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.
Want a backlink gap analysis SOP you can share with your team?
Grab the full link gap analysis template and an SOP that you can share with your team below.
This critical SEO SOP is perfect for beginners and walks them through the process step by detailed step.
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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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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Search is changing. People are no longer just “Googling it.” Increasingly, they’re asking AI systems for answers and getting them instantly without having to click and sift through different websites. SEO is still essential for brands to show up in these answers, but visibility now depends on more than rankings. What matters is whether your…
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The EdTech industry is expanding rapidly, with a global market projected to reach $354.71 billion this year. From AI tutors to classroom management platforms, both new startups and established players are racing to capture attention and market share. Using Ahrefs’ website data, we’ve found the top 50 fastest-growing EdTech companies of 2025, ranked by estimated year-over-year…
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