I’m sure we all have our specific tasks that may cause us to fall into time wasting black holes (more on how to avoid that here), but for me, it’s definitely link building. When it comes to link building I’m somewhat of a perfectionist. I want to get every ounce of power I can from a link. Often, I’m my own worst enemy because of that mentality. This is something that I’m striving to get better at, but I know I’m not the only one out there with this problem. There are quite a few tools out there to help you spy on your competitors, but here are some that can help specifically with link building.
Related: Link Building Plans
Open Site Explorer
This kinda goes without saying, OSE is a great (and super easy) resource for getting a look at competitors backlinks. All critical metrics are there – inbound links, domain and page authority, MozTrust, and linking C block IPs; all of which are split up into page, subdomain, and domain level views. That’s pretty sweet.
Ahrefs
Even though Moz just significantly stepped up their game with Just Discovered links, including all Ahref’s pros and cons, it has been my favorite for a while when it comes to speed of indexing live links. One of their coolest (and probably underused) features is the Domain Comparison tool. Similar to OSE, it has IP info, referring domains, etc. But the difference is the inclusion of .gov and .edu data. For certain industries, these types of links can be tipping factors when it comes to rankings, so it’s nice to be able to see that info at a snapshot.
MajesticSEO
Majestic is usually my last look when comparing competitors backlinks. Mostly because there’s not as much info given. Nevertheless, it’s still a really good tool that brings some unique metrics to the table that OSE or Ahrefs don’t.
Whether it’s something you’re preparing for a prospect, or just getting familiar with a new client, finding efficient ways to get a look at competitors backlinks is crucial to not only maximizing the hours in your day but also to preparing your plan of attack.
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