How to find your competitors' backlinks, and which ones you can get
Find competitors' backlinks with link intersect: sites linking to two or more competitors your size but not you. Free tools, link types, what you can get.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·8 min read
To find your competitors' backlinks worth copying, compare your domain with two to five competitors of comparable size in a link intersect or backlink gap tool, and keep the sites that link to two or more of them but not to you. Those sites already cover your category, so they need the least persuasion to add you.
A full list of one competitor's backlinks is mostly noise: press about their funding, partner pages, old guest posts. The overlap between several competitors is the signal. Below is how to pull it with free and paid tools, how to sort it by link type, and which of those links a new product can realistically get. Every tool limit was checked on the tool's own page in September 2026.
How do you see a competitor's backlinks?
Enter the competitor's domain into a backlink tool that has its own index of the web. Google Search Console won't help, because its Links report only covers properties you have verified. Free tiers show a sample; paid tiers show everything and add the comparison features that make the intersect method fast.
Tool
Free view of a competitor
Comparison feature
Ahrefs free Backlink Checker
Total backlinks and referring domains, plus the top 100 backlinks with referring page, anchor and target URL
Link Intersect, in the paid Site Explorer
Semrush free Backlink Checker
Up to 15 backlinks, once a day without an account; more with a free account
Backlink Gap, compares up to five competitors, paid
Moz Link Explorer
10 free queries a month with a free Moz account, including Spam Score and linking domains
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
How can I see my competitors' backlinks for free?
Enter a competitor's domain in a free backlink checker. Ahrefs' free checker shows the top 100 backlinks, Semrush's free checker shows up to 15 once a day without an account, and Moz's Link Explorer gives 10 free queries a month with a free account.
Link Intersect, compares up to five sites against yours
Bing Webmaster Tools
Backlinks for other sites as well as your own, free with a verified site
Bing describes it as a way to study competitors' link building
Google Search Console
Not available for sites you don't own
None
Semrush notes that every tool counts differently: "each one uses its own crawler, database, and rules for counting links." So don't be surprised when the lists differ; any site that shows up in two tools for two competitors is a strong prospect.
How do you pick which competitors to compare?
Pick two to five competitors of comparable size who sell to the same buyer. Comparable size matters more than fame. A category leader's links come from press, investors and partners you can't reach yet; a competitor with a link profile near yours earned its links the way you can earn yours.
A practical test for comparable size: the competitor's count of referring domains sits somewhere between a fifth of yours and five times yours. Check it in any of the tools above. If you have almost no links yet, choose products that launched in the last year or two, not the market leader.
Good picks share three traits with you:
The same buyer, so the sites that cover them are read by your customers.
A similar price range, so the same roundups and review sites list them.
A similar age, so their links came from the same kinds of launches and listings.
How does the link-intersect method work?
Put your domain and your chosen competitors into an intersect tool, ask for sites that link to at least two of the competitors, and exclude any site that already links to you. The result is a list of sites that cover your category repeatedly while leaving you out.
With a paid tool, the steps are short:
Open Ahrefs' Link Intersect, Moz's Link Intersect or Semrush's Backlink Gap.
Enter your domain as the target and two to five competitors as the comparison sites.
Filter to referring domains that link to at least two competitors, and exclude domains that link to you.
Export the list, sorted by how many competitors each domain links to.
Open the top 30 or so linking pages by hand before you plan any outreach.
With free tools, you can do the same by hand:
Run each competitor through Ahrefs' free checker and copy the top 100 backlinks into one spreadsheet, one tab per competitor.
Add a column with the linking domain only, stripped of www. and paths.
Count how many competitors each domain appears for. A pivot table or COUNTIF over the domain column does it.
Keep domains that appear for two or more competitors, then remove any that already link to you (check your own Search Console Links report under Top linking sites).
The free version only sees each competitor's top links, so it misses the long tail. It still finds the most visible shared sites, and those are the ones to pitch first.
How do you sort competitor backlinks by type?
Open each linking page and file it under one type, because the type decides whether you can get it and how to ask. Ahrefs groups replicable links the same way: directory listings, listicles that mention several competitors, interviews and podcasts, and guest posts.
