How to Do a Backlink Gap Analysis (With Template)

A backlink gap analysis is the process of finding great links your competitors have that you don’t. It involves evaluating your competitors’ quality of backlinks and deciding if similar links could also improve your site’s SEO. 

This process helps you:

• Find quality links quickly
• Improve your domain’s authority
• Close gaps against competitors

In this guide, you’ll learn how to use our backlink gap analysis template to find relevant, high-quality websites that are worth reaching out to.

1. Identify competitors that are outperforming you 

Make a copy of the backlink gap analysis template. Then search your website in Ahrefs Site Explorer and navigate to Organic Competitors:

Look at the Domain Rating (DR) column to identify competitors that have a higher authority than you and are in a similar ballpark to the size of the site you have.

Keep this list of competitors handy, as you’ll need it for the next step.

link gap template.

Focus on filling out the columns for:

• Page / Site: Add the domain here.
• Domain Rating (DR): Add the domain’s authority score.
• Domain Traffic: Add the traffic across the entire website.

You’ll find the data in these columns in Ahrefs:

You can also fill out general columns like:

• Status: Set it as “To Outreach”.
• Priority:
  • High = all competitors have links from this domain
  • Medium = more than two competitors have links from this domain.
  • Low = only one competitor has links from this domain.
• Link Target: Add the page on your website you want to get a link to. If you’re unsure of a specific page, just add your homepage.

Your team can fill out the remaining columns during the prospecting and outreach phases.

For now, continue going through the list of domains, adding only the relevant ones to your list.

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