Welcome to this refreshed installment of our educational Next Level series! Together we’ll uncover how to find backlink opportunities for any site.

Updated insights: Originally published in August 2017 by Brian Childs, we’ve updated this blog to include new tools and refreshed workflows.

Explore more: Looking for more Next Level posts? Previously, we explored the world of long-tail keywords.

Throughout Moz’s educational resources, like the Beginner’s Guide to Link Building and SEO Essentials Certification, we discuss how to identify and prioritize sources of backlinks using a mix of tools. One tactic to quickly find high Page Authority pages with a history of linking to pages discussing your topic is to study your competitors' backlinks.

In this article, I’ll show how to create and export a list of your competitor’s backlinks that you can use for link targeting activities.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Getting a comprehensive list of top competitors
• Identifying domains or pages linking to your competitors but not to you
• Exporting data to .csv for filtering and distribution
• Prioritizing backlink opportunities sorted by authority

Before we discuss how to find backlink opportunities, let’s briefly discuss why we should do so. A lot has changed in the SEO industry over the years, and sometimes, it can feel like it’s hard to keep up. But one thing has remained the same — backlinks are still important.

With shifts in the way links and link building have been perceived, SEOs looked on with great intrigue when the recent Google leaks revealed that PageRank was still present in some capacity when ranking pages in the SERPs. It’s important to remember that link quantity and site popularity likely come into play here. As Tom Capper, Moz’s Senior Search Scientist, notes, having a lot of links can look suspicious if no one is actually looking for and navigating to your site. Quality, quantity, and relevance are all key factors when analyzing a site’s backlink profile. Adding to that, Moz’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, Chima Mmeje, explains that topical links are the key to success — suspecting links that are more topically aligned are given higher priority when assessing their value. Taking this into account, building links (and building the right links) is still important.

Aside from being a ranking factor and thus driving organic search traffic, links can also increase traffic as people click from other sites. Yes, having more backlinks could equate to your site being seen as more “popular,” but they also provide additional ways for your content to be discovered by real people. Internet users who are exploring other content may find a link to your site and find just what they are looking for. This further supports Chima’s assumption that topically relevant links are key — we want people to find our content in the right place at the right time.

Now, let’s dive into how to find opportunities to build more of those important links!

Finding backlink opportunities is an integral part of a well-rounded SEO strategy, and we've got an easy 10-step workflow to help you get started. In this article, we will primarily use Moz's free backlink checker, Link Explorer, which offers easy-to-use features for all aspects of your backlink research.

Pro tip: Link Explorer's Link Tracking List feature is a great tool for tracking link outreach and acquisition. It allows you to keep notes and details all in one place, helping to streamline the process.

Without further ado, let's jump into step one.

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.

Any research is only as insightful as the data it’s based on. In SEO, the quality and breadth of your data directly impact your insights and strategies. Having a comprehensive and accurate dataset is crucial when analyzing backlinks. With Moz's tools, you gain access to our extensive link index, allowing you to identify high-quality link opportunities and benchmark against competitors effectively. This ensures your link-building efforts are informed, strategic, and ultimately more successful.

Moz’s link research tool Link Explorer gives you easy access to our link index and is used by many marketers to research any site's link profile. This tool shows the quality of inbound links using metrics like Page Authority, Domain Authority®, and Spam Score. The free version allows you to do a good amount of backlink research, but to enjoy all its capabilities, you'll need full access; you can get that access for free with a 30-day trial of Moz Pro.

Tool Highlight: Link Explorer Moz’s Link Explorer provides easy access to a vast link index. The free version offers substantial research capabilities, and a 30-day free trial of Moz Pro gives full access.

Let the tools do the leg work for you! Rather than manually comparing backlink profiles to cherry-pick opportunities, this is where you can lean on the tools to do the labor.

Link Intersect is a handy tool within Link Explorer that allows you to enter your site and up to 5 competitor sites to see what domains or pages are linking to them but not to you. This tool cuts down on the manual effort of merging multiple CSV files and sorting through (possibly) hundreds of potential link opportunities to find the ones you’re missing out on.

Tool highlight: Link Intersect, available in Moz Pro, is a great link prospecting tool that shows you sites linking to your competitors but not to you.

The first URL you will need to enter into Link Intersect is your own. You can choose to find link opportunities for a root domain, subdomain, or exact page. This is particularly handy if you’re looking to build backlinks for a specific part of your site or a particular vertical for your business. For example, you may be looking to drive more traffic to your blog or build backlinks for a specific product line.

Next, enter the URLs for your competitors. Just like with your own site, you can enter a root domain, subdomain, or exact page. I suggest opening your competitor’s home page in a browser window and then copying the URL. This will reduce the risk of spelling errors and the possibility of incorrectly typing the domain name. An example of a common error is incorrectly adding “www” to the URL when that's not how it renders for the site.

And remember! You can enter up to five competitors to compare.

Link Intersect gives you the option of seeing link opportunities in the form of pages or domains. If you’re looking to get general link building ideas, start with the domains option to see sites linking to your competitors but not to you. This provides a broad overview of potential link sources. For more granular data, select the pages option from the drop-down to see specific pages linking to your competitors. This is particularly useful for targeted link building efforts, such as for location pages or specific product types. Utilizing both options helps you identify and capitalize on both broad and precise link building opportunities, enhancing your overall SEO strategy.

Most reports in Link Explorer will allow you to export to .csv, and Link Intersect is no different. After clicking Find Opportunities, a full list of link opportunities meeting your criteria will populate. Save these results using the Export CSV button at the top.

By default, your CSV export will be sorted by the URLs that link to the most competitors and then by Domain Authority. If you have chosen to see pages with link opportunities, your CSV export can be fully sorted by Domain Authority.

However, if you’ve chosen to see link opportunities by domain, you’ll have a few extra columns in your CSV export. In this case, to find the highest quality link opportunities, you can sort by Domain Authority of the site or Page Authority of the top referrer for a specific competitor. Page Authority is a score from one to 100 that was developed by Moz to estimate the likelihood of a page’s ability to rank in a search result based on our understanding of essential ranking factors. Higher numbers suggest the page is more authoritative and, therefore, has a higher likelihood of ranking. Higher Page Authority pages also deliver more link equity to your competitor’s site.

Now you have a large list of sites linking to your competitors, you can go down the list of high Domain Authority links and look for sites or authors that either show up regularly or look like a good fit for your site and audience. Remember to look for topically relevant opportunities where your target audience would find value in discovering your content. Use your preferred outreach strategy to contact these sites and begin developing a relationship.

Are you looking to do this at scale for a bunch of sites? We’ve got you.

Creating quality tools that automate processes just like this one has never been easier with Moz API. With the Moz API, you get access to our link index and Moz proprietary metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score, and more. These metrics help you understand the value and ranking potential of any domain or brand.

Getting started is simple and affordable, with plans starting at just $5/month. Whether you’re building a new tool or scaling an existing one, Moz Data supports you every step of the way. From concept and prototype to Beta and beyond, developing with Moz Data is straightforward and cost-effective.

Plus, you can get early access to Beta endpoints. This allows you to connect with Moz keyword and site data first, helping you predict and refine your custom products. Our updated documentation, simplified authentication, and updated quick-start guide make it easy to integrate and start using these powerful tools right away.

Moz’s Link Explorer and Link Intersect simplify finding link opportunities for your site. Whether you’re adding links to an already healthy backlink profile or you’re just starting your outreach journey, these tools help you build efficient, effective processes. For advanced users, Moz API is your partner in creativity for automating and scaling insights for your SEO clients.