Backlinks are one of the most important factors for SEO. They are links from other websites that point to your website, and they signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy, authoritative, and relevant. The more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank in the search results for your target keywords.
But getting backlinks is not easy. You need to create valuable content that other websites want to link to, and you need to promote your content to the right audience. You also need to avoid spammy or low-quality backlinks that can harm your reputation and rankings.
So how can you get more backlinks without spending too much time and money? One of the best ways is to learn from your competitors. Your competitors are websites that rank for the same keywords or topics as you, and they have already done the hard work of building backlinks. By analyzing their backlink profiles, you can find out where they get their backlinks from, and how you can replicate them for your own website.
In this guide, we will show you how to steal your competitors’ backlinks and boost your rankings in four simple steps:
- Identify your competitors
- Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles
- Replicate your competitors’ best backlinks
- Monitor your competitors’ new backlinks
By following these steps, you will be able to find and replicate the most relevant and valuable backlinks for your website and outrank your competitors in the search results. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify Your Competitors
Before you can steal your competitors’ backlinks, you need to know who your competitors are. There are two types of competitors you need to consider: domain-level and page-level.
- Domain-level competitors: websites that target the same niche or industry as you, and rank for many of the same keywords as you. For example, if your website is about digital marketing, your domain-level competitors might be websites like Ahrefs and HubSpot.
- Page-level competitors: websites that rank for the same specific keyword or topic as you. For example, if your website has a page about “how to write a blog post”, your page-level competitors will be websites that you find on Page 1 of Google Search for that specific keyword.
You need to identify both types of competitors because they can have different backlink sources and strategies. Some backlinks might be relevant for your entire domain, while others might be relevant only for a specific page.
To find your domain-level competitors, you can use Ahrefs Site Explorer, a tool that lets you analyze any website’s SEO performance. Just enter your domain name in the search box and click on the “Organic Competitors” report on the left sidebar. You will see a list of domains that rank for the same keywords as you, along with their traffic share, common keywords, and domain rating (a measure of their backlink strength).
Let’s put an example for our domain, Saasmatic.io:
You can easily export these domains and create a list for future reference. Mind you, these domains might not be 100% accurate when it comes to your niche. Ahrefs takes the keywords you rank for into account and creates a competitor list from that. For example, you may have a post regarding email marketing but you are focused on other branch of digital marketing. Nevertheless, Ahrefs will take email marketing domains into account as well.
To find your page-level competitors, you can use Content Explorer, a tool that lets you discover and analyze any topic on the web. Just enter your target keyword or topic in the search box and click on the “Pages” report on the left sidebar. You will see a list of pages that rank for that keyword or topic, along with their traffic, social shares, and referring domains (the number of unique websites that link to them).
Let’s put an example for a specific keyword: “content marketing”:
When choosing your competitors to analyze, you should consider the following factors:
- Relevance: You should choose competitors that are relevant to your niche or industry, and offer similar products or services as you. You don’t want to waste time analyzing backlinks from irrelevant or unrelated websites.
- Realism: You should choose competitors that are realistic to compete with, and have similar or slightly higher authority and traffic than you. You don’t want to compare yourself with giants that have thousands of backlinks and millions of visitors.
- Variety: You should choose a variety of competitors that have different backlink sources and strategies. You don’t want to limit yourself to one type of competitor or one type of backlink.
Once you have identified your competitors, you can move on to the next step: analyzing their backlink profiles.
Step 2: Analyze Your Competitors’ Backlink Profiles
Now that you have identified them, you need to view their backlink profiles. A backlink profile is a collection of all the backlinks that point to a website or a page, and it can reveal a lot of information about the website’s SEO performance, such as:
- How many backlinks and referring domains it has?
- What types of backlinks and referring domains it has?
- What anchor texts and link attributes it uses?
- What pages and topics it gets the most backlinks for?
- What opportunities and gaps it has for getting more backlinks?
To analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can use Site Explorer again. Just enter your competitor’s domain name or page URL in the search box and click on the “Backlinks” report on the left sidebar. You will see a list of all the backlinks and referring domains that point to your competitor, along with various metrics and filters that you can use to segment and sort them.
Here is an example that analyzes UltraVPN:
Make sure not to forget to set the filter to “Dofollow” links, as you want to look for links that pass “link juice”. You can export this list easily and use filters that you find suitable for your link building efforts.
When analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles, you should look for the following kinds of backlinks:
- Relevant backlinks: These are backlinks from websites that are related to your niche or industry, and have similar or higher authority than you. These backlinks are more likely to boost your rankings and traffic, as they signal to search engines that your website is relevant and trustworthy.
- Valuable backlinks: These are backlinks from websites that have high traffic, social shares, or engagement. These backlinks are more likely to bring you referral traffic and exposure, as they indicate that your website is valuable and popular.
- Replicable backlinks: These are backlinks that you can easily replicate for your own website, either by creating similar content, reaching out to the same websites, or using the same methods or strategies. These backlinks are more likely to be achievable and scalable, as they don’t require too much time or resources.
You should also avoid the following kinds of backlinks:
- Irrelevant backlinks: These are backlinks from websites that are unrelated to your niche or industry, or have low authority or quality. These backlinks are less likely to help your rankings and traffic, as they can confuse search engines and dilute your relevance and trustworthiness.
- Harmful backlinks: These are backlinks from websites that are spammy, malicious, or penalized by search engines. These backlinks can hurt your rankings and reputation, as they can signal to search engines that your website is associated with bad practices or low-quality content.
To find these kinds of backlinks, you can use various filters and advanced reports in Site Explorer, such as:
- Domain Rating: This filter lets you filter the backlinks by their domain rating, which is a measure of their backlink strength. You can use this filter to find high-authority or low-authority backlinks.
- Traffic: This filter lets you filter the backlinks by their estimated monthly organic traffic. You can use this filter to find high-traffic or low-traffic backlinks.
- Link Type: This filter lets you filter the backlinks by their link type, such as dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC. You can use this filter to find different types of link attributes.
- Anchor: This filter lets you filter the backlinks by their anchor text, which is the clickable text that links to your website. You can use this filter to find different types of anchor texts.
- Referring Content: This report lets you see the content of the pages that link to your competitor. You can use this report to find different types of content formats and topics.
- Linked Domains: This report lets you see the domains that link to your competitor. You can use this report to find different types of domains and niches.
- Link Intersect: This report lets you see the domains that link to multiple competitors but not to you. You can use this report to find common link sources among your competitors.
By using these filters and reports, you can segment and sort your competitors’ backlinks by various criteria, and find the most relevant, valuable, and replicable ones for your own website.
Step 3: Replicate Your Competitors’ Best Backlinks
Now that you have analyzed your competitors’ backlink profiles, you need to replicate their best backlinks for your own website. This means creating similar or better content, reaching out to the same websites, or using the same methods or strategies as your competitors.
To replicate your competitors’ best backlinks, you can use the following tools and techniques:
- Link Intersect: As mentioned before, this tool lets you find websites that link to multiple competitors but not to you. These websites are likely to be interested in your niche or topic and have a history of linking to similar content. You can use this tool to find replicable backlink opportunities, and then reach out to them with your content.
- Content Gap: This tool lets you find keywords that your competitors rank for but you don’t. These keywords are likely to be relevant and valuable for your website and have potential backlink sources. You can use this tool to find content ideas, and then create better content than your competitors.
- Guest Posting: This technique involves writing and publishing articles on other websites in exchange for a backlink to your website. You can find guest posting opportunities by searching for websites that accept guest posts in your niche or industry, or by looking at your competitors’ backlinks and finding websites that they have guest posted on.
These are some of the most common and effective ways to replicate your competitors’ best backlinks, but there are many more methods and strategies that you can use. The key is to be creative, persistent, and ethical when replicating your competitors’ backlinks.
