Pro tool

The Backlink Gap Against a Rival its output is a task list

Enter your own domain along with one or two competitors to get the list of sites that have linked to the competitor and not to you, ordered by authority.

  • As many as two competitors at once
  • Ordered by authority
  • Output you can act on directly

Run the tool right here on the page

The sites linking to your competitor but not to you, which is your link-building task list.

  • What it costs $0.052
  • Data source DataForSEO
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The short answer

A backlink gap is the list of domains that were willing to link to a site like yours and simply have not come across you. It is the one SEO report whose output is directly a task list: every row is one specific site you could contact today.

Choosing the competitor is the most important decision here, and it usually gets made wrong. Pick a competitor a little ahead of you, not the biggest name in the market. A giant's list is full of sites that will never link to you, and reading it is only discouraging. The list of a competitor your own size is executable from the start.

Give it two competitors and only domains that linked to both come back. The list gets shorter but its quality rises, because a site that linked to two of your competitors probably does this as part of its work rather than by chance. If you are just starting, one competitor is enough; if the list gets crowded, add a second so it filters itself.

Use the authority column to prioritise, but do not get stuck on the ordering. More important than the order is opening each row and seeing what kind of page linked to the competitor. If it is a listicle, you can probably be added. If it is a news item or an interview, the route is different. If it is a bought advertorial, that is not an opportunity at all, it is a price.

The data source and method

The work runs through domain intersection in DataForSEO backlinks, with exclude_targets pointed at your own domain: the result is the shared linkers of your competitors once your own linkers are taken out. With two competitors, only domains linking to both come back, a shorter but finer output.

The situations where it helps

When you want link building to move past guesswork. Choose a competitor a little ahead of you, not the market giant; the list from a same-size competitor is genuinely actionable.

Where it falls short

The job of this tool is to surface the opportunity, not to land the link. Behind each row is only that the site once linked to a brand like yours, which is no promise it will do the same for you. In practice the reply rate on outreach to this set is low, and you should approach it with that in mind; the edge is that your effort goes to fifty known targets rather than a thousand at random. A second reminder concerns the data: like any backlink service, the output is bounded by what the source crawler saw and is not complete coverage. Finally, a portion of these rows are paid advertorials and are not opportunities at all; open a few before you reach out so you know the character of the set.

A lesson from working with it

Removing your domain from the result takes place within the call itself, not in a later step. The consequence is that the output starts out free of your current linking sites, and what is left genuinely is the gap. This is a deliberate design, because from experience we have seen that when that subtraction is skipped, close to half the list is sites that already link to you and someone has to spend hours removing them by hand.

What it costs

Price per run $0.052

There is no monthly subscription. You raise the wallet balance, and the price of each run is written on the button before you press it; without a run there is no deduction.

Common questions about this tool

Which competitor should I pick?

A brand only one step ahead of you that serves the same product market you do. If you do not know who that is, run link competitors first; that output gives you the list of candidates.

One competitor or two?

One at the start, since it yields a broader, more varied output. Two helps once the single-competitor output has grown large and you want to see only the targets that linked to both; the more serious ones.

How do I actually get links from this list?

Open each target and weigh the type of page that linked to the competitor and its motive. A list-style page has room for an add-me pitch; an interview or news item needs you to create your own news event. Sending one identical message to all of these targets leads nowhere and only burns your credibility.

This page in the Seemerce family

Sites that link to your rival and not to you.

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