# How to Learn Link Building Strategies from Your Competitors > Competitor link analysis means listing the websites that link to your rivals, grouping them by type, and finding the ones you can also earn links from. It saves time and shows which content and outreach work in your market. The aim is to understand the pattern and earn your own links, not to copy shady tactics or chase raw link counts. URL: https://seoholmes.com/how-can-you-learn-link-building-strategies-from-your-competitors/ Language: en Other language: https://seoholmes.com/el/blog/link-building-apo-tous-antagonistes-sas/ Your competitors have already done a lot of link-building research for you, because their backlinks are public. By studying where they earn links, you can find the opportunities that are realistic for your own business. Published 2025-07-20 · Updated 2026-10-31 · 7 min ## Why study competitors' backlinks Search engines treat links from other sites as signals of trust. Your competitors' links are a map of which sites in your market are willing to link, and why. If three rivals are all mentioned by the same local association or industry blog, that is a clue worth following. Studying them saves guesswork, and it shows what level of effort you are up against. It does not mean copying. The goal is to find patterns you can match or beat with something genuinely better. ## Step 1: Pick the right competitors Search for your main service and area in Google, and note who appears on page one. These are your search competitors, and they may differ from the companies you think of as rivals. Include two or three small ones as well as the big names. Smaller sites often show achievable tactics, while very large ones may have links you could never realistically match. ## Step 2: Collect their backlinks Use a backlink tool such as Ahrefs, Semrush or a similar service to list the sites that link to each competitor, the pages they link to and the anchor text used. Export the lists into one spreadsheet. Treat the 'authority' scores these tools show as rough estimates made by the tool, not by Google. They are useful for sorting, but a smaller local site with real readers can be worth more than a high-scoring site that has nothing to do with your field. ## Step 3: Sort the links by type Group each link by how it was earned. Patterns will appear quickly. - Editorial mentions: news, blogs and magazines that wrote about them or quoted them. - Guest articles: pieces they wrote for other sites. - Resource and list pages: 'best of', supplier or tools pages that include them. - Associations and local organisations: chambers, trade bodies, event sponsor pages. - Directories and citations: business listings, useful for local trust but limited in value. - Mentions of their brand with no link at all. ## Step 4: Find the gaps Look for sites that link to two or more of your competitors but not to you. These are the quickest opportunities, because the site has already shown interest in your topic. Then look at the types: if your rivals are all in a certain association and you are not, joining it may be the easiest link available. ## Step 5: Decide what you can do better A competitor's best-linked page is a brief for yours. Ask what it covers, what is missing, what is out of date and how you could improve it. A clearer guide, fresher data or a better local angle gives the site that linked to them a reason to also mention you. This approach is sometimes called the skyscraper technique. It works when your page really is better and you contact people politely. It fails when it is applied to mass-emailing a list of strangers with a lightly changed copy of existing content. ## Step 6: Reach out and build relationships Write short, personal messages. Say what you noticed on their site, what you have that their readers would find useful and why. Offer value first: an expert quote, a correction, or a new resource. Beyond link requests, take part in the same community your competitors do: local events, trade bodies and sponsor pages. Links that come from real relationships last longer. Our article on [contextual backlink outreach](https://seoholmes.com/contextual-backlink-outreach-2025-26/) goes deeper on the outreach itself. ## What not to copy Some competitor links are the kind that cause trouble: private blog networks, bought links, comment spam and exact-match anchor text repeated hundreds of times. If a competitor ranks despite these, do not assume it is because of them. Many such sites lose rankings later. Stay with relevant, earned links that you would be happy for a customer to see. ## Get a link plan built from real research Our [off-page SEO and link building](https://seoholmes.com/off-page-seo/) service starts with exactly this kind of competitor research and turns it into a monthly outreach plan, with a report of every link earned. If you want to know where you stand first, request a [website audit](https://seoholmes.com/website-audit/) or [get in touch](https://seoholmes.com/contact-us/). ## Questions people ask ### Is it legal and ethical to analyse competitors' backlinks? Yes. Backlinks are publicly visible, and analysing them is standard practice in SEO. It is ethical when you use the research to understand opportunities and then earn your own links with useful content and genuine outreach, rather than copying shady tactics. ### Do I need paid tools for backlink research? They make the work much faster, but you can start without them. Search for your competitors' names in Google to find mentions, check Search Console's links report for your own site, and look at who writes about your industry locally. Paid tools become useful when you want complete lists and comparisons. ### How many backlinks do I need to outrank a competitor? There is no fixed number. Quality, relevance and the strength of the page itself matter more than count. A few links from relevant, trusted sites can outweigh many weak ones. We compare the whole picture, including content and technical health, before suggesting a link target. --- SEO Holmes · Mitrou Sarkoudinou 131, Athens 117 44, Greece · +30 694 606 0950 (phone, WhatsApp, Viber) · contact@seoholmes.com