Competitor backlink checker: find their links
This free competitor backlink checker shows who links to any rival site: its strongest backlinks, the anchor text those links use, how many domains refer to it, and the sites that link to it but not to you, so you know where to pitch first.
Backlink report
Enter a competitor's domain to see its rank, backlinks, referring domains, anchor text and, with your domain, the link gap.
How to use the competitor backlink checker
Every report comes from DataForSEO's live backlink index, one of the large link databases that paid SEO suites are built on. A report covers the whole domain, subdomains included, and stays cached for a day.
- Enter the competitor's domain. A full URL works too: the checker keeps only the domain, so example.com/pricing and www.example.com give the same report.
- Add your own domain if you want the link gap. It's optional, but it's the part that turns a list of someone else's links into a list of places to pitch.
- Press Check backlinks. The summary cards show the domain's rank, its backlinks and referring domains, the share of links that pass authority, and its spam score.
- Open the Backlinks tab for the strongest link from each referring domain, the Anchors tab for the words people link with, and the Link gap tab for domains that link to the competitor and not to you.
- Download the table you're looking at as a CSV and work through it in a spreadsheet, outreach tool or CRM.
How to read a competitor's backlink profile
Raw link counts flatter big sites and hide the links that matter. Read the numbers together, and look at who is linking before how often.
- Referring domains beat backlinks. A thousand links from one site's footer count for far less than fifty links from fifty different sites.
- Domain rank (0 to 100) is DataForSEO's estimate of a site's link strength, like Ahrefs' DR or Moz's DA. Each tool uses its own scale, so compare ranks within one tool, never across tools.
- The do-follow share is how many links don't carry rel=nofollow. A healthy profile has both kinds; a profile that is almost entirely do-follow can mean bought links.
- Anchor text tells you how people describe the competitor. Mostly brand names is natural. A lot of exact keywords usually means links someone placed on purpose.
- A high spam score means many referring sites look low quality. Don't copy links from those domains: they are the kind search engines ignore or discount.
Turn their backlinks into your own
You can't take a competitor's links away, but most of their links point at a type of page you could earn a link from too. Work down the link gap, strongest domains first, and sort each one into a pattern:
Links take months to show up in rankings, and no single link, listing or tool guarantees them. Check a competitor again every month or two: new referring domains show you which pitch or launch worked for them recently.
- Directories and launch platforms: the quickest links to match. List your product where it fits, and launch on Zutto Launch for a public product page with a do-follow link on every plan.
- Best-of and comparison lists: ask the author to consider your product, with a short note on what it does differently and a free account to try it.
- Integration and partner pages: if you work with the same tools, ask to be listed beside the competitor.
- Guest posts, podcasts and interviews: pitch the same publication with a topic only you can write about.
- Unlinked mentions and broken links: offer your page as a replacement when an article links to something that no longer exists.