SEO and backlink building are inseparable. Building connections with other websites boosts your online outreach and builds authority. However, there are proper ways to do it that increase the effectiveness of your links. Enter: backlink gap analysis, where you analyse what backlinks your competitors have that you don’t, allowing you to improve your SEO.

So, what is a competitor backlink gap, and how can you exploit it? Let’s start with the basics.

What is Backlink Gap Analysis?

A backlink gap analysis compares the backlinks your competitors have as potential opportunities to improve search engine rankings. By going over what websites link to and from your competitors, you can get a gauge of what kinds of links could be available to you and what gaps you can exploit. The gap in question is between those who link to them but not you.

The backlinks that a page gets help establish it within a wider net of semantically related terms and websites. Backlink gap analysis helps pages in multiple ways, including:

• Developing a solid backlink and SEO strategy aimed at the right pages
• Strengthens your backlink profile
• Improves rankings
• Attaches better referrals
• Improves website authority

How To Do Backlink Gap Analysis Online

Backlink gap analysis requires:

• Identifying your competitors: Figure out which companies or websites are viable competitors.
• Identifying their backlinks: Either use software or manually list the backlinks that they have.
• Analyse their backlinks and whether they are useful: Check whether the backlinks are useful for you, checking how they add links and where the links go.
• Identify opportunities: Check which links are viable for your website and develop a strategy to get them.
• Implementing findings: Apply the backlinks that you can and find the effective keywords to make the best use of them.
• Measuring and tracking effectiveness: See if things improve and reiterate on your backlink strategy to adjust for shortcomings or plan for the future.

How to Find Backlink Gaps & Identify Competitors?

You can find backlink gaps using the following methods:

• Use an SEO analysis tool

If you have the option, use SEMRush or Ahrefs to examine your website using the backlink profile options. These will give an extensive list of websites that you can probably count as competitors.

• Enter the relevant keyword on a search engine and check out the top-ranking competitors

High-ranking pages that are competing for the same keyword can be a goldmine for best linking practices. These websites will have high domain rankings and are probably linked to by others.

• Search a business directory to find out who your competitors are and go to their websites

If you want to see how your competitors are faring, this can be an alternative method. Find out who your competitors are first and examine their websites.

Analysing Links

Finding a competitor’s backlink gaps is not enough, as you then need to analyse them properly. Competitor backlink gap analysis requires the following steps:

• Determine page relevance: Check to see if the page you’re analysing fits your niche and can be counted as a competitor.
• Check if the page is indexed: You can use Google Search Console to do this.
• Check if the page and link match your topic: Does the link fulfil the purpose of the source page?
• Analyse the anchor text: Do the keywords used match your intent? Is there a better way to describe the link or a keyword with better intent match or click volume?

Backlink analysis requires studying the pages that are being linked to. With these pages, check for the following metrics and markers of quality to judge the effectiveness of linking:

• Domain authority: The likelihood of a website ranking on the SERP. Pages with high domain authority can be great for referrals, boosting your page in return.
• Total referrals: How many pages refer to a link and add them to their page.
• Link toxicity scores: Links can be toxic if they are from known bot farms or from unnatural links that seem spammy.
• Trust: How trustworthy the linking domain is.
• Clickthrough Rate: How many clicks the linked domain gets.
• Content relevance: How relevant the content is between the source page and the target page.
• Anchor text: The importance of using descriptive link text for outgoing links.
• The number of root domains that link to the target page.
• Keyword variance: The number of variations in anchor text that link to the target page. This variance indicates that the link is related to the topic and fits multiple different semantically related terms.

In terms of how to do backlink analysis, it’s important to tailor your approach to the needs of your website or business. Not every approach fits every situation, and what works for your competitors may not always work for you.

Backlink Audit

To test the effectiveness of your backlinking, you need to have a method of monitoring and evaluating your efforts. To conduct a backlink audit, use the following steps:

• Pick a tool for backlink tracking (SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc.)

Aside from backlink information, using a search engine analysis tool can provide you with keywords for anchor linking. It’s also worth knowing that Ahrefs provides a free backlink checker.

• Analyse your backlink profile

On a basic level, check out how many dofollows vs nofollows the link has, what platforms are linking it, the domain rating (DR), URL Rating (UR), and referring domains.

• Analyse individual links

Check the number of referring domains, the number of backlinks, and Domain Ratings (DR) for each of your backlinks. Make sure they are linking to the right words and, if they are linked multiple times, they have enough synonyms.

• Remove or reclaim backlinks

Check out how many links have resulted in dead pages, pages that are no longer useful, or unhelpful redirects. You should update these as soon as you see them.

• Create competitor benchmarks

Put together all the information you have and compare it to those same stats when it comes to your competitors. Depending on how much time you have, you should do a comprehensive analysis of 2 or 3 websites.

• Check for new backlink opportunities

Compare your profile against those of competitors and look for gaps. To create a backlink portfolio that enhances your website’s authority, consider targeting directories, high-quality links, organisation sites, and reputable news publications for the greatest impact.

• Update content or create new content

You can go back and add backlinks, update information, or create new content. This will allow you to reach out to potential backlink sources and provide good, high-quality content they may want to feature.

Executing a Backlink Gap Strategy

So, now you’ve analysed your backlinks, identified gaps, and need to improve your profile. There are several backlink strategies you can use to exploit gaps. Here’s how to build backlinks to your website:

• Identify good opportunities and develop an outreach program

Organise a backlink exchange program with other websites. These can be in the same niche or informational sites that write about your topic. Good opportunities can include websites that do listicles or top 10s, informational sites or public resources, news sites looking for guest-posts, etc.

• Develop a guest-posting program

You can write guest posts for other websites and have them write ones for you. These posts allow you to put in precise keywords for anchor links and choose the right places to do so.

• Image-based backlinking

Since PDFs can contain links, they also offer opportunities for better backlinking. You can create infographics, host them on other sites, and link crucial information within them.

• Reach out to websites where competitors are linked

Check which competitor’s backlinks are viable for you, and ask them to link to you instead or in addition. You can provide more up-to-date information that competitors do not have.

• Look for directories in your niche

Find some relevant directories like Google My Business, Tripadvisor, or Expedia, for example. These can be handy as they have high domain authority. The more spammy ones should be avoided.

These are just a few of the most common backlink strategies you can implement. If you’re looking for help with SEO implementation or just advice, why not check out our marketing services page? We do everything from content to research to implementation.