Debug: upstream API calls (click to expand)
How it works
The Backlink Gap Analyzer pulls backlinks for your site and 1-2 competitor sites in parallel, dedupes the union across them, and surfaces the rows that link to a competitor but NOT to you. The output is exactly the list of source pages and source domains where competitors already have a presence that you don't yet, the highest-conversion outreach prospects for link-building.
Modes. Website mode compares whole domains (paste a domain per line). Webpage mode compares specific URLs (paste a URL per line). The first input is "your" site/page; the rest are competitors. Sync per-input fan-out is parallel curl_multi so even 11 sites (you + 10 competitors) typically complete in under 20 seconds.
Two views, one dataset. The Diff view toggle in the results header switches between:
- Backlinks view: every source URL that links to at least one competitor. Useful for finding listicle pages to pitch.
- Domains view: deduped by source domain. Useful for prioritizing high-DA outreach targets.
Both views are computed from the same fetch, no second upstream call.
The "Found On" column. For each gap row, we count how many of your competitors that source links to. Higher counts indicate sources that publish about your topic broadly (and so are more likely to also link to you if pitched well). Default sort is Found On descending, with DA descending as the tiebreaker.
Plan caps. Per-submission cap on this plan: up to 2 competitors + you, and up to 500 backlinks fetched per submitted site. Each submitted site counts as one backlink-tool unit toward a daily quota shared with Backlinks Checker and Listing Checker.
Known limitations.
- Backlink coverage isn't complete. Our source is strong on mid-to-high-traffic sites but less complete on freshly-published or low-PageRank pages. The gap analysis is a strong sample, not a census.
- No follow / nofollow signal yet. The upstream API doesn't return whether each backlink is followed or nofollowed.
- Refresh cadence is upstream-controlled. Expect a few-day to few-week lag for very recent links to appear.
What the columns mean
- Source URL (Backlinks view)
- The page that links to at least one competitor. Click to open it in a new tab and inspect the link context.
- Source Domain
- The domain hosting the source page. In Domains view, each row is one source domain regardless of how many of its pages link to competitors.
- Found On
- How many of your submitted competitors the source links to. A row with "Found On: 3" out of 5 competitors links to 3 of them but not to you. Higher values typically indicate stronger outreach targets.
- Anchor Text
- The visible text the competitor backlink uses. When Found On > 1, we show one representative anchor (the rest are visible in the cross-tool linking modal).
- Domain Authority (DA)
- Moz's 0-100 prediction of how well the source domain ranks. Higher-DA sources pass more ranking value to whoever they link to, including you if you can earn the link.
- Page Rank (PR)
- Open PageRank 0-10 score for the source domain. Useful as a second-opinion alongside DA.
- Spam Score
- Moz's 0-100 spam-signal density score. Filter out high-Spam-Score sources before outreach, the Backlinks tool tier explains this in detail.
Frequently asked questions
What is a backlink gap analysis?
A backlink gap analysis (also called link-gap analysis) finds backlinks pointing at your competitors but NOT at your own site. The "gap" is exactly those source pages or domains, sites that have already shown they're willing to link to a competitor's content, which makes them strong candidates to link to yours too if you do similar outreach. It's one of the highest-conversion link-building tactics because the editorial bar is already known: those sites already publish about your topic.
How do I do a backlink gap analysis?
Enter your site (or page URL) at the top, then add 1-2 competitor sites in the box below. We pull backlinks for every site you submitted, dedupe across them, and surface the ones that link to a competitor but not to you. Pick Website mode when comparing whole domains and Webpage mode when comparing specific URLs. The results table lets you toggle between two views, by source URL (pages to pitch) or by source domain (high-authority outreach targets).
What is the difference between the Backlinks view and the Domains view?
Both views surface the same underlying dataset (the deduped union of competitor backlinks) but group it differently:
- Backlinks view shows every source URL that links to at least one competitor. Useful when you're looking for specific listicle pages to pitch (e.g. "top 10 X tools" articles that mention competitors but not you).
- Domains view groups by source domain, so each row shows ONE outreach target (with the total backlink count from that domain). Useful when you're prioritizing high-DA domains regardless of how many specific pages link to competitors.
Same dataset, two lenses, no second API call.
How do I find competitor backlinks?
Two paths through this tool family. This tool (Backlink Gap Analyzer): submit your site + competitor sites together; we return only the links you don't already have, the most actionable list. The Backlinks Checker (separate tool): enter a competitor domain or URL alone; we return every backlink we know of for it, useful when you want to study a competitor's full link profile rather than the diff against yours.
What does the "Found On" column show?
The number of your submitted competitors that each backlink points to. If you submitted 5 competitors and the row shows "Found On: 3", that source links to 3 of your 5 competitors but not to you. Higher Found On values are usually stronger outreach targets, the source publishes about your topic broadly and links to multiple competitors, which means they're more likely to also link to you. Click the column header to sort by it.
How many competitor backlinks should I look at?
Quality over quantity. Most successful link-building campaigns start with 50-100 manually-reviewed prospects, not thousands. From the gap analysis output:
- Sort by Domain Authority descending to surface the highest-authority outreach targets first.
- Filter to backlinks where Found On >= 2 to focus on sources covering your topic broadly.
- Skip sources that look like directory listings, scrapers, or PBNs (check Spam Score).
The top 20-50 rows after sorting + filtering are usually where the real opportunities live.
How accurate is competitor backlink data?
No backlinks index covers the entire web. Our source is strong on mid-to-high-traffic sites but less complete on freshly-published or low-PageRank pages, so the gap analysis surfaces a strong sample, not a complete census. For most link-building purposes that's fine: even a partial view of "who links to competitors but not me" typically yields more outreach prospects than a single team can work through.
Should I always try to match every competitor backlink?
No. Some competitor backlinks aren't reproducible (acquisitions, PR coverage tied to a specific event), aren't worth the effort (low-quality directories), or aren't in your niche. Use the gap analysis to find PATTERNS: which categories of sites consistently link to your competitors? Which content types (data studies, tutorials, comparison posts) attract their links? Build a content + outreach strategy around the patterns, not a checklist of individual URLs.