As with any task, you want to maximize your efforts and find the best opportunities. So, before we dive into link prospecting, we need to identify competitors to compare our backlink profile to. If you already have a list of competitors you’d like to work with, you can move on to step two. However, it never hurts to verify your assumptions and possibly find additional competitors you may not have considered.

The Domain Analysis tool is a great place to start when looking to identify search competitors. This tool gives you ungated access to three searches per day so you can quickly identify your direct search competitors. The Top Search Competitors module will show you the competitors that compete for the same keywords as the site entered, ranked by visibility.

Alternatively, if you’re looking to see a more extensive list and do additional competitive research, our True Competitor tool can help. Just enter your site’s URL, and the tool will populate with a list of your top 25 competitors.

Although we won’t be covering it in depth in this article, we do have a comprehensive guide that walks through How to Do an SEO Competitor Analysis. The guide dives into all aspects of the process and includes a free template.

Now that you’ve identified key competitors, you can use those for the following backlink analysis. Let’s jump in to find some backlink opportunities.

Tool Highlight: Domain Analysis Use the Domain Analysis tool to identify search competitors. This tool allows three free searches per day, showing direct search competitors ranked by visibility.

Further Research: True Competitor For an extensive list, use the True Competitor tool. Enter your site’s URL to see your top 25 competitors.