Investigating the tactics of successful competitors can help you uncover opportunities for your own law firm.
One way to figure out what's working for your competitors is by running a competitor backlink analysis. This process involves finding out which pages link to your competitors and what types of content on their sites attract the most links.
Finding that information can give you plenty of direction for your own law firm link-building campaigns.
What Is a Competitor Backlink Analysis?
A competitor backlink analysis is a type of audit that examines the links your competitors have to other websites.
Search engines like Google see backlinks as an indication of a site's credibility and relevance to a topic or industry.
For more information on how to create a rock-solid link-building SEO strategy, see our complete guide to links. In the meantime, here's a brief refresher on how backlinks work.
Understanding How Backlinks Work
Backlinks, often termed "inbound links" or "incoming links," are hyperlinks from one website to another.
Essentially, when a website links to your law firm's website, it's signifying to search engines that your content is valuable, credible, and useful. Here's a breakdown of the key concepts related to backlinks:
Referring Domains
The term "referring domains" refers to the unique websites that link back to your site. If multiple links come from the same domain, it still counts as a single referring domain.
Linked Domains
Linked domains, on the other hand, are the external sites to which your website links. This is the opposite end of the backlink equation, emphasizing the other websites your law firm considers valuable enough to link to.
The Power of Quality over Quantity
While having a substantial number of backlinks can be beneficial, the quality of backlinks matters significantly more. Links from high-authority, reputable, and relevant websites have a more profound impact on your SEO efforts. Search engines are sophisticated enough to discern the quality of backlinks, rewarding those that are deemed valuable and penalizing manipulative or spammy link-building tactics.
Understanding what kind of backlinks your competitors have can give you an idea of how credible search engines may find them. It can also give you insights into where some of your competitors' online visitors come from.
Identifying High-Quality vs. Low-Quality Backlinks
A backlink analysis doesn't just look at the sheer number of competitor backlinks. Distinguishing between high-quality backlinks that positively impact SEO and low-quality links that could harm a website’s ranking is crucial. Offer insights into what makes a backlink valuable, such as domain authority, relevance, and the context in which the link appears, and how to identify and disavow harmful backlinks.
These audits also look at the quality and relevance of the sites linking back to competitors. Not every backlink is valuable. A high backlink count on its own doesn't mean that a site is credible in the eyes of search engines.
For example, backlinks from a low-quality linking domain (e.g., a coupon website) aren't relevant to a law firm's website.
Links from other referring domains, such as law blogs, universities, and other related sites, are more relevant.
This type of analysis offers a valuable window into your competitor's link-building tactics. You learn where they get their links, what type of content attracts links, and which sites you may be able to get your own links from.
Why Should Your Law Firm Do a Competitor Backlink Analysis?
Running a competitor backlink analysis can provide you with valuable insights for growing your law firm's online presence.
Developing a Content Strategy
The first benefit it provides is guiding you on the types of content that you create.
The results of this analysis will show you what kind of content attracts links over time and what relevant keywords you should include in it.
By creating similar content, you may be able to earn similar backlinks for your firm. Referring websites may be willing to link to you instead of competitors if what you create is better than what is already out there on a given topic.
For example, you may discover that your competitor has an out-of-date article about a statute with a ton of backlinks.
You might create an updated article and reach out to the referring websites to ask them to link to you instead.
Identifying Content Gaps
Your analysis could show that a competitor has high-quality links pointing to a study they did on average accident settlement amounts. Looking at that study could inspire you to gather your own data on a related topic, like settlement timelines. You could then reach out to other sites, asking them to link to your new linkable asset.
Your analysis will also surface new link-building opportunities for your site.
At the end of the process, you'll have a list of relevant websites that trust your competitors enough to link back to them. Sites that link to your competitors may also be willing to link to you.
Choosing the Right Backlink Checker Tool
Several tools exist that can help you find competitor backlinks as well as other areas of improvement in your off-site SEO. Some of the backlink checker tools favored by SEO professionals and digital marketers include SEMrush, Moz, and Ahrefs. We recommend the latter since Ahrefs boasts one of the largest backlink databases in the SEO industry. Ahrefs also offers a Content Gap tool that identifies topics your competitors are ranking for, but your firm is not. This feature is invaluable for informing your content strategy helping you cover subjects that attract backlinks and drive traffic.
It's also worth mentioning that if you're not using Google Search Console (GSC), you should be. It's a powerful, free tool offered by Google that provides website owners with valuable insights into their site's performance in Google Search. Still, while Google Search Console offers useful insights, it has limitations compared to specialized competitor link analysis tools.
Regardless of which backlink analysis tool you go for, you should consider the following features in your choice:
- Accuracy and Database Size: Opt for a tool known for its accuracy and extensive database of backlinks. The more comprehensive the tool, the more precise your analysis will be.
