Pages with lots of backlinks tend to rank better in Google. Especially if those links come from authoritative and relevant sites Check Backlinks.
And analyzing backlinks is an important part of SEO competitor analysis.
Because when your competitors have special database better backlink profiles, it will be harder for you to outrank them. At least until you can build a similar backlink profile.
Here are three things you can do to check your backlinks and those of your competitors:
Compare the quality of backlinks
High-quality backlinks are links from authoritative, relevant, trustworthy, and high-traffic websites.
Low-quality backlinks (also called toxic backlinks) come from irrelevant websites, suspicious domains, or use questionable techniques.
You can quickly see your site’s (and any competitors’) backlink toxicity score with the Backlink Audit tool .
Here’s how:
Open the tool and follow the Backlink Audit setup guide to set up your project.
Click on ” Start Backlink Audit “.
You will see a quick summary of important domain information.
It includes the Overall Toxicity Score (which indicates the number and severity of suspicious backlinks), the total number of referring domains, the total number of backlinks, and the Authority Score.
Take note of how your site’s metrics compare to your competitors’ to determine if your backlink profile could be stronger.
Further reading : How to do a backlink audit (5 easy steps)
Study both “Nofollow” and “Follow” backlinks.
Nofollow is a link attribute that tells search engines to ignore the link, or not “follow” it.
For example, you might link to a competitor because it’s helpful to the reader. But you wouldn’t want to imply any kind of endorsement.
“Follow” links (technically there is no “follow” attribute), on the other hand, are normal links without any attribute. They can be considered an endorsement and pass ranking credit.
Follow links are the type of backlinks you want if you’re looking for SEO value.
You can view your follow and nofollow backlinks and those of any competitors using Backlink Analytics .
Enter the client’s domain and click ” Analyze “.
Next, head to the “ Backlinks ” tab and scroll down to the table.
And toggle between ” Follow” and ” Nofollow ” to see the corresponding type of backlinks the domain has.
Consider the volume of backlinks the domain has for each type, as well as the websites that provide those backlinks.
This can help you better understand your backlink profile and that of your competitors. And it will give you ideas on where to look for backlinks in the future.
Read more: Nofollow Links vs. ‘Follow’ Links: Everything You Need to Know
Find your backlink gaps
A backlink gap analysis helps you find websites that link to your competitors but not to you.
If someone is linking to your competitors, they may be happy to link to you, too. Especially if your content is of higher quality.
To get started, open the Backlink Gap tool .
Add your domain and up to four competing domains. And click “ Search for prospects. ”
You will see a table listing the websites that link to the domains you entered.
Make sure you select the ” Best” filter . This will show only sites that link to your competitors, but not to you.
You now have a list of websites you can target to get backlinks.
For further reading: Link Building for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide
Capture featured snippets
You should also pay attention to the SERP features (search results that include additional information and elements to traditional results) that your competitors rank for, such as featured snippets. And try to beat them to your own site.
To see your competitors’ featured snippets, head to the Organic Research tool .
Next, enter a competitor’s website and click ” Search .”
Then, go to the ” Pages ” tab.
And filter the report to show the keywords for which your competitors have featured snippets.
So:
The table will now show only the what is text uniqueness and why is it needed? keywords for which your competitor has the featured snippet.
If you have pages targeting the same keywords, optimize them to try to win the featured snippet.
Look at the featured snippet for “February birth flower,” for example:
To improve your chances of winning this snippet, you would need to write a better, more objective answer.
For further reading:
- What are the different types of Featured Snippets?
- What are SERP Features? A Detailed Guide
SEO Competitor Analysis Report (Free Template)
Conducting a competitive SEO analysis is critical to your SEO success. Which means it shouldn’t be a one-time thing.
You have to keep up to date with b2b reviews what your competitors are doing. And always try to be one step ahead.
A quick and easy way to do this is to use one of our report templates.
Go to My Reports and click on ” Monthly Competitor Analysis .”