Where to Find Competitors’ Backlinks in Semrush: A Complete Guide
Backlinks are a crucial part of any SEO strategy. By examining your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can uncover new opportunities to strengthen your own site’s authority. One of the best tools for this task is Semrush, which allows you to quickly and easily analyze your competitors’ backlink strategies. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to find competitors backlinks in Semrush, why it’s important, and how you can use this information to improve your SEO efforts.
Why Finding Competitors’ Backlinks is Important
Backlinks are a vital ranking factor for search engines like Google. When a website links to your site, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. By studying your competitors’ backlinks, you can:
- Identify backlink opportunities: Discover websites that may be willing to link to your content.
- Improve your link-building strategy: Learn what type of content earns backlinks in your niche.
- Benchmark your performance: Compare the strength of your backlink profile against competitors.
Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Competitors Backlinks in Semrush
Here’s a detailed guide on how to find competitors backlinks in Semrush and use that data to enhance your link-building strategy.
Step 1: Access Semrush’s Backlink Analytics Tool
First, you need to log in to your Semrush account and access the Backlink Analytics Tool.
- Log in to Semrush: Head over to Semrush and log in with your credentials.
- Navigate to Backlink Analytics: Once logged in, find the Backlink Analytics tool under the “SEO” tab on the left-hand side.
Step 2: Enter Your Competitors Domain
After accessing the Backlink Analytics tool, you’ll need to enter the domain of the competitor whose backlinks you want to analyze.
- Input Competitors Domain: In the search bar, enter the domain name of your competitor.
- Analyze Domain: Click the “Analyze” button to get a detailed report of your competitor’s backlink profile.
Step 3: Review Backlink Overview
Once the competitor’s domain is analyzed, you’ll see a dashboard showing a complete overview of their backlinks.
- Total Backlinks: This shows the total number of backlinks pointing to your competitor’s site.
- Referring Domains: Referring domains are the unique domains that link to your competitor’s site. The higher the number, the more diverse their backlink profile.
- Backlink Types: You can see whether the links are dofollow or nofollow, which helps you determine the quality of the backlinks.
- Top Anchors: Review the anchor texts used in the backlinks, which can help you understand the keywords your competitors are targeting.
Step 4: Analyze Referring Domains
Referring domains are crucial to understanding where your competitors backlinks are coming from. These domains can potentially become part of your link-building strategy.
- Top Referring Domains: Scroll down to the “Referring Domains” section to see which websites link to your competitor the most.
- Domain Authority: Each referring domain is accompanied by its Authority Score. Higher scores indicate a stronger website in terms of SEO.
- Identify Opportunities: Look for referring domains that might be relevant to your industry and reach out to them for backlink opportunities.
Step 5: Examine Specific Backlinks
To get even more detailed, you can view individual backlinks that are pointing to your competitor’s site.
- View Backlinks: In the Backlinks tab, you’ll see a list of all the backlinks pointing to your competitor’s site. You can sort these by authority, link type (dofollow or nofollow), and more.
- Identify Valuable Links: Pay close attention to high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites. These are the kinds of links you want to acquire for your own site.
- Competitor’s Link Strategy: Analyzing their link sources can give you insight into their SEO strategies—such as whether they’re using guest blogging, partnerships, or content promotion to earn links.
Step 6: Filter Backlinks for Better Insights
Semrush provides advanced filtering options to help you narrow down the backlink data based on your specific needs.
- Filter by Dofollow Links: Focus on dofollow links, as these pass link equity to your competitor’s site, contributing to its SEO strength.
- Filter by Authority Score: You can filter backlinks based on the Authority Score of the referring domains, allowing you to prioritize higher-quality backlinks.
- New vs. Lost Links: Semrush also shows you which backlinks your competitor has recently gained or lost, which can help you spot new opportunities.
Step 7: Create a Backlink Gap Analysis
Semrush’s Backlink Gap tool allows you to compare your backlink profile against multiple competitors, helping you spot gaps where you can improve.
- Backlink Gap Tool: In the Semrush dashboard, navigate to the “Backlink Gap” tool.
- Enter Competitors Domains: Input your domain and up to four competitor domains.
- Analyze the Results: Semrush will show you the common and unique backlinks each competitor has, helping you identify opportunities for your site.
Best Practices for Using Competitors Backlink Data
Now that you know how to find competitors backlinks in Semrush, here are some best practices for making the most of this data:
1. Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Not all backlinks are created equal. A single link from a high-authority site can be far more valuable than dozens of low-quality links. When analyzing competitor backlinks, prioritize:
- Dofollow links: These pass SEO value to the linked site.
- High authority domains: Look for backlinks from websites with a strong authority score, as these are more beneficial for your SEO.
- Relevance: Ensure the referring domains are relevant to your niche or industry.
2. Build Relationships with Referring Domains
One of the most effective ways to use competitor backlink data is by building relationships with the sites linking to your competitors. Start by:
- Identifying outreach opportunities: Look for relevant blogs, websites, and influencers that have linked to your competitors.
- Crafting personalized outreach: Instead of cold emails, create a personalized outreach strategy that demonstrates why linking to your content would benefit them.
- Offer guest posts or collaborations: If you notice your competitor gained links through guest posts, pitch similar opportunities to those websites.
3. Monitor Competitors Backlink Growth
Tracking competitors backlinks isn’t a one-time task—it should be an ongoing process. Regularly monitor your competitors backlink profiles to:
- Spot new backlinks: If your competitors gain backlinks from high-quality sites, consider reaching out to those sites.
- Analyze lost backlinks: If competitors lose backlinks, investigate why and consider reaching out to those sites with better content or updated information.
4. Replicate Success with Skyscraper Content
If you notice competitors gaining backlinks to specific pieces of content, it’s a good opportunity to create skyscraper content—a more comprehensive, updated version of their content.
- Identify popular pages: Use Semrush to find the pages on your competitor’s site that are attracting the most backlinks.
- Create better content: Write more detailed, engaging, and informative content on the same topic.
- Promote it aggressively: Reach out to the websites linking to your competitor’s content and ask them to consider linking to your superior piece.
Discover Your Competitors Backlinks with Semrush
Ready to boost your SEO? Use Semrush to find your competitors backlinks and unlock new link-building opportunities. Sign up for Semrush now!
Conclusion
Understanding how to find competitors backlinks in Semrush can significantly enhance your SEO strategy. By analyzing your competitors backlink profiles, you gain insights into what’s working in your industry and discover new opportunities to improve your site’s authority. Semrush makes it easy to track, filter, and analyze backlinks, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition.
Start using Semrush today to monitor your competitors backlinks and implement a winning SEO strategy.
