While the Comparison Dashboard gives you a high-level snapshot, the Backlink Profile Comparison takes you deeper — showing how your competitors' link profiles have grown over time, where their links come from, and what anchor text strategies they use. This is where you move from "who's ahead" to "how did they get there."
What Backlink Profile Comparison Shows You
This feature goes beyond raw numbers to reveal the shape and quality of each competitor's link profile. You'll find four key views, each answering a different strategic question.
Backlinks Over Time
This chart plots backlink growth for your domain and each competitor over a selected time period. It answers two critical questions: how fast are competitors building links, and are there patterns you can learn from?
What to look for:
Steady, consistent growth usually indicates an ongoing link-building program — content marketing, outreach campaigns, or a combination. This is the healthiest pattern and the hardest to replicate quickly.
Sudden spikes suggest a viral piece of content, a press mention, or a large-scale campaign. Investigate what caused the spike by cross-referencing with the competitor's new backlinks. If a specific piece of content drove the spike, it may point to a content format or topic worth emulating.
Plateaus or declines may indicate that a competitor has slowed their link-building efforts or that links are being lost (pages removed, sites going offline). A competitor in decline can represent an opportunity — you may be able to capture links from the same sources they're losing.
Seasonal patterns are common in certain industries. If you notice backlinks peaking at specific times of year, align your outreach and content campaigns to capitalize on the same windows.
Referring Domain Distribution
This view shows how diverse each competitor's backlink profile is. A site with 5,000 backlinks from 50 referring domains is very different from a site with 5,000 backlinks from 2,000 referring domains — and search engines treat them accordingly.
Domain diversity matters because search engines give diminishing returns to multiple links from the same domain. The second link from a domain is worth less than the first, and the tenth is worth far less than the second. A competitor with more referring domains generally has a more resilient, harder-to-replicate profile.
When reviewing distribution, compare your referring domain count as a ratio of total backlinks. If a competitor has a high backlink count but a relatively low referring domain count, much of their link volume may come from a few prolific sources (like sitewide footer links or blog comment spam) rather than genuine editorial links.
Anchor Text Comparison
Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a signal to understand what a page is about. The Anchor Text Comparison shows the distribution of anchor text types across your profile and your competitors' profiles.
Understanding anchor text categories is important for assessing both strategy and risk:
Anchor Text Type | Example | What It Signals |
|---|---|---|
Branded | "LinkRocket," "linkrocket.com" | Natural link profile; someone referencing the brand |
Exact match | "SEO backlink tool" | Highly targeted; risky if overused (can trigger penalties) |
Partial match | "great tool for backlink analysis" | Targeted but natural; generally safe |
Generic | "click here," "read more," "this article" | Natural web linking behavior |
Naked URL | Common in citations, directories, and forums |
What to look for:
A healthy anchor text profile is predominantly branded and generic, with a moderate amount of partial-match anchors and minimal exact-match anchors. If a competitor has an unusually high percentage of exact-match anchor text (say, over 20–30%), they may be engaged in aggressive link building that carries penalty risk. Don't copy that approach.
If your own anchor text profile is skewed heavily toward one type, that's a signal to diversify. A natural profile reflects the variety of ways real people link to content — sometimes using the brand name, sometimes the page title, sometimes a descriptive phrase, and sometimes just pasting the URL.
Top Linking Domains
This section reveals the most authoritative domains linking to each competitor. These are the backlinks that move the needle — links from high-DR, high-trust sites that are worth studying in detail.
Questions to ask as you review top linking domains:
Are there industry publications that appear across multiple competitors? If the same trade publication or news site links to three of your competitors, it's likely an important source in your niche — and a strong outreach target.
What types of sites dominate? Are competitors earning links primarily from blogs, news sites, educational institutions (.edu), government sites (.gov), or directories? This tells you which link-building channels are most effective in your space.
Are there patterns in the content that earns these links? Do top linking domains tend to reference research, tools, guides, or opinion pieces? The answer shapes what kind of content you should invest in.
Can you identify specific strategies? Guest posting, HARO (Help a Reporter Out) responses, digital PR, sponsorships, and resource page link building each leave distinct fingerprints in a backlink profile.
Tip: Don't try to replicate a competitor's entire backlink profile. Instead, identify the strategies and source types that produce their highest-value links, then develop your own approach to earn similar links.
Putting It All Together
Backlink Profile Comparison works best when you use it to answer a specific strategic question:
"Why does this competitor outrank me?" → Compare authority metrics, referring domain counts, and anchor text relevance.
"What content should I create to earn links?" → Study what types of pages attract links from top referring domains.
"Is my link-building pace fast enough?" → Compare growth trends over the last 3–6 months.
"Am I doing anything risky?" → Compare your anchor text distribution against competitors with healthy, penalty-free profiles.
Next Steps
Review each competitor's top linking domains and flag any that appear across multiple competitors — these are your highest-priority outreach targets.
Compare your anchor text distribution against competitors. If you're over-indexed on any one type, plan to diversify.
Set up Competitive Monitoring to track changes in competitor backlink profiles over time. → Competitive Monitoring and Alerts