How to Use Competitor Backlink Analysis to Improve SEO

The Importance of Competitor Backlink Analysis to Improve Your SEO Strategy

Competitor backlink analysis is an important part of any effective SEO strategy. Backlink strategies focus on variety, you want backlinks from numerous high domain authority sights, signalling search engines that your content is worth paying attention to. Identifying your competitor backlinks help you identify what domains boost their ranking, while uncovering link building strategies that work in your industry, offering you opportunities to find the backlinks you need to push your business forward.

How to Conduct Competitor Backlink Analysis

With the right tools in place, competitor backlink analysis can help you uncover your competitors strategies, using the information to improve your own SEO strategy:

• Identify competitors
• Gather backlink data
• Analyse data
• Create a winning backlink strategy

Identify Your Competitors

The first step to effective competitor backlink analysis is to know what brands you are up against. These are the websites that outrank you for your targeted keywords, or that dominate your niche online. 

Gather the Data

This step involves gathering all the backlink data you collected. This can be through generated reports through SEMrush, for example.  During this step of the process, online analytic tools are useful, saving you hours, while offering you with valuable reporting and insights.

Analyse the Data

With all the data now at your fingertips, it's time to analyse it. It's a good idea to use SEMrush Backlink Gap tool for side by side comparisons, seeing how your backlink strategy does against your competitors. You can use this online tool to compare your domain with up to four competitors, categorising the backlinks in to best, weak and strong, and shared and unique. 

Create Your Backlink Strategy

Now that you know your competitors and their backlinking strategies, you can now create your own winning strategy. It's not about copying your competitors, but rather finding the best opportunities for your website. Once you have your backlink profile in place, you will want to monitor it regularly to ensure it performs well. 

Conclusion

Conducting competitor backlink analysis provides you with the tools you need to take your own SEO efforts to the next level. SEO requires ongoing commitment and effort, it is not an overnight success story. Stay up to date with the latest trends and conduct regular analysis to ensure your website performs at optimum. Do you need help with your competitor backlink analysis, or do you need a winning backlink strategy? Genie Crawl is here to help you achieve online success.