Link research is an essential pillar of an SEO strategy, but competitive link research can help you get a leg up. It’s vital for websites to not only know about their own link profile, but to also have an effective strategy in place to stay relevant against competitors.

Hopefully at this point, you know who your competitors are, and hey, that’s half the battle. If you still aren’t sure, check out our Competitive Research tool in Moz Pro. This tool can help you find out exactly who your competitors are, the keywords they rank for and what their top performing content is.

If you would like to understand our Competitive Research tool more, and learn how it can be used to your advantage, feel free to book a Moz Pro Kick Off Call with a member of Moz’s Onboarding Team below.

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So, why do we want to conduct “competitive link research”?

• Learning how others are performing can help guide your own linking strategy, and you may discover tactics that you haven’t considered before.

• There may be opportunities and gaps in your competitor’s link profile, which you can identify and slot yourself into.

• You will know what types of content perform well, and from there can make your content 10x better than your competitors!

• Your analysis will help you understand more about the audience you are trying to speak to.

• A comprehensive backlink strategy can aid you in ranking higher on the SERP.

If you’re seeking guidance on how to build an SEO competitive analysis framework, check out Moz Academy’s SEO Competitive Analysis Certification. This coursework covers everything you need to know to confidently implement an effective strategy, and you’ll earn your Moz Certification, which you can display on your LinkedIn profile!

In the following videos, the Moz team will show you workflows and other tips and tricks within the Moz Pro tool set that will help you with your competitive link research analysis.

Link Gap Analysis: Link Intersect

Link gap analysis is a popular tactic amongst SEOs. It involves comparing your own link profile to that of your competitors, and finding the gaps that exist. They could be getting backlinks from several websites that you aren’t receiving any from — this could be a golden opportunity — another way to compete with your top competitors.

In this video, Emilie will show you how to use Moz Pro’s Link Intersect tool to find out this information.

Discover Linking Domains with SERP Analysis

In the Moz Pro Keyword Research tool, there is a functionality where you can search a keyword, and the top ranking pages for that keyword will show. But, there is so much more to this function.

In this video, Varad will show you those ranking pages, as well as the domains that are linking to that particular page. Get ready to soar from there!

Use Page Optimization to Find Content Suggestions

Moz’s Page Optimization tool is primarily used to see what improvements may need to be made to a page, as well as keyword placement on a page. When you dive a bit deeper into this particular tool, you’ll find that Moz offers content suggestions to you, including URLs that are ranking for the keyword you first queried. Identifying these top ranking URLs is a great way to see what kind of content you should also be creating.

In this video, Rachel will show you what you can do with this new found information and how it can help your link research.

Find Backlinks to Competitor’s Broken Pages

Analyzing the backlinks on a competitor’s broken page is another tactic that SEOs are using, that you may not have been aware of. There are hidden opportunities within these broken pages that are just waiting to be discovered.

In this video, Arian will show you exactly how you can find those broken pages within Moz Pro’s Link Research tool.

Discovered & Lost Backlinks

Another gem within the Moz Pro Link Research tools is the ‘Discovered & Lost’ section. This section will show you all of the new backlinks that Moz has found linking to your competitor in the last 60 days, as well as backlinks that have been lost. This can be insightful information when working on your own backlink building.

In this video, Eoin shows you how you can use this functionality to up your Link Research game.

If you’d like to continue learning about Competitive Research, check out our previous Daily SEO Fix on Competitive Keyword Research for some great insights into a competitive keyword research strategy.

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