Type
How to spot it
Can you get it?
How
Directory and launch listings
A profile page with a logo, a one-line description and a "visit site" link
Usually yes
Submit your product; check the terms and whether the link is followed
Review sites
A review of one product, often with a rating
Often
Claim your profile or pitch the reviewer
Roundups and "best X" articles
A list of tools in your category
Often, if the article is updated
Pitch the author with the facts they need
Resource pages
A curated page of links for a topic or audience
Sometimes
Show the page owner why your tool fits their readers
Interviews and podcasts
An episode or Q&A page with the founder
Sometimes
Pitch a story, not the product
Guest posts
An article written by the competitor's team on another site
Sometimes
Pitch your own topic; avoid keyword-stuffed links
Press coverage
News about a launch, funding or acquisition
Rarely, on demand
Earned with news of your own
Partner and integration pages
A partner's list of integrations
Only with a real integration
Build the integration first
Sponsored or paid links
A "sponsored" label, a price list, or a site that sells posts
Don't copy
A paid link needs rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" under Google's rules
Ahrefs makes a useful point about roundups: "the best opportunities come from listicles mentioning multiple competitors because the topic of the page is more likely to be relevant to your business." How to get onto those lists, including the ones AI answers cite, is in getting into 'best X tools' articles.
Which competitor backlinks can you realistically get?
The realistic ones are open by design: listings anyone can submit to, review sites anyone can claim, roundups whose authors update them, and resource pages whose owners want the best links for their readers. Links tied to a competitor's news, partnerships or payments are not yours to copy.
Prioritise in this order:
Listings and directories that link to two or more competitors. Submitting takes minutes, and the terms are published.
Review platforms where your competitors have profiles. Claim yours with the same product name, URL and description.
Roundups and "best X" articles updated in the last year. An author who updates a list is open to additions.
Resource pages maintained by communities, schools or associations your buyers belong to.
Guest posts and podcasts, once you have a story or expertise that host's audience wants.
Skip anything that only exists because someone paid. Google's link spam policy lists "exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" among its examples, so copying a competitor's bought links copies their risk. For how these fit into a first link plan, see how to get backlinks for a new website.
How do you ask for the link?
Make one short, specific ask per site, written for that site's reader rather than for you. Name the page, say what you'd add and why its readers would want it, and give the exact facts the owner needs. One follow-up at most.
For a roundup author, four sentences are enough: the article's title, the product it would sit beside, what your product does differently in one line, and your price and a link. For a directory, just submit. For a resource page, point at the section your tool fits and explain the fit for their audience. If you would rather hand the outreach to someone, link building for startups covers what a provider should deliver.
See your competitor link gap in the full audit
LaunchScaler's full audit reads your link profile and your competitors' from a live link index. It picks competitors of comparable size, meaning the sites you share the most links with whose referring-domain count sits between a fifth of yours and five times yours, and lists the sites that link to all of them but not to you. The gap check clears when that list is smaller than your own count of linking sites; up to five times your count is flagged as work worth doing. A separate link-intersect check flags every site that covers all of your comparable competitors and leaves you out, and both open to the gap list and the fix. Backlinks are not in the free scan, so run the free scan first, then open the full audit from your report for $19, one time, for your domain. Run the free scan first, then open the full audit.
You compare your domain with several competitors and list the sites that link to two or more of them but not to you. Those sites already cover your category, so they are the most likely to add you.
03
Can I see competitors' backlinks in Google Search Console?
No. Search Console's Links report only shows links to properties you have verified. For another site's links you need a third-party index, or Bing Webmaster Tools, which shows backlinks for other sites as well as your own.
04
Which competitor backlinks should I try to get first?
Directory listings, roundup and 'best X' articles, review sites and resource pages that link to several competitors. Press coverage, partner pages and links a competitor paid for are usually out of reach or not worth copying.
05
How many competitors should I compare?
Two to five competitors of comparable size. Moz's Link Intersect and Semrush's Backlink Gap both compare up to five sites against yours.
Ask AI engines your category's 'best X' question, list the articles they cite, and pitch each author a short, factual note. How to find and pitch lists.
