Last Updated on 17/09/2025
Ever wondered how your competitors are outranking you on Google?
Chances are, it’s not just better content, it’s better backlinks. Tracking competitor backlinks provides a significant SEO advantage.
Understanding who’s linking to them and why, you can reverse-engineer their success and earn those links yourself.
The best part? You don’t need expensive tools to get started.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to find competitor backlinks using free tools, such as Ahrefs’ Free Backlink Checker, Ubersuggest, and Google search operators, as well as other manual methods.
Whether you’re a beginner or an SEO pro, these tactics will help you uncover link-building opportunities, identify gaps in your strategy, and ultimately, outrank your rivals.
Let’s dive in and start spying smart.
Why Checking Competitor Backlinks Matters
Understanding your competitors’ backlink profiles isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic necessity in modern SEO. Here’s why it should be part of your routine:
1. It Supercharges Your Link-Building Strategy
Backlinks are one of the top-ranking factors in Google’s algorithm. By analyzing where your competitors are getting links from, you can:
- Discover high-authority domains in your niche
- Find link opportunities you’re currently missing
- Identify content types that naturally earn links
Instead of guessing where to get backlinks, you’ll have a data-backed blueprint based on what’s already working for others.
2. It Helps You Benchmark Your Content Strategy
When you study which pages on your competitor’s site are earning the most links, you gain insight into:
- What topics resonate with your audience
- What formats (guides, infographics, tools) perform best
- How often do they publish link-worthy content
This allows you to create more linkable assets and close the gap between your domain authority and theirs.
3. It Reveals Linking Domains in Your Niche
Analyzing competitor backlinks uncovers which websites are actively linking out to similar content. These domains are:
- Likely to be open to collaboration, guest posts, or resource placements
- Ideal targets for outreach campaigns
- Often part of your niche’s editorial ecosystem
In short, you’re not just collecting data, you’re building a hit list of potential partners.
Best Free Tools to Check Competitor Backlinks
You don’t need a massive SEO budget to spy on your competitors’ backlink profiles. These free tools (and freemium features) provide powerful insights to help you uncover link-building opportunities without incurring any costs.
Google Search (Manual Methods)
If you know how to use Google, it is a surprisingly powerful tool for discovering backlinks. You can manually spot backlinks, guest posts, and brand mentions with the right search operators.
Try these:
"competitor.com" -site:competitor.com– finds external mentions of your competitor’s domain"guest post by competitor"– reveals their guest post backlinks"competitor.com" + "resources"– finds resource pages linking to them
No login, no limits, just clever searching.
Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker
Ahrefs offers a limited (but super valuable) free backlink checker.
Just enter your competitor’s domain and you’ll see:
- Top 100 backlinks
- Top 5 anchors
- Top referring domains
- Domain Rating (DR)
It’s perfect for getting a high-level overview of who’s linking to your competition.
Ubersuggest
Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest allows limited free searches per day.
Enter a competitor’s domain to get:
- Backlink overview
- Referring domains
- Link types (dofollow vs. nofollow)
It’s user-friendly, great for beginners, and ideal for quick backlink audits.
SEMrush (Free Version)
SEMrush offers a free account with limited access to backlink data.
With it, you can:
- Analyze up to 10 domains per day
- View sample backlinks
- See referring IPs and TLDs
- Access link-building tools (with restrictions)
You won’t receive the full backlink report, but it’s sufficient for some light competitor research.
Moz Link Explorer
Moz’s Link Explorer gives free users up to 10 queries per month. You’ll see:
- Total inbound links
- Top linking domains
- Anchor text distribution
- Spam Score and Domain Authority
It’s beneficial for judging the quality of your competitor’s backlink profile.
Types of Competitors
A. Domain-Level Competitors
They include those websites that compete with you in the SERPs. They publish content in your niche and compete with your site for various keywords.
You can use Ahrefs to find your domain-level competitors; for example, we have checked Marketing Lad’s competing domains in the screenshot below.
Our most significant competitors in SERPs include linkbuilder.io, outreachmonks.com, and backlinkboss.com, among others.
You can export this data to Google Sheets and make a note of the five most significant competitors.
B. Page-Level Competitors
These sites compete with you on a page level for a particular topic or keyword, but they are not your competitors.
For example, we have a post called,’’ SEMSCOOP REVIEW: A KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOL IN 2025, which targets keywords like ‘’SEMSCOOP REVIEW.
As you can see from the above screenshot, itsblogging.com isn’t a domain-wide competitor; they still compete with us for this term. Their SEMScoop review ranks in the top 10 after us!
How Do You Find Page-Level Competitors?
Pick a page or a post on your website and paste it into the Keyword Explorer of Ahrefs. Then scroll down to check the SERP overview for ‘’SEMScoop Review.
The above are page-level competitors; domain- and page-level competitors sometimes overlap.
Steps to find Competitor Backlinks
A. Find your main keywords
The first step in finding your competitors’ backlinks is to determine the keywords that contribute to your website’s search visibility.
You must use advanced keyword research tools like SpyFu, SE Ranking, Ahrefs, Moz and SEMrush.
For example, you can enter your competitor’s domain in Site Explorer of Ahrefs, and you will get the amount of search traffic for each keyword, your position in SERPs, those particular keywords that are driving traffic to your site, etc, as shown in the screenshot below.
