How to Use a Backlinks Checker to Outrank Your Competitors

September 1, 2026

Ranking above your competitors in search results requires more than optimizing your own website. You also need to understand what is helping competing websites perform well and identify opportunities they may have missed.

One of the most useful tools for this process is a backlinks checker.

A backlinks checker allows you to examine the websites linking to your competitors, discover the pages attracting the most backlinks, identify gaps in your own backlink profile, and find potential link-building opportunities. When combined with strong content and a strategic SEO plan, this information can help you compete more effectively for valuable search terms.

The goal is not to copy every backlink your competitors have. Instead, competitor backlink analysis should reveal what is working in your industry so you can build a stronger and more relevant strategy.

Why Analyze Competitor Backlinks?

Backlinks can provide important information about how a competitor has developed its online authority.

Suppose a competitor consistently ranks above your website for an important keyword. Its backlink profile may reveal that it has earned links from industry publications, resource pages, blogs, news websites, and other relevant sources.

By analyzing those links, you can discover:

Websites already interested in your industry
Content formats that attract backlinks
Competitor backlink gaps
Potential outreach opportunities
Digital PR opportunities
Topics worth covering
Websites linking to multiple competitors

This turns competitor research into actionable SEO intelligence.

What Is a Backlinks Checker?

A backlinks checker is an SEO tool that identifies and analyzes backlinks pointing toward a website.

Depending on the platform, you may be able to view:

Referring domains
Individual backlinks
Linking pages
Target URLs
Anchor text
New and lost backlinks
Domain-level metrics
Competitor backlink information

Different tools use different databases and metrics, so the numbers may vary between platforms. Focus on the patterns and opportunities revealed by the data rather than expecting every tool to report identical results.

Step 1: Identify Your Real SEO Competitors

Start by identifying competitors that consistently rank for the keywords you want to target.

These do not necessarily have to be businesses that sell exactly the same products or services.

For example, a software company may compete in search results with review websites, industry publications, directories, and educational resources.

Choose three to five strong competitors and analyze their backlink profiles individually.

Step 2: Analyze Competitors With a Backlinks Checker

Enter each competitor's domain into your backlinks checker.

Start by reviewing their referring domains and most important backlinks.

Look for websites that appear repeatedly across multiple competitors.

For example, if four competitors have backlinks from the same industry publication, that website may be worth researching.

However, do not assume that every competitor backlink is valuable. Evaluate the website's relevance, quality, context, and audience before adding it to your prospect list.

Step 3: Find Backlink Gaps

A backlink gap exists when a competitor has earned links from websites that do not currently link to your website.

This is one of the most useful insights a backlinks checker can provide.

Create a list of competitor-only referring domains and categorize them.

For example:

Backlink Opportunity	Competitors With Links	Potential Strategy
Industry publication	3	Expert outreach
Resource page	2	Create a better resource
Industry blog	4	Content outreach
Research citation	3	Publish original data

This does not mean every gap should become a link-building target.

Instead, prioritize websites where you have a genuine reason to be mentioned.

Step 4: Find Websites Linking to Multiple Competitors

A website that links to several competitors can be especially interesting.

It has already demonstrated an interest in your industry or subject area.

Investigate why those links were created.

Perhaps the publisher:

References industry research
Publishes expert roundups
Maintains resource pages
Reviews products
Interviews industry professionals
Covers company news
Accepts expert contributions

Understanding the reason behind the link is more important than simply knowing that the link exists.

Once you understand the opportunity, determine how your website can provide something genuinely useful.

Step 5: Analyze Competitors' Most-Linked Pages

Don't only look at competitor domains.

Examine the individual pages that attract the most backlinks.

You may discover that competitors are earning links to:

Original research
Comprehensive guides
Industry statistics
Free tools
Templates
Case studies
Data studies
Digital PR campaigns

This can reveal what publishers value within your market.

If a competitor's original research has attracted significant attention, for example, consider creating your own research with unique data rather than simply publishing another generic article on the same subject.

Step 6: Identify Content Gaps

Competitor backlink analysis can reveal opportunities in your content strategy.

Suppose competitors have earned numerous backlinks to resources explaining a particular problem, but your website has no comparable resource.

You can create a better resource that addresses the same user need.

Improve upon the existing content with:

Original research
Updated statistics
Expert insights
More practical examples
Better organization
Useful visuals
Additional questions and answers
Unique data

The objective is to create something that gives publishers an even stronger reason to reference your website.

Step 7: Analyze Competitor Anchor Text

Use your backlinks checker to examine the anchor text competitors receive.

Look for patterns involving:

Brand names
URLs
Exact-match keywords
Partial-match keywords
Generic phrases
Descriptive anchors

This can provide insight into how publishers naturally reference competitors.

