---
title: "Competitor backlink analysis"
description: "Competitor backlink analysis from ShoutRank. See who mentions competitors, which of those mentions you can earn, and which patterns you should not copy."
canonical: https://shoutrank.com/competitor-backlink-analysis
markdown: https://shoutrank.com/competitor-backlink-analysis.md
---

# Competitor backlink analysis

Competitor backlink analysis from ShoutRank. See who mentions competitors, which of those mentions you can earn, and which patterns you should not copy.
Competitor backlink analysis reads the pages that reference a rival and sorts them into mentions you can earn, mentions you should ignore, and patterns you should not copy.

A raw export of every linking domain is not an analysis. Most of it is noise: scrapers, footers, and sites that will link to anyone. The useful cut is the pages a buyer might read, and the reason your competitor is on them.

The output feeds [link building](https://shoutrank.com/link-building) and [AI citation building](https://shoutrank.com/ai-citation-building). It is not a recommendation to replicate paid or irrelevant placements.

ShoutRank does not guarantee a ranking or a citation.

## The problem

### The spreadsheet crowns a number.

The competitor has more referring domains. Many of them are directories and widgets. Copying the count would copy the waste.

### The best mentions are not replicable.

A news story about their funding, or a founder’s personal reputation, will not transfer because you asked.

### Risky patterns get averaged in.

If their profile includes paid-looking anchors, an uncritical gap analysis treats that as a to-do.

## How ShoutRank approaches it

We take a small set of real competitors, not a keyword-tool “competitive domain” that is a magazine. We group their mentions: editorial, docs and partners, directories, noise, and patterns we would not repeat.

Earnable means a publisher could mention you for a reason that is true now. Everything else is context.

## What the work includes

### Competitor set

Who is actually in the deal, agreed with you.

### Grouped mentions

Editorial, product surfaces, noise, and do-not-copy.

### Earnable list

Pages where a true mention of you would help the reader.

### Risk notes

Patterns in their profile, or yours, that we will not extend.

## Process

### Discovery

Agree the competitors a buyer would shortlist.

### Audit

Pull mentions and open the pages, not only the domains.

### Strategy

Group them. Count is secondary.

### Implementation

Mark which pages could mention you without a fiction.

### Monitoring

Hand the earnable list to the link or PR work, or stop if the gap is the product page itself.

### Optimization

Revisit when a competitor launches a story that changes the set.

### Reporting

The groups, the earnable pages, and the patterns refused.

## Why ShoutRank

### Pages, not domains

We open the URL. A domain average hides whether the mention is a sentence or a footer.

### Real rivals

A site that ranks for one overlapping query is not automatically a competitor.

### Refusal is a finding

“Do not copy this” is part of the deliverable.

## How success is measured

Mentions classified, not just exported.

Earnable pages that later became a pitch.

Patterns explicitly left off the plan.

A named client result is published when that client clears the figure. Until then the report is the measurement.

## Questions

### Which tool do you use?

Whatever export is available to the engagement. The analysis is the reading and the grouping. A tool does not supply the judgment.

### Will you list every linking domain?

The appendix can. The body of the work is the pages worth a decision. An unfiltered dump is not the analysis.

### Should we match their number of links?

No. Match the useful references you can earn honestly. Their noise is not a target.

## Related

- [Link building](https://shoutrank.com/link-building): What happens to the earnable list.
- [Authority links](https://shoutrank.com/authority-link-building): Which of their sources clear the reputation bar.
- [Off-page SEO](https://shoutrank.com/off-page-seo): How this fits the wider corroboration work.