{"id":5735,"date":"2018-09-20T17:07:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webceo.com\/blog\/?p=5735"},"modified":"2023-12-12T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:35:24","slug":"link-building-competitor-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webceo.com\/blog\/link-building-competitor-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Do Link Building by Exploiting Your Competitor Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two SEO facts that everybody knows:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Backlinks from reputable sites help you rank in Google;<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> You can find new link building opportunities by spying on your competitors\u2019 backlinks.<\/p>\n

If somebody links to sites that share a niche with you, they can be persuaded to place a link to your site, too. Sounds easy in theory, right? But once you actually try it, it turns out to be a complete headache. Link building is hard, folks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho cares if it\u2019s hard? I\u2019m motivated to build links and rank high!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I love to hear. Motivation is the foundation of success! Don a black cape and put on your mask. A noble thief who wants to steal competitor backlinks needs two things: charm and SEO tools. Let’s go into detail about how to use each.<\/p>\n

<\/span>1. How to Find Competitor Backlinks with SEO Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n

Before you can go rummaging through your competitors’ link profiles, you need to identify your competitors (obviously). If you don\u2019t know them yet, read on! If you do, consider staying here for a little longer. You might learn how to find more competitors – and more backlinks to steal.<\/p>\n

The most optimal way is to use an SEO competitor analysis tools, such as WebCEO’s Dangerous Competitors<\/a>. As the description of the tool says,<\/p>\n

“This report shows sites that you compete with on the search engine results pages. It uses the list of your keywords and search engine organic & vertical results (except ads) to find your niche competitors.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Input your keywords in the tool’s settings and press Save. If you have used the Rank Tracking<\/a> section in WebCEO before, the keywords will already be there, and you won’t have to open the settings again. You’ll just need to press Rescan.<\/p>\n

The report will be made of two parts: a graph and a table. The graph shows how much traffic your competitors get for the same keywords as yours.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

The table shows other information, such as the competitors’ total backlinks and the number of ranking keywords that overlap with yours.<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

Tip: competitors with a smaller keyword overlap will be easier to beat.<\/p>\n

Be warned: not all sites shown in the report will be your direct business competitors. Their services might be very different from yours, but they could still outrank you for your keywords. Choose your competitors from that list wisely \u2013 in other words, choose the ones whose audience you want for yourself.<\/p>\n

Once you’ve decided on who to compete with, it’s time for a competitor backlink checker to take the stage –\u00a0 WebCEO’s Competitor Backlink Spy<\/a>. Enter your competitors’ URLs in the settings and start scanning. Once the report is ready, it will show the pages that link to you and to the competitors.<\/p>\n

\"Competitor<\/p>\n

Look for the rows where your competitors have ticks, but your site doesn’t. That’s how you can find domains where your competitors have backlinks and where you might be able to build some of your own. The Competitor Backlink Spy report displays the linking domains’ authority as well, so you’ll know if reaching out to them will be worth the effort.<\/p>\n

And now you just add your potential backlink sources in an Excel spreadsheet. There! With that, your link building strategy has tangible goals, and your work is cut out for you.<\/p>\n

<\/span>2. How to Ask for Backlinks with a Noble Thief\u2019s Charm<\/span><\/h2>\n

Next comes reaching out to those sites and convincing them to give you a backlink. But how? Unfortunately, there is no failsafe plan that is guaranteed to produce backlinks. But there is a strategy that has helped many people before and may work for you, too.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Step 1: Create excellent content<\/span><\/h3>\n

Bait is often used to catch thieves. Great content is a special kind of bait that works in reverse.<\/p>\n

Why does it work? Because people won’t link to just any dubious page. They’ll be ashamed of themselves if they tell their users to go somewhere shoddy. Save your targets from embarrassment and put on your site a great piece of content.<\/p>\n

What counts as great?<\/p>\n