A competitor link analysis is an evaluation of the link profiles of important competitors, in which the goal is to gather insights by looking at the link building tactics used by those competitors. It is possible to achieve improved ranks in search engines and increased commercial consequences by implementing some of the same tactics in your own link development.
By carrying out this kind of study, you will be able to locate websites that frequently connect to websites that are comparable to your own. If you research your competitors and find that they have a high number of links in common, it’s possible that those links are what’s helping them achieve their high rankings.
The three procedures to take when conducting a link analysis of a rival
Examining the common links that currently exist on the websites of your direct competitors is a straightforward method that can reveal a great deal of potential link-building chances.
Identify competitors
It’s possible that you already have an idea of who your rivals are, in which case you can use that information later on in the process. Check out the Organic competitors report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer if you are in need of some assistance. This report will provide you with a list of websites that are ranking for the same things that you are.
Locate any shared connections
Using Site Explorer’s Link Intersect report, compile a list of all of your business’s rivals and enter their URLs. This will provide you with a list of all of the referring domains that your competitors have, as well as display the number of distinct competitors who have links coming from those sites.
Recognizing the tactics employed by rival companies
This information can be put to use in a few different ways. You might look at the common links that your competitors have that you don’t and work your way through those, or you could check for trends in the data to see the kind of sites that competitors are getting links from and work your way through those. You can come across things like specialised websites, local listings, or other websites that are specific to your area.
Congrats, you’ve completed a fundamental examination of your competitors’ link profiles!
In the event that you have a little bit of more time on your hands, you can scale the process of link intersect to collect even more data and opportunities.
Scaled link intersect method of operation
Working with more data, which can lead to more insights and opportunities, is one benefit of scaling a process. While going through this procedure will need more effort up front, there is a possibility that you will be able to repurpose the chances you identify for use with other customers. It is my estimation that the majority of folks will require between two and four hours to complete this process.
Niche links
The more straightforward method, which was discussed earlier, just considers immediate competitors. Even if you have more than ten direct competitors, you can still acquire more insights by following a procedure that is analogous to the one I’m about to demonstrate.
You can just skip the section that is below and head straight to the part where you are exporting the referring domains of rivals. You have the option of using your own list or obtaining a more comprehensive list from the Competing Domains report found in Site Explorer.
This method is a wonderful fit for businesses that are focusing on local SEO, but it does involve a little bit more work than other approaches.
When I talk about local SEO, I’m referring to businesses that compete primarily in one area, such as dental offices, law firms, plumbing companies, and so on. If you look at websites that are competing in other markets, some of which may be stronger or more competitive than your own, you will find a lot of new opportunities that no one in your industry has taken advantage of yet.
Community ties
If we look outside the confines of our specific specialisation to other sites located in the same city, the link overlap between those sites may present a number of opportunities for the development of local links. It is common practise for local websites to discuss and link to other local websites. You will most certainly want to go through with this process if you own an agency that has a significant number of local SEO clients located in the same region.
Create a copy of this Google sheet, which outlines some of the most sought-after specialisations for locally owned and operated businesses. In order to generate your keyword list, all you need to do is add the name of your city and copy the value down.
Conclusions
It is a terrific technique to reverse engineer the strategies of your competitors and identify the links that may be assisting your competitors the most if you analyse the links that they have on their website. The act of scaling that process can result in a great number of novel discoveries.