How To Find Competitors Backlinks and Build a Better Link Plan

To learn how to find competitors backlinks, enter a few relevant rival domains into a backlink analysis tool, export their referring pages, then check which links are genuine, relevant opportunities for your site. Before you start, have a shortlist of organic search competitors and a spreadsheet ready. No tool shows every link, and a competitor’s backlink profile is evidence to investigate—not proof that a link is safe, available, or worth pursuing.

Use this workflow to turn competitor data into a defensible prospect list. Keep competitor research separate from changes to your own site: copying a link pattern does not mean you should reproduce every link or disavow links you simply dislike.

1. Choose competitors that match the search results

   Separate search competitors from business rivals

   Pick sites that compete for the same topics and audiences, not just brands that sell similar products. A SaaS company might compare itself with sites ranking for its core software category; an iGaming marketer should look at relevant operators, affiliates, and publishers in the target market. Those groups may earn links through very different routes, so label them separately.

   Use a small, purposeful set: an illustrative starting policy is to assess three to five domains. Increase it if the results are too narrow or a niche has several distinct competitor types; reduce it if your spreadsheet becomes a list of unrelated publishers. Search your priority queries and record the domains that repeatedly appear. Exclude directories or broad publications unless their pages actually compete for the searches you care about.

   • Record the competitor domain and the query or topic it represents.
   • Note whether it is a direct brand, affiliate, agency, publisher, or marketplace.
   • Include your own domain as a comparison point, if you have access to its data.

2. Pull backlink data from the right source

   Use a backlink index for competitor discovery

   In a backlink research platform, enter each competitor’s root domain, select the scope that includes the pages you want to analyze, and export referring-page data. Tools such as Ahrefs Site Explorer and Semrush Backlink Analytics provide backlink research for domains and pages. Available reports, export limits, and metric names can vary by product and account, so check the tool’s current interface before building a repeatable process.

   Use Search Console for your own property, not a rival’s

   Google Search Console’s Links report is useful for inspecting links Google reports for a property you can access. It is not a way to reveal another company’s private Search Console data; use a third-party backlink index for competitor discovery, then use your own Search Console data as a separate reference. Google describes the report and its scope in its Links report documentation.

   Export the source page, source domain, target URL, and anchor text where available. Capture the date and tool used too. If the tool offers additional fields—such as link type or first-seen date—keep them, but do not treat a tool metric as a verified fact about Google’s evaluation.

3. Normalize and compare the exports

   Make the rows comparable before drawing conclusions

   Put all exports into one sheet and standardize the domain and URL formats. Remove duplicate rows, but preserve distinct source pages when they link to different target URLs or use different placements. A domain-level summary can help you spot repeated sources; the page-level rows are what you need to judge context and outreach potential.

   Use this table as a working schema. The example decisions are prompts, not automatic classifications.

   Field	What to record	Decision it supports
   Source URL	The page containing the link	Can you inspect its context?
   Link target	The competitor page receiving the link	What topic or asset attracted it?
   Source type	Editorial article, directory, profile, or other	Is the placement relevant and editorial?
   Competitors linked	Which shortlisted domains appear on that source	Is this a repeated market signal?
   Next action	Review, prospect, monitor, or exclude	What should happen next?

   Look for patterns, not a magic score. An illustrative starting policy is to flag a source that links to at least two shortlisted competitors for manual review. Raise that threshold if your niche has many shared directories; lower it if you have few credible competitors. The signal to adjust is the quality and relevance of the resulting review queue—not a desire to maximize a count.

4. Verify each promising referring page

   Check context, accessibility, and editorial value

   Open the source page. Confirm that it exists, the link is present, and the surrounding text supports the destination. Check whether the page is relevant to your audience, appears maintained, and offers a plausible editorial route to a link. A strong-looking tool metric cannot answer those questions by itself.

   Use a consistent checklist:

   • Relevance: Does the page’s subject overlap with your product, expertise, or audience?
   • Placement: Is the link part of useful editorial content, or an unrelated footer, template, or user profile?
   • Destination: Does the linked page solve a need your own site can credibly address?
   • Risk: Does the page appear designed mainly to sell or manipulate links?
   • Access: Is there a real editor, contribution process, or news contact to approach?

   For casino, betting, and iGaming brands, verify that the publisher accepts the relevant subject matter and jurisdiction before investing in outreach. A general-purpose publisher’s backlink to an operator does not establish that it will accept your pitch. Mark uncertain cases for verification rather than assuming availability.

5. Turn link patterns into an outreach brief

   Identify the reason the link exists

   Group qualified pages by the asset or story they reference: research, a useful guide, a product resource, an expert contribution, or a newsworthy announcement. Then ask whether your brand can offer an equivalent reason to cite it. If several competitors earn links from a data-led article, the useful lesson is to investigate the topic and evidence—not to copy their page or request the same placement without a reader benefit.

   For each prospect, write one sentence explaining why this editor might care and what specific resource you can offer. If you cannot make that case, keep the row in research rather than sending generic outreach. Agencies building repeatable campaigns can connect this prospecting work to their broader authority link building planning.

   Prioritize by fit and feasibility, not by a single authority metric. An illustrative starting policy is to review the strongest 20 qualified prospects first; widen the batch if it lacks varied publisher types, or narrow it if manual review shows weak relevance. Adjust based on the proportion of prospects that pass your editorial and audience checks.

6. Verify the work, reverse mistakes, and troubleshoot

   Keep research changes reversible

   Before outreach, review the final prospect list and remove duplicates, irrelevant pages, and sources you cannot substantiate. Track the source URL, reviewer, decision, and outreach status so another team member can understand why a prospect was included. For white-label workflows, agree with the client or account owner on acceptable publisher types and approval steps before contacting anyone; do not assume another organization’s policy.

   Competitor research alone does not change your website. If someone mistakenly adds competitor URLs or unrelated entries to your own disavow file, do not submit that file as a shortcut for cleaning the research sheet. Google says disavowal is intended for specific situations involving unnatural links to your site, and warns that most sites do not need it; consult its disavow links guidance. If an incorrect file was submitted, check the guidance and restore the intended complete file for the correct verified property—do not assume a partial upload simply undoes one mistaken entry.

   Troubleshoot incomplete or confusing data

   • No results: Check whether you entered the intended domain or page scope, then try another index. Different databases can return different link sets.
   • Too many weak prospects: Tighten topical and editorial checks; do not just raise a tool-metric cutoff.
   • Many duplicates: Deduplicate at the source-page level, while preserving separate target URLs and meaningful placement differences.
   • Unclear link status: Reopen the source page and record the date checked. Treat inaccessible or changed pages as unverified, not confirmed opportunities.

   Do this first: choose one priority search topic, find three genuinely relevant domains appearing in its results, and export their referring pages into the table above. Web Push shares practical guidance on link building services and can help teams plan link acquisition; explore Web Push if you want to discuss your requirements.

Authored with NotFair SEO