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Competitor backlinks: how to find the links you're missing

·4 min read

To find competitor backlinks you're missing, pull the referring domains for two or three competitors, keep the sites that link to at least two of them but not to you, and sort that list by whether you could realistically earn the same link. Directories, roundups, resource pages, guest posts and unlinked mentions are usually within reach. News coverage and partner links mostly aren't. Then email the reachable ones with a specific reason to link, and never pay for a link that passes ranking credit.

The mechanics of looking up links, and why counts differ between tools, are in our post on how to check backlinks. This post is about what to do with a competitor's list once you have it.

Work at the level of referring domains, one row per site. A competitor with 4,000 backlinks from 300 sites has 300 relationships, and those 300 rows are your raw material.

  1. Pick two to four competitors that rank for the queries you want. Your direct business rival may not be your search rival. Our post on finding competitors covers how to tell them apart.
  2. Export the referring domains for each one from the same backlink tool. Mixing tools mixes indexes, and the overlap step falls apart.
  3. Export your own referring domains from that tool too, or from the Links report in Search Console.

Third-party link data is an estimate. It misses links and keeps some that are gone, which is fine here, because you only need a shortlist.

A backlink gap, sometimes called a link intersect, is the set of sites that link to your competitors and not to you. Sites that link to two or more competitors are the best leads. They clearly cover your topic, and they've shown they link to businesses like yours.

You can build it in a few minutes. Paste each export into its own column, one domain per cell, with the root domain only. Strip www. first or the matches fail. Then add a count column.

A: competitor 1 domains
B: competitor 2 domains
C: competitor 3 domains
D: your domains

In a new sheet, list every unique domain from A to C, then:
=COUNTIF(Sheet1!A:C, A2)    -> how many competitors it links to
=COUNTIF(Sheet1!D:D, A2)    -> 1 if it already links to you

Filter to rows where the first count is 2 or more and the second is 0. In a crowded market that can still leave hundreds of rows, so sort by the tool's strength metric and start at the top.

Open each site and find the page that carries the link. The page type tells you whether you can get the same link.

Link type Can you get it? How
Industry directory or listing Usually Submit your business, if the directory is curated and edited
"Best tools for X" roundup Often Ask the author to review you for the next update
Resource page Often Point out a guide or tool that fits the list
Guest post Sometimes Pitch a topic the site hasn't covered
Unlinked brand mention Yes, for your own mentions Ask the writer to add the link
News article Rarely Needs your own news, not an email
Partner, customer or investor page No The link comes from a business relationship
Conference, award or sponsor page Only by doing the same thing Costs money or time, judge on its own merits

Unlinked mentions deserve a separate pass. Search for your brand name in quotes and exclude your own domain. Any page that names you without linking is the easiest ask you'll ever make, because the writer already chose to mention you.

Skip the low-quality directories. Google lists "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" as link spam. A directory worth being in has editors, rejects some listings and gets real visitors.

Keep the email short and make it about their page, not your rankings.

  • Name the exact page and where your link would fit.
  • Give one concrete reason, such as a newer stat, a missing tool on the list or a fixed broken link.
  • Send it to a person who edits the page, not a generic inbox.
  • Follow up once, a week later. Then stop.

Expect most emails to get no reply. Roundups and resource pages tend to say yes first.

Some of the gap you find is paid. A competitor's guest posts across a dozen unrelated blogs, all with the same keyword link text, were probably bought. Don't copy that.

Google's spam policies define link spam as links made mainly to manipulate rankings. The examples include buying or selling links for ranking, excessive link exchanges, and guest posts or advertorials paid for with links that pass ranking credit. Paid placements are allowed only when the link carries rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Our post on nofollow links explains those values.

Trading a product for a review with a link counts as payment too. If you send something out, ask for the link to be marked sponsored.

Pull a competitor's linking sites in one run

Our Backlink Finder takes any domain and lists the 100 strongest sites linking to it, strongest first. Each row has a link rank from 0 to 1,000, the number of links, the date its first link was seen, a spam score out of 100 and the share of its linking pages that are followed. Sites at 40 or more are marked likely spam. It also groups the 50 link texts those sites use and shows the total number of linking sites. Run it once per competitor and once for yourself, then paste the site lists into the spreadsheet above.

It covers whole domains, not single pages, and it doesn't list every link, find contact details or say which links Google counts. The numbers come from our backlink data and are estimates. A run costs 70 credits, and a run that finds no linking sites and no link texts is refunded.

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