How to Find and Analyse Competitor Backlinks

Competitor backlink analysis is one of the most efficient tactics in SEO. Instead of guessing which sites might link to you, you find the sites that already link to your competitors. These sites have demonstrated a willingness to link to content in your niche. They are your most qualified outreach targets.

This guide walks through the process from start to finish.

Why it works

When a site links to a competitor, it signals that the site's audience cares about that topic. If you have comparable or better content on the same subject, there is a reasonable chance the site would link to you too. You are not cold-pitching an indifferent audience. You are approaching sites already engaged with your space.

The strategy is called a link gap analysis. You find the domains linking to competitors and identify which of those are not yet linking to you. Those gaps are your priority targets.

Step 1: Identify your link-building competitors

Your SEO competitors are not always your direct business competitors. For link-building purposes, a competitor is any site ranking for the same keywords you want to rank for.

Open Google and search for your main target keyword. Note the top five or ten results. These are the sites whose backlink profiles you want to analyse. They have the links that are helping them rank. You want to understand where those links come from.

Step 2: Pull their backlink profiles

Use Crawly's backlink checker to look up each competitor domain. For each one, note:

• The total number of referring domains
• The quality mix (High, Medium, Low)
• The top backlinks by authority

Export the full backlink list as a CSV for each competitor. Label each export clearly with the domain name so you can compare them later.

Step 3: Identify link gap opportunities

Once you have the data, you are looking for patterns. Open the CSVs and look for:

Domains that link to multiple competitors. If three of your five competitors all have a link from the same domain, that domain clearly publishes content relevant to your niche. It is a strong target. The fact that it links to several competitors makes it more likely to be receptive to a pitch from you.

High-quality domains you recognise. Industry publications, respected blogs, podcasts, and community sites in your space are worth targeting individually. A single High-quality referring domain is worth more than dozens of Low-quality ones.

Resource pages and link roundups. Many websites publish "best tools" lists, resource pages, or weekly roundups. If competitors are listed on these pages and you are not, getting added is often as simple as sending a short, polite email.

Sites that used to link to competitors. If a competitor has lost a referring domain, that site once cared enough to link to content in your space. It may have removed the link because the content went out of date, the page was restructured, or the site's focus shifted. These are worth investigating.

Step 4: Analyse the content that earned the links

Do not just note which sites are linking to competitors. Look at which specific pages are attracting the most links.

In many cases, a competitor's most-linked pages are data-driven content, original research, comprehensive guides, or free tools. These formats attract links because other sites want to cite or recommend them.

Ask yourself: do we have something comparable? Could we create something better? If a competitor's "Ultimate Guide to X" has earned 40 referring domains, a more thorough, more current version of that guide is a realistic link-building asset.

Step 5: Prioritise your outreach list

Not every link gap is worth pursuing. Prioritise your targets in this order:

1. Sites linking to three or more competitors. These are proven link sources in your niche.
2. High-quality domains (rated High in the backlink checker). Quality over volume.
3. Sites with clear editorial processes. Publications that clearly review what they link to are better targets than low-effort directory sites.
4. Sites in your exact topic area. Relevance matters. A link from a tangentially related site carries less weight than one from a site that covers your exact subject.

Build a prioritised outreach spreadsheet with the target domain, the competitor(s) it links to, the specific URL you are targeting, the site's contact information if available, and a note on your angle or pitch.

Step 6: Create or identify your link asset

Before you reach out to anyone, you need something worth linking to. Review your site for existing assets that match what earned links for your competitors. If you do not have a comparable asset, consider whether it is worth creating one before you start outreach.

Strong link assets include:

• Original research or data studies
• Comprehensive guides that are more thorough than what currently ranks
• Free tools (like the Crawly backlink checker)
• Detailed how-to content with screenshots or worked examples
• Unique datasets or statistics that journalists and bloggers can cite

Step 7: Reach out

Keep your outreach short. A two or three paragraph email that explains who you are, references the specific piece of content on their site, and clearly explains why your asset would be useful to their audience will outperform a long, template-heavy pitch every time.

Personalisation matters. Show that you have actually read their content. A generic "I noticed you cover SEO topics" opener will be ignored. A specific "I saw your roundup of free SEO tools and noticed you did not include X, which we recently launched" is far more likely to get a response.

Tracking and repeating

Competitor backlink analysis is not a one-time exercise. Your competitors are building links constantly. Run this process monthly or quarterly. Set a reminder to re-check the top-ranking pages for your key terms and see whether new sites have started linking to them.

Over time, a consistent process of finding and closing link gaps compounds. Each new referring domain strengthens your profile and makes the next round of outreach easier, because your site becomes a more credible link target in its own right.

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The best link-building strategies start with the data. Use Crawly's backlink tool to pull competitor profiles, identify the gaps, and build your outreach list.

For more on understanding the data you find, see how to read a backlink profile and what are referring domains.