Competitor analysis is a crucial step in developing effective link-building strategies. By understanding what your competitors are doing, you can identify opportunities, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in your own link-building efforts. Here's a step-by-step guide to performing a competitor analysis for link building:
Start by identifying your main competitors in the industry or niche. These are businesses or websites that are targeting a similar audience or offering similar products/services.
Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to analyze the backlink profile of your competitors. Look for the following information:
The total number of backlinks
The quality of backlinks (domain authority, relevance, etc.)
Types of websites linking to them (blogs, forums, news sites, etc.)
Examine the anchor texts your competitors are using for their backlinks. This can provide insights into their link-building strategies and the keywords they are targeting.
Determine the domains that are linking to your competitors. Focus on those domains that are authoritative and relevant to your industry. This can help you identify potential link-building opportunities.
Examine the type of content your competitors are creating. Identify the topics that are earning them backlinks and social shares. This can guide your own content creation strategy for link building.
Evaluate your competitors' presence on social media platforms. Look for patterns in how they share and promote their content. Social signals can indirectly contribute to SEO and link-building efforts.
Use tools like Broken Link Checker to find broken links on your competitors' websites. Reach out to the webmasters of those sites, informing them of the broken links, and suggest your content as a replacement.
If your business has a local focus, analyze your competitors' local SEO strategies. Look at local directories, citations, and local backlinks. This is particularly important for brick-and-mortar businesses.
Set up alerts or use tools that notify you when your competitors gain new backlinks. This allows you to stay updated on their strategies and potentially replicate or improve upon them.
Investigate whether your competitors are leveraging platforms like industry-specific forums, Q&A sites, or niche directories. These can be excellent sources for building relevant links.
If possible, analyze how your competitors conduct outreach for link building. Identify the websites and influencers they are reaching out to and learn from their outreach methods.
Take note of what seems to be working well for your competitors and what doesn't. Learn from both their successes and failures to refine your own link-building strategy.