3 Easy Ways to Find Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Why is it important to learn what your competitors are doing in terms of their backlinks? In this article, I’ll show you where to find quality backlinks as well as give you practical tips on boosting your backlinks.

As you know, link building is fundamental to Search Engine Optimisation and is crucial for improving your website’s ranking.   Google takes into account a range of different factors when evaluating websites, one of which is the quality of the sites that link back to them.  

These backlinks from other reputable websites to your website are a primary source of information for Google which prove that your website is worth showing to its users and that it is valuable to them.  Backlinks help build your reputation and of course, they help boost your ranking. My recent article “Why Backlinks Are So Important For SEO” is packed full of further info.

And while there are tons of different ways to get backlinks, remember that it’s about quality rather than quantity.   

First of all, why reinvent the wheel?  One of the best – and easiest – ways of growing your own backlinks and building SEO trust is to piggyback on what your competitors have done.  I guarantee that if you research businesses that are similar to yours to investigate what links they have, I have no doubt you’ll find quality websites that are appropriate for your own business.

You’ll find references from sites that you’ve never heard of before and find links to sites that wouldn’t have crossed your mind as relevant connections to your product or service.   It’s like they are working for your competitors SEO – so you should consider them for your site too! 

A word of caution here though.  Quality control is really important.  You need to look carefully at the sites that your competitors are linked to and be selective about the ones you copy.  Are they legitimate and professional enough to be associated with your business?   

You should also consider researching businesses that are complementary to yours as well as those in other geographical areas.    The more you look, the more you’ll find.

Ways to Find Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Let’s break down the three easiest ways to find competitors’ backlinks:

1. Search for Their Business Name

A Google search is the easiest way to find your competitors’ links.  Simply enter their business name, scroll through the results on the first few pages of Google. Pick out the pages where their business name gets a mention on another website and have a look at those websites to see if there’s a chance you can also list your business on them too. Don’t stop at page 1 of Google either.  The deeper you go, the more you’ll uncover, so scroll through to at least page two or three until the results start to become irrelevant. 

2. Search for Their MD or CEO by Name

The next thing to do is a Google search for its managing director or CEO.  This will often unearth some additional niche websites because the search will pick up some of the more subtle mentions of your competitor (eg those that don’t mention the full business name so they would have been missed by your original search).

3. Search Using Their Full URL

If you still feel that you might be missing out on some links, type the competitor’s full URL into the Google search bar and see if that picks up any extra results.

Remember to make sure that you’re on a Google search page and not on your browser bar, otherwise, you’ll just be taken straight to the website.    

By way of illustration, have a look at the example below which came up when I entered my own business website (https://www.bluecherry.com.au) into Google.  On page 2 of the search results, you can see a whole heap of websites that you could probably list your business on too, so you can see how important it is to look beyond the first page which generally just shows all the links on the website itself.  As you can see, there are results from Facebook, Pure Local, b2Me, Super Uncle and Flying Solo – all of which are quality backlinks.   

After you’ve followed these three steps and have compiled a list of directories and relevant websites, take the time to go through them all and get in touch if you think there’s an opportunity to get your own business listed on their website.  

In my experience, investigating your competitors’ backlinks and following up on those that you think could be appropriate to your business is an easy and effective way to enhance your reputation with Google and improve your ranking, which all in all helps your business to rank higher for SEO.

Another stella way to build backlinks is to write guest posts for other peoples’ blogs, find out more in our “Why Guest Posting Is A Great Backlink Strategy”

If you enjoyed this post then you might also find these posts “Top Tips for Google My Business ” and “Why SEO Isn’t For Everyone” very useful!

Do you want to learn more about SEO and how to get started, take a look at my SEO Starter Kit

Check out my new online, self-managed course, The SEO School, which takes you through all the key tools and techniques of a successful SEO strategy.  The course is great for business owners, website managers and anyone who wants hands-on learning about all the essentials of SEO from an industry expert.  Find out more about The SEO School here.

Karen Dauncey

Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and is an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.

Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. She was recently recognised as an SEO Expert for the popular course creation platform, Kajabi as well as appearing on ABC Radio
for her expert opinion on the ACCC's investigation into search engines.

Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).

To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.