How to Find Competitor Backlinks Using AHREFs

Last month, a client’s competitor suddenly jumped from page 3 to position 2 for “project management software.” Their secret? They’d quietly built 47 high-authority backlinks in 90 days. Here’s exactly how we reverse-engineered their strategy using Ahrefs.

In this guide, we’ll cover why competitor backlink analysis matters, how to find competitors backlink in Ahrefs step by step, what metrics to pay attention to, and how to turn insights into real SEO wins.

Why Competitor Backlink Analysis Matters for SEO

When you find competitor backlinks, you uncover:

• Proven link sources – If they linked to your competitor, chances are they’ll consider linking to you.
• Content formats that attract links – Guest posts, listicles, resource guides, broken link replacements.
• Partnership and PR opportunities – Directories, podcasts, or niche communities your competitor is part of.
• Authority benchmarks – How strong their link profile is compared to yours.

Competitor backlinks are basically a cheat sheet for what Google already trusts in your space.

Step-by-Step: How to Check Backlinks in Ahrefs

Ahrefs makes it easy to audit backlinks and run competitor analysis. Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to Ahrefs & go to Site Explorer
   • Enter your competitor’s domain or a specific URL.
   • This shows you all the backlinks pointing to that site.
2. Choose “Referring Pages”
   • Navigate to Competitive Analysis → Referring Pages.
   • You’ll now see competitors’ backlinks with details like anchor text, domain rating (DR), and traffic.
3. Enter Multiple Competitors
   • Use the “Add Competitors” fields to compare several domains at once.
   • This is where Ahrefs’ Link Intersect report shines—it shows sites linking to your competitors but not to you.
4. Click “Show Link Opportunities”
   • The report reveals websites most willing to link to content like yours.
   • These become your primary outreach targets.

What to Look for When Spying on Competitors’ Backlinks

Not all links are created equal. As you analyze results, prioritize based on:

• Domain Authority / Domain Rating (DR) – Higher DR usually means stronger SEO value.
• Relevance – Links from niche-relevant sites are worth more than general directories.
• Traffic to linking page – A backlink from a page with 10k visits/month can send referral traffic.
• Anchor Text – Look for natural, keyword-relevant anchors.
• Do-follow vs No-follow – Do-follow links pass SEO equity, but a natural profile includes both.

Most people waste time on garbage links. In Ahrefs, filter for DR 30+ and 500+ monthly traffic. This cuts your prospect list by 90% but increases success rate 5x.

Best Ahrefs Filters for Competitor Backlink Analysis

The magic happens in Ahrefs’ filtering options. Most people miss 80% of quality opportunities because they don’t filter properly.

Start with these essential filters:

• Domain Rating (DR): Set minimum DR to 30 for B2B SaaS. We’ve found DR 30-70 gives the best effort-to-impact ratio. DR 90+ sites rarely respond to cold outreach.
• Traffic Filter: Only target referring pages with 500+ monthly traffic. A backlink from a page nobody visits won’t send referral traffic or signal relevance to Google.
• Language & Country: Filter for English sites (or your target market). A German engineering blog won’t help your US SaaS ranking.
• Content Type: Exclude social media platforms and forums unless you’re specifically targeting those channels.
• Anchor Text Filter: Look for branded anchors (60-70% of competitor’s profile should be branded). If they have 40%+ exact-match anchors, their link profile might be artificially inflated.

These filters typically reduce your prospect list from 10,000 to 200-300 high-quality targets. Quality over quantity wins every time.

Turning Insights into Link Opportunities

Once you see competitors’ backlinks, don’t just copy them—use the data strategically. Here are effective tactics:

1. Guest Posting – If competitors publish on a site, pitch your own article.
2. Resource Page Links – Get listed in directories, “best of” lists, or industry resource hubs.
3. Broken Link Replacement – Use Ahrefs to find dead competitor links, then suggest your content as a replacement.
4. Content Upgrades – Create a fresher, more detailed guide than your competitor’s and pitch it to the same linkers.
5. Partnerships / PR – Podcasts, webinars, or round-ups where your competitors appear.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Chasing link quantity over quality. A few high-authority, relevant links outperform dozens of weak ones.
• Ignoring lost/gained links. Monitor which competitor links are new (to replicate) or lost (to reclaim).
• Over-relying on metrics. DR/UR is useful, but relevance and context matter more.
• One-time analysis. Competitor link profiles change; run this monthly or quarterly.

If you want to grow your rankings faster, you can’t just build links in isolation—you need to spy on competitors’ backlinks. With Ahrefs, you can check backlinks ahrefs, run comparisons, and identify exactly where to focus your outreach.

By combining find competitor backlinks tactics like guest posting, broken link building, and content upgrades, you’ll not only catch up but also stay ahead in your niche.

👉 Next step: Pick your top three competitors, see their backlinks in Ahrefs, and build a shortlist of high-value opportunities today.

How Often Should You Monitor Competitor Backlinks?

Here’s what we learned after tracking 50+ SaaS competitor backlink profiles for 18 months:

• Monthly audits work best. Weekly is overkill unless you’re in a hyper-competitive space like “CRM software.” Quarterly misses too many time-sensitive opportunities.
• Focus on new and lost links. Set up alerts in Ahrefs for when competitors gain or lose high-DR backlinks. Lost links are goldmines—the site already linked to your space and might need a replacement.
• Track 3-5 direct competitors max. More than that creates analysis paralysis. Choose competitors with similar target keywords and business models.
• Document what works. Keep a simple spreadsheet of successful outreach. If Forbes linked to Competitor A’s “State of SaaS” report, they might link to your industry survey too.

The companies that consistently outrank competitors don’t just analyze backlinks once—they treat competitor monitoring like monitoring their own analytics. Monthly reviews, documented insights, systematic outreach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you’ve identified backlink opportunities, the next step is creating content that attracts links. For that, you’ll need strong keyword research. Check out our guide on how to use the Ahrefs Keyword Generator to quickly find 150+ keyword ideas and build content that earns backlinks.

Pick your top 3 competitors right now. Spend 30 minutes in Ahrefs Site Explorer and build your first prospect list of 20 targets. Most companies skip this step and wonder why their link building fails.