Here are some tips on how to replicate your competitors’ best backlinks successfully:
- Be selective: You don’t need to replicate every single backlink that your competitors have. You should focus on the most relevant, valuable, and replicable ones, and avoid the ones that are irrelevant, harmful, or too difficult to get.
- Be original: You don’t need to copy your competitors’ content exactly. You should create original content that adds value, provides a unique perspective, or solves a problem. You should also use original images, videos, or graphics whenever possible.
- Be respectful: You don’t need to spam or annoy the websites that you want to get backlinks from. You should reach out to them politely, professionally, and personally. You should also provide value, offer help, or compliment their work before asking for a backlink.
- Be patient: You don’t need to expect immediate results from replicating your competitors’ backlinks. It can take time for the websites to respond to your outreach, review your content, and link back to you. It can also take time for the search engines to crawl and index your new backlinks, and update your rankings accordingly.
By following these tips, you will be able to replicate your competitors’ best backlinks and boost your rankings in a natural and ethical way.
Step 4: Monitor Your Competitors’ New Backlinks
The last step in stealing backlinks from your competitors is to track their new backlinks easily. This means keeping an eye on the new backlinks that your competitors get and taking advantage of them as soon as possible.
Monitoring your competitors’ new backlinks is important because:
- It helps you stay updated on the latest trends and opportunities in your niche or industry
- It helps you find new and relevant websites that might be interested in linking to your website
- It helps you prevent your competitors from gaining an edge over you in the search results
To monitor your competitors’ new backlinks, you can use Ahrefs Alerts, a tool that lets you get notified of any changes or updates on the web. You can create alerts for your competitors’ domains or pages, and get notified of any new backlinks that they get.
To create an alert for your competitor’s domain or page, just enter their domain name or page URL in the search box and click on the “New Backlinks” option. You can then customize the alert settings, such as the frequency, the email address, and the filters. You can also create multiple alerts for different competitors or keywords.
Once you have created an alert, you will receive an email whenever your competitor gets a new backlink. You can then use Batch Analysis, a tool that lets you analyze multiple URLs at once, to quickly evaluate the quality and relevance of the new backlink.
To use Batch Analysis, just paste the URL of the new backlink in the search box and click on the “Analyze” button. You will see various metrics and data about the new backlink, such as:
- Domain Rating: The domain rating of the website that links to your competitor
- Traffic: The estimated monthly organic traffic of the website that links to your competitor
- Referring Domains: The number of unique websites that link to the website that links to your competitor
- Anchor: The anchor text that links to your competitor
- Link Type: The link type that links to your competitor
- Linked Page: The page URL that links to your competitor
- Linked Domain: The domain name that links to your competitor
By using these metrics and data, you can decide whether the new backlink is worth replicating or not. If it is, you can use the same methods or strategies as before to replicate it for your own website.
Here are some tips on how to monitor your competitors’ new backlinks effectively:
- Be fast: You should act fast and capitalize on the new link opportunities as soon as possible. You don’t want to miss out on the chance to get a valuable backlink before someone else does.
- Be selective: You should be selective and prioritize the most relevant and valuable new backlinks. You don’t want to waste time and resources chasing every new backlink that your competitors get.
- Be consistent: You should be consistent and monitor your competitors’ new backlinks regularly. You don’t want to lose track of what your competitors are doing and fall behind in the search results.
By following these tips, you will be able to monitor your competitors’ new backlinks and stay ahead of them in the search results.
Other than that, it is important to know how to monitor and manage your backlinks as well!
Stealing Backlinks From Your Competitors is an Invaluable SEO Skill
In this guide, we have shown you how to check and steal your competitors’ backlinks and boost your rankings in four simple steps:
- Identify your competitors
- Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles
- Replicate your competitors’ best backlinks
- Monitor your competitors’ new backlinks
By following these steps, you will be able to find and replicate the most relevant and valuable backlinks for your website and outrank your competitors in the search results.
Stealing your competitors’ backlinks is one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO performance, but it’s not the only way. You should also create original and high-quality content, optimize your website for speed and usability, and build relationships with other websites in your niche or industry.
