A Backlink gap analysis identifies backlink opportunities by comparing your website’s links with those of your top ranking SEO competitors.
Backlink gap analysis is an essential SEO strategy where you analyze and compare the backlinks of your website against those of top competitors. The goal is to discover websites that are linking to your competitors but not to you—highlighting potential backlink opportunities you can pursue.
This analysis helps uncover authoritative domains, industry-relevant resources, and strategic link-building paths that can boost your domain authority and search visibility.
Why It Matters in SEO:
- Competitive Insight – Reveals where your competitors are earning links and how you can catch up or outrank them.
- Link Opportunity Discovery – Pinpoints untapped domains for outreach, guest posting, or content collaboration.
- Strategic Planning – Helps prioritize high-value targets rather than guessing which sites to approach.
- Improves Authority – Building backlinks from the same quality sources as your competition boosts trust and rankings.
How to Perform Backlink Gap Analysis:
- Choose Competitors – Select 2–5 direct SEO competitors.
- Use SEO Tools – Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz can automate the comparison and list linking domains.
- Find Missing Links – Identify referring domains linking to them but not you.
- Qualify Prospects – Filter for relevance, authority, and link placement type.
- Outreach – Develop custom outreach strategies for valuable links (e.g., content suggestion, broken link replacement).
Best Practices:
- Focus on contextual links, not just volume.
- Prioritize links from reputable domains with relevant content.
- Regularly repeat the analysis to stay ahead.
- Combine with competitor content gap analysis for holistic SEO.
Example:
You run an SEO agency and find that three of your competitors have links from “marketingland.com,” but you don’t. You pitch them a new article or case study to earn that missing backlink.
