In this article, we'll focus on using competitor analysis to identify sites that can make an impact, rather than answering questions like what is a backlink and why it matters. First of all, we shouldn't assume that every link we get will bring traffic or clicks to our site. A backlink is more than just a purchased link; it's a strategic effort, planned with the right link types, to transfer page value (PageRank) to our site. Of course, some creative work can bring traffic to the site. But we shouldn't assume it will definitely bring traffic, or bring it regularly. On that note, you can look at the methods of obtaining backlinks naturally, which we've mentioned before.
Backlinks to our site can also happen outside of our control. Many tools detect these sites, and the data each tool provides has different implications and uses. Now, let's look at the details.
Identification of Competitors
While competitors differ from sector to sector, keep in mind that your digital competitors may not be who you expect. To find them, look at the sites ranking for your target 5-10 keywords. Identify the common domains that show up for those keywords, then visit them and compare your site against the services or products on their pages. In the end, it's enough to note down 5 competitor sites other than your own.
If your site is multilingual, it's more useful to identify separate competitors for each target country. That way, we can include sites that directly target the relevant country's market.
Detection of External Links to Competitors that Our Site Does Not Have
After identifying the competitors, we can start the analysis with these tools to examine the metrics of the relevant sites. For this, SEO agencies and experts prefer backlink tools. We recommend choosing whichever tool offers data you find meaningful. Let's start our analysis with Ahrefs, which was intended for backlink use when it first came out.
For this, we'll use the competition analysis module in Ahrefs. To use this module, our website must be set up as a project; we can't run the analysis for a domain that isn't. We select our website and then add competitor domains.
The screen that appears presents us with a lot of data. It's important to think about how to connect this data, because you have to decide what your main goal is in the backlink strategy. Here, we'll prioritize backlinks of the dofollow link type in our strategy. It's valuable to closely analyze the links from competitor sites that our own site doesn't have. In our analysis, let's shape our strategy through three metrics: what we can call intersection, domain authority (which appears as DR), and the traffic data of the relevant domain.
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Common Features and Grouping of Related List
While our related module page is open, let's make this document actionable via Google Sheets.
In our Google Sheets document, we mentioned that we'll shape our strategy based on three metrics: intersection, domain authority (which appears as DR), and related domain traffic data. Let's discuss this part in a little more detail.
Intersection
It refers to the number of links your competitors are directing to your website through natural or purchased backlinks. If many of the sites that your competitors are linking to are not backlinking to you, this is a strategic warning. *Low intersection* means that competitors are not getting backlinks from the same sources, increasing diversity. High intersection here can mean a more valuable situation.
Domain Name Authority (DR)
It is a metric that measures the credibility and authority of the website. If your website's domain authority is lower than competitors or if you can't get backlinks from high domain authority sites relevant to your industry, this can negatively affect your SEO success. Low domain authority can mean that search engines may consider your site less trustworthy.
Organic Traffic
Together with intersection and domain authority, it gives us an approximation of the organic traffic data of the site you are not getting backlinks from. This helps us understand how much traffic that site is getting and how much potential there is in your backlink strategy.
In light of this information, we can use these three metrics to sort competitor data into different categories. Grouping them here creates a force multiplier in our strategy: backlink efforts will contribute to SEO success by creating a multiplier effect.
Identification and Analysis of Common Links
After detailing the common features of the relevant list, we should first closely examine the domains with the most intersection data, strategically speaking. The authority and estimated traffic of the domains with the highest intersection should also support our work. As we examine these domains, we'll look at which URL the competitor sites link from, using our related module page open on the side, and how they obtain backlinks through the positioning on that page.
We add the inferences we get from the Ahrefs data as a sample URL in our Google Sheets document. This URL will help us decide which sites to contact in the final stage, and it also gives us access to sample content where competitors get their backlinks.
With the final list, we can analyze things in detail before contacting the relevant sites. In this analysis, we can make pinpoint strategic choices by examining how traffic data has changed in recent years, the number of outbound links, the types of links, and the relevance of the site's pages. This way, we take action to support our site's current SEO performance by identifying backlink opportunities that create a force multiplier effect through competitor analysis.
In summary, in this article we aimed to obtain backlinks from sites with high domain authority and high sector relevance, with the help of backlink tools. You can make it more effective by adding to or subtracting from the method used. You can run the analysis with similar steps using tools other than the one I used in my article. While developing your backlink strategy, you can also make backlink opportunities part of the strategy with Google Alerts, which we mentioned earlier.
This content was created by Mert Vahit Demir, SEO Manager at Zeo.