B. Find your primary competitors
To find out your main competitors, you can follow the steps below:
- You can start by doing a ‘related’ search on Google. In this way, you will get a list of websites that have topics related to yours.
related:[keyword]
For example, the search query for YouTube.com would look for search suggestions from YouTube.
Another way to find your competitors is to use Ahrefs.
You can discover thousands of link opportunities by researching your competitor’s homepage links.
Go to Site Explorer→Backlink profile→Anchors
Most links use branded anchors because users tend to link to home pages when mentioning a brand, rather than a more specific term. This way, you can analyze your competitors’ homepage links to see where they are getting mentioned.
For instance, Linkbuilder.io is one of our domain-level competitors and has been mentioned on over 600 websites.
Now, the question is, ‘’Why did they mention them (linkbuilder.io) but not us (marketinglad.io)?
Let’s find out!
Enter one of your domain-level competitors into Site Explorer, go to the Backlinks report, and add a dofollow filter. You will get a list of all the backlinks pointing to your competitor’s homepage.
You can usually determine the reason by quickly examining the anchor text, the surrounding link text, and the page title. Analyzing your competitor’s backlinks, you can get to know the DR of their website, the number of referring domains, the number of backlinks, the URL rating of the referral pages, the top backlinks, the anchor text, and the web pages.
C. Assessing the URLs of page-level competitors
In this step, you don’t have to perform a backlink analysis on the entire website; you only need to audit one URL at a time. You need to click on the ‘’Exact URL’’ option,
It restricts the backlink analysis to a specific URL. However, you can use any backlink analysis tool to check competitor backlinks.
Pro Tips to Turn Competitor Backlinks Into Your Own
Now that you’ve identified where your competitors are acquiring backlinks, the next step is to leverage those links for your site. Here’s how to ethically and effectively win those backlinks:
Use Outreach to Replicate Their Links
If a site has linked to your competitor’s content, there’s a good chance they’ll link to yours, especially if it offers more value. Start by identifying why the competitor earned that link (e.g., a helpful guide, unique data, or a guest post) and then pitch your content accordingly.
Example Outreach Script:
Subject: Loved your post on [Topic] quick suggestion
Hi [Name],
I came across your article on [Page Title] and noticed you linked to [Competitor’s Article].
I recently published a more updated and detailed resource on the same topic, which your readers might find valuable:
[Your Link]Would love for you to take a look, if you think it’s a good fit, feel free to include it as a resource.
Cheers,
[Your Name]
Keep it short, relevant, and helpful, not pushy.
Try Broken Link Building
Broken link building is a low-competition tactic with high potential. Here’s how it works:
- Use tools like Ahrefs or the Broken Link Checker to identify dead links on websites that previously linked to your competitor.
- Create content that fills the void left behind.
- Reach out to the site owner and suggest your link as a replacement.
Example Script:
Subject: Broken link on your [Page Title]
Hey [Name],
I was browsing your [Page Title] and noticed one of the links pointing to [Broken URL] is no longer working.
I recently published something similar that could be a great replacement: [Your Link]
Hope this helps keep your page useful for readers!
Best,
[Your Name]
This approach is value-driven and often welcomed by site owners.
Create Better Content on the Same Topic
Sometimes, the best way to earn a competitor’s backlinks is to outperform them. If a competitor ranks well and earns links for a guide or resource, consider creating:
- A longer, more up-to-date version
- A more visual or interactive version (infographics, tools, checklists)
- A unique angle or deeper analysis
Once your content is live, return to the sites linked to the original and pitch yours as a better alternative.
Pro Tip: Include stats, original research, or expert quotes; these increase your chances of earning links naturally and through outreach.
FAQs
The best free method is to use tools like Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker or Ubersuggest, combined with Google search operators such as:"competitor.com" -site:competitor.com
These let you see where your competitors get backlinks, even without a paid SEO tool.
Yes! While premium tools offer more depth, you can still check competitor backlinks using:
– Ahrefs’ free backlink tool
– Moz Link Explorer
– SEMrush (free account)
– Manual Google searches
These options provide you with sufficient data to begin developing your backlink strategy.
Use a combination of free tools and manual methods:
– Enter their domain in Ahrefs or Moz to see top links
– Use Google to find guest posts, resource mentions, and brand citations
– Check anchor texts and referring domains to spot patterns
Absolutely, as long as you earn them ethically. You can:
– Reach out to the same sites with better or updated content
– Suggest your link as a replacement for broken or outdated links
– Offer guest posts to sites that accept them
This is called link gap filling and is a proven SEO strategy.
For active SEO campaigns, reviewing competitor backlinks every month is ideal. It helps you stay updated on new link opportunities and content strategies they’re using to gain authority.
– Dofollow backlinks pass SEO value (link juice) and help improve rankings
– Nofollow backlinks don’t pass direct SEO value, but they still drive traffic and build credibility
Both types are worth analyzing in your competitor’s profile.
Yes, most SEO tools, such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz, offer backlink alerts, which notify you when a competitor gains or loses a link. With a free account, you’ll have limited tracking capabilities, but it’s still helpful in identifying trends.
Conclusion
We have provided some methods for finding competitor backlinks. You can use any backlink checker like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, etc., analyze each backlink carefully, and build a strong link-building strategy to improve your position in SERPs.
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