Competitor Backlink Analysis is an integral part of Off-Page SEO. This SEO strategy benefits you in a way that you know why your competitors are ranking higher than you in specific keywords. But even the best keywords won’t rank if they aren’t supported by great backlinks, which is why you must conduct competitor backlink analysis using professional SEO services to understand competitors better.
A thorough competitor backlink analysis will help you decode your competitors’ backlinking strategies and determine the reasons for their high rankings. It will also help you discover backlinking opportunities that you can integrate within your content. Before implementing this analysis, you should be aware of your competitors.
What is Competitor Backlink Analysis?
Competitor Backlink Analysis is a link-building process where you find websites that link to your competitor’s websites. This process gives you insights into the backlink strategies that your competitors are implementing. From the data collected after the analysis, you can acquire backlinks from those targeted websites so that your website ranks higher on search engine results. SEO services use this analysis to find more backlinks and improve your SEO.
What are the types of competitors?
You will come across two main types of competitors while conducting a backlink analysis. They are:
- Domain-level competitors
Domain-level competitors compete with your entire website in the SERPs. In addition, they compete with you for the exact keywords you are targeting. Platforms like the Domain Overview Tool and Site Explorer tool will assist you in finding these competitors.
Start by searching for your domain; you will find plenty of information attached with the results. Then scroll down to find the “Main Organic Competitors” and click on “View Details” to see the entire list. These competitors may not be your competitors, but they are on the same page regarding the keywords you use. However, if they cater to the same niche as you, you can benefit from the websites they get their backlinks from.
- Page-level competitors
Page-level competitors aren’t necessarily competing with you on the totality of the keywords you use but are competing for the keywords on a particular page. The Keyword Overview Tool requires you to enter the primary keyword and check for the SERP overview. You will find a lot of competitors whose content is similar to yours; these are your page-level competitors.
You should create separate lists for the competitors you discover on your page level. Then, you can conduct a competitor backlink analysis for each of these competitors and find link-building opportunities.
How to conduct a Competitor Backlink Analysis?
- Analyze competitor’s homepage
The easiest way to look at the links your competitors are benefiting from is to analyze their home page. The Backlinks Analytics tool can let you know the domains connected to a website’s home page. These websites can be potential backlinks to your website but aren’t currently.
- Discover backlinks attached to individual pages
There are many other pages apart from the homepage where you can find good quality backlinks. The Backlink Analytics tools can help you find out your page-level competitors and those pages linked to them. Once you know your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can formulate a backlinking strategy that helps you outrank others.
- Find sites attached to multiple competitors
After knowing the websites linked to your competitors’ home pages and other pages, you can find websites that link to multiple competitors at once. The reason for doing so is that if these websites can connect to various pages simultaneously, they can be linked to yours too. But make sure to evaluate the website thoroughly before requesting them for a backlink.
- Find competitor guest posts
Another way of doing competitor backlink analysis is discovering those websites where your competitors have published guest posts. Those websites may accommodate guest posts by you and add a backlink to your website. Again, you can search manually or use tools to find these websites.
Final thoughts
Competitor Backlink Analysis should be done regularly to know where your website ranks compared to your competitors. You can also find backlinking opportunities to guide SEO services in upping your SEO game. With many tools available, you can analyze your competitors’ backlinks immediately!
