{"id":5269,"date":"2022-03-03T08:26:03","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/?p=5269"},"modified":"2023-05-11T06:44:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T06:44:11","slug":"competitor-backlink-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/competitor-backlink-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Competitor Backlink Analysis: Decoding the Powerful Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Competitor backlink analysis is a critical part of off-page SEO<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to know how and why your competitors are ranking higher than you for your target keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And backlinks form a crucial part of the ranking factors<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without them, even the best content can\u2019t help you rank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through competitor backlink analysis, you can deep dive into your competitors\u2019 linking strategies and determine the reasons behind their rankings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using this strategy, you can also discover backlinking opportunities<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, if a website is linking to your competitors, it\u2019s likely going to be happy linking to you as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how can you find such websites by doing competitor backlink analysis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Competitor<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Finding Your Competitors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, before you get started with competitor backlink analysis, it\u2019s important to understand who your competitors are in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without finding the right set of competitors, you\u2019ll likely end up with faulty results from the competitor backlink analysis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And before you begin finding competitors, it\u2019s equally important to understand the different types of competitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Domain-Level Competitors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These are those competitors who compete with your website as a whole in the SERPs. This essentially means that they\u2019re directly competing with you for most of the keywords that you\u2019re targeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find these competitors, you can leverage the Domain Overview tool provided by Semrush. Alternatively, you could use the Site Explorer tool provided by Ahrefs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll be using Semrush for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All you have to do is search for your domain. On doing so, you\u2019ll find a page with loads of information. Here, you\u2019ve got to scroll down to find the \u201cMain Organic Competitors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image via Semrush<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These are the major domain-level competitors of your website. You can click on \u201cView details\u201d to see the entire list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image via Semrush<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, one thing that you must bear in mind when looking at domain-level competitors is that they may not necessarily be your real-world competitors. Instead, they might just be competing on many keywords that you\u2019re targeting too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if they\u2019re from a similar niche, you should consider them as the websites they get backlinks from might be ideal for you too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Page-Level Competitors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These are those competitors that aren\u2019t competing on a whole lot of keywords. However, they\u2019re still competing with you for certain keywords related to a particular page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find these competitors, you can use the Keyword Overview tool in Semrush. All you have to do is enter the primary keyword that you\u2019re targeting and scroll down to find the SERP overview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can then scroll through it to find competitors who\u2019ve created content similar to yours. These are your page-level competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image via Semrush<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve found both these types of competitors, you should create separate lists for each. Your goal should be to conduct competitor backlink analysis for each of these types of competitors to discover potential link-building opportunities<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on that note, let\u2019s take a look at how you can go about doing competitor backlink analysis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n