However, do not attempt to reproduce an identical anchor-text distribution.

Your own backlink profile should develop naturally as different publishers describe your brand and content in their own language.

Step 8: Discover Competitor Digital PR Campaigns

A backlinks checker can sometimes reveal clusters of backlinks appearing around similar time periods.

A competitor may suddenly acquire links from multiple publications because of:

Original research
A survey
Industry data
A product launch
Expert commentary
A newsworthy campaign

Investigate the story behind the coverage.

If the competitor's campaign succeeded because it provided unique industry data, that may inspire you to conduct your own research.

The objective is to identify the strategy behind the backlinks, not simply replicate the links themselves.

Step 9: Prioritize Your Best Opportunities

After analyzing your competitors, you may have a long list of potential websites.

Do not attempt to contact all of them.

Prioritize prospects using criteria such as:

Relevance: Does the website cover your industry or target audience?

Quality: Does it publish legitimate, useful content?

Context: Would your resource naturally fit on the website?

Audience: Could the website send relevant visitors?

Opportunity: Do you have something genuinely valuable to offer?

A smaller list of highly relevant prospects is generally easier to manage and more useful than a huge database of unrelated websites.

Step 10: Create a Better Link-Building Strategy

Now turn your competitor research into an action plan.

Your strategy might include:

Creating an original research report.
Developing a comprehensive guide.
Building a free tool or calculator.
Pitching relevant industry publications.
Contributing expert insights.
Creating resource-page outreach campaigns.
Launching a Digital PR campaign.
Building relationships with industry bloggers.
Recovering relevant lost backlinks.
Strengthening internal links between important pages.

The best strategy depends on what your research reveals.

Don't Try to Copy Every Competitor Backlink

This is one of the most important principles of competitor backlink analysis.

Your competitor may have hundreds or thousands of backlinks that are irrelevant to your business.

Some may come from old campaigns, unrelated websites, partnerships you do not share, or opportunities that are no longer available.

Instead of asking:

"How can I get every link my competitor has?"

ask:

"What can I learn from the links helping my competitors succeed?"

That shift creates a much more sustainable approach.

Use a Backlinks Checker to Monitor Your Progress

Competitor analysis should not happen only once.

After launching your link-building campaign, continue monitoring your backlink profile.

Track:

New referring domains
New backlinks
Lost backlinks
Ranking changes
Organic traffic
Referral traffic
Important linked pages
Competitor backlink growth

You can then compare your progress against your original baseline.

For example, if you discover that competitors consistently earn links through original research and you launch a research-driven campaign, monitor whether that campaign generates relevant referring domains and improves organic visibility.

Connect Backlinks With Rankings and Traffic

The ultimate goal is not simply to acquire more backlinks than your competitors.

The goal is to improve your search performance and generate valuable traffic.

Track whether pages receiving new backlinks experience changes in:

Keyword rankings
Organic impressions
Organic clicks
Organic traffic
Referral traffic
Leads
Conversions

Remember that backlinks are only one component of SEO. Content relevance, technical SEO, search intent, internal linking, competition, and website quality also affect rankings.

Therefore, use backlink data alongside other SEO metrics.

Common Competitor Backlink Analysis Mistakes

Focusing Only on Link Quantity

A competitor with more backlinks does not automatically have a better SEO strategy.

Ignoring Relevance

A link may have strong third-party metrics but still be irrelevant to your audience.

Copying Competitor Content

Competitor research should inspire better resources, not duplicate existing pages.

Treating Metrics as Absolute

Authority and backlink metrics provided by SEO tools are estimates. Evaluate the actual website and context.

Forgetting Your Own Strengths

Your business may have unique expertise, data, products, customers, or relationships that competitors do not have.

Use those advantages to create linkable assets that are difficult to replicate.

Final Thoughts

A backlinks checker can turn competitor research into a powerful source of SEO opportunities.

By analyzing competitor referring domains, identifying backlink gaps, finding websites that link to multiple competitors, studying the pages that attract backlinks, and investigating successful Digital PR campaigns, you can gain a clearer understanding of what is working in your industry.

The objective is not to copy your competitors backlink for backlink.

Instead, use their backlink profiles as a roadmap. Identify the strategies behind their strongest links, create resources that are genuinely more useful, develop relationships with relevant publishers, and monitor your results over time.

When competitor backlink analysis is combined with excellent content, strategic outreach, strong internal linking, and broader SEO optimization, your backlinks checker becomes more than a reporting tool. It becomes a source of competitive intelligence that can help you identify where your website can improve—and where it can ultimately outperform the competition.

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