorming a list of competitors based on relevant keywords or topics related to your business.

From this point, you need to choose competitor analysis tools to generate a list of possible competitors based on your industry and target keywords.

Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz offer features that allow you to discover competing domains and investigate their online presence.

Page-Level and Domain-Level Competitors

A page-level competitor directs to a specific webpage or content piece that competes with one of your pages for search engine rankings. In contrast, a domain-level competitor circles an entire website that competes with yours across multiple pages for visibility and traffic in search results.

Identifying Page-Level Competitors

1. Analyze SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages): Conduct searches using relevant keywords related to your business or industry on Google. Take note of the specific pages that appear in the top search results. These pages are your page-level competitors.
2. Use Competitor Analysis Tools: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to perform analysis at the page level.
3. Explore Social Media: Look for pages or accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn publishing content similar to yours or targeting the same audience. These can also be considered page-level competitors.
4.  Review Backlink Profiles: Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles using backlink analysis tools. Identify the pages on their websites attracting backlinks from high-authority domains. These pages are likely to be competing with yours for search engine rankings.

Identifying Domain-Level Competitors

1. Perform Keyword Research: Use keyword research tools to identify domains targeting keywords or topics similar to yours. Look for websites consistently ranking for the same search terms across multiple pages.
2. Analyze SERPs: Review the search engine results pages for your target keywords and note the domains often appearing in the top search results. These domains are your domain-level competitors.
3.  Use Competitor Analysis Tools: Use Ahrefs to list competing domains in your niche or industry. These tools provide information about an authority, organic search traffic, and other vital metrics.
4.  Review Market Share and Industry Reports: Research market share data and industry reports to identify dominant players and competitors within your industry. It lets you understand the market’s scope and your competitor’s experience.

Step 2 Analyze Competitor Domains With Ahrefs

Step 1: Log in to your Ahrefs account.

Step 2: Write your domain name in the search bar.

Step 3: Click on the “Organic competitors” bar.

Step 4: Identify your competitors with the results. The first 5 results are your main competitors by matching keywords.

Step 5: Now click the “Link Intersect” bar and fill in the domains in the columns. Finally, you also mention your domain, so it will not show the domains for which you already got a backlink. 

Step 6: Click on “Show link opportunities”.

Step 7: If you find out that these 5 websites have intersectional links from the same website, it means that this website accepts backlinks. 

Step 8: Research the websites that you have found from Ahrefs.

Step 9: Create an email outreach and send all of them with details about your company.

Step 3: Analyze Domain-Level Competitors with a Backlink Checker Tool

Step 1: Log in to Ahrefs

Step 2: Access the Site Explorer Tool

On the Ahrefs dashboard, locate and click on the “Site Explorer” tool from the main navigation menu.

Step 3: Enter Your Domain

1. Enter your domain name in the Site Explorer search bar (e.g., GoPeak.io).
2. Click the “Search” button.

Step 4: Navigate to the “Backlink Profile”

1. Once the domain analysis is complete, navigate to the “Backlink profile” section on the left-hand menu.
2. Click “Backlinks” to see all the backlinks pointing to your domain.

Step 5: Analyze the Backlink Overview

Review the overview page, which shows metrics such as:

• Total number of backlinks
• Referring domains
• Organic traffi.

Step 6: Identify Competitors

1. Scroll down to the “organic competitors” section. This section shows domains that compete with yours for similar keywords.
2. Analyze the list of competing domains provided.

Step 7: Analyze Competitor Backlinks

1. Click on any competitor’s domain from the list to view its detailed backlink profile.
2. Review their backlink sources, referring domains, and key metrics.

Step 8: Compare Backlink Strategies

1. Compare the types of backlinks your competitors have versus your own.
2. Identify high-quality backlink sources that your competitors have, but you do not.

Step 9: Export Backlink Data

1. For a deeper analysis, the domain’s export is the back competitor clicking on the “Export” button.
2. Choose the format you prefer.

Step 10: Develop a Backlink Strategy

1. Based on your analysis, develop a strategy to receive high-quality backlinks from your competitors’ sources. We have shared tips at the beginning of this article.
2. Prioritize outreach to the most valuable backlink sources.

Following our step-by-step guide, you can effectively analyze domain-level competitors using the Ahrefs Backlink Checker Tool.

Step 4: Investigate Page-Level Competitors with a Backlink Analysis Tool

Step 1: Log in to Ahrefs

Step 2: Access the Site Explorer Tool

On the Ahrefs dashboard, locate and click on the “Site Explorer” tool from the main navigation menu.

Step 3: Enter Your URL

1. In the Site Explorer search bar, enter the URL of the specific page you want to analyze (e.g., GoPeak.io/specific-page).
2. Click the “Search” button.

Step 4: Navigate to the “Backlinks” Section

1. Once the page analysis is complete, navigate to the “Backlinks” section on the left-hand menu under “Backlink profile.”
2. Click “Backlinks” to see all the backlinks pointing to your page.

Step 5: Review the Backlink Overview

Review the overview page; you can use filters to identify the best backlinks.

✅Dofollow

✅DR > 40

✅Traffic > 1000

✅Language – English

Afterwards, you can separate the backlinks with the metrics such as:

• Total number of backlinks
• Domain Rating (DR)
• URL Rating (UR)

Step 6: Identify Page-Level Competitors

1. Scroll down to the “Organic Keywords” section. This section shows pages that compete with your specific page for similar keywords.
2. Analyze the list of competing keywords provided.

Step 7: Analyze Competitor Backlinks

Review their backlink sources, referring domains, and their metrics.

Step 8: Compare Backlink Profiles

Compare the types of backlinks your competitors’ pages have versus your own. It will allow you to understand your page-level competitors and create a strong strategy.