- Ease of Use: The tool should have an intuitive interface, making it easy for you and your team to navigate and analyze data effectively.
- Feature Set: Beyond basic backlink checking, look for additional features such as competitor analysis, keyword research capabilities, and integration with other SEO tools.
- Budget and Pricing: Evaluate the pricing plans of different tools, considering your budget and your law firm's specific needs. Many backlink analysis tools offer tiered pricing or even free versions with limited functionalities, suitable for firms just starting with SEO.
Two Different Approaches to Competitor Backlink Analysis
There are 2 different approaches you can take when you do a competitor backlink analysis:
The first is a targeted, keyword-based approach that looks at the number of links you need to rank for a target term. This approach is best if you have a specific page that you want to rank for a topic.
The second is a broad, domain-based approach that looks at the kinds of content your competitors have that attract the most links. The broad approach is better if you want to know what type of content you can create to attract links.
The one you choose depends on the goals of your SEO campaign.
You can use the same tool for either type of analysis, though.
You'll need a tool that collects backlink data as well as other SEO metrics like organic traffic and keyword rankings for a variety of websites. Again, when doing SEO for lawyers, we recommend using Ahrefs to get this data. It's an industry-standard SEO tool with all of the features you need to complete a backlink analysis.
How to Take the Targeted Approach
The targeted approach is an efficient way to determine the number of backlinks needed to rank on Google for a keyword.
An example of a good time to use this approach would be if you had a blog post about car accidents that's stuck on the second page of Google. You could look at the number and quality of links that top competitors for the main keyword have to their pages. This can tell you how many you should plan to build if you want to rank, too.
The steps below will guide you through running a keyword-based analysis of your competitors' backlinks.
1. Find Competitors for Your Target Keyword
All you need to get started is a target keyword and access to Ahrefs.
Go to Ahrefs Keywords Explorer and enter your target keyword to find out which sites rank for it. Then, you'll need to decide which sites are your actual competitors and which are irrelevant. The walkthrough below will guide you through the process.
In the example above, only other law firm websites are relevant competitors to an attorney who wants to rank for the keyword car accident lawyer.
Looking at irrelevant competitors like Forbes or Nolo.com could end up skewing the estimated number of backlinks you need into something unreachable.
Now that you know who your competitors are, you're ready to start looking at their backlink profiles.
2. Filtering the Backlinks Report
Ahrefs can show you all of the backlinks pointing to each of your competitor's pages. However, not all of those backlinks will be relevant or valuable. You'll need to filter the list down to get to the real insights.
Use the walkthrough below to learn how to access and filter the backlinks report for your competitors' pages.
Repeat this process for each of the competitors that you found. You can save yourself some time by opening each competitor's backlinks report in a new browser tab.
Applying these filters allows you to see only the most impactful backlinks.
A backlink from linking domains with a low domain rating (DR) or with less than 1000 visitors per month isn't likely to be something that moves the needle. The same goes for a backlink that isn't in the referring page's body copy.
3. Analyzing the Backlinks Reports
Now that you've had a look at the types of pages that are pointing to competitors, you're ready to reverse engineer the kind and number of backlinks you'll need.
First, calculate the average DR of the referring domains to get a sense of what types of websites you'll need links from.
Then calculate the average number of backlinks each competitor page has.
For example, you might discover that your competitors have an average of 10 backlinks from sites with an average DR of 50. To catch up with them, you would need to get the same amount.
But domain rating is on a logarithmic scale.
That means you don't necessarily need 10 backlinks from DR 50 websites.
You could get 5 links from DR 60 websites instead. Or 2-3 from DR 70 websites. You could get fewer links from higher-quality websites and still outpace your competitors.
With this knowledge, you're ready to start reaching out to those DR 50+ websites with link-building pitches.
How to Take the Broad Approach
The broad approach takes a different tack.
The goal here isn't to figure out how many links you'll need for your content. Instead, this method shows you what kinds of content you can create to attract new links over time. You can also use it to learn what sites link to sites that are the most like yours.
The steps below will guide you through running a keyword-based analysis of your competitors' backlinks.
1. Find Your Competitors by Similarity
Your competitors on Google are almost never the law firms in your city. The sites that you compete with for backlinks and positions on Google may be firms you've never heard of before.
Without a little research, your backlink analysis may miss out on important competitors.
You can use Ahrefs' Organic Competitor report to help you find the pages that are most similar to your own. Here's how:
When you know who your competitors are, you’re ready to start looking at the content that attracts the most backlinks to their sites.
2. Find Your Competitor's Backlinks
After you find your top competitors, you're ready to start inspecting their backlink profiles.
This step will require heavy filtering to get actionable insights. Ahrefs will show you every inbound link it can find for each competitor, which could be hundreds of thousands of links for some domains.
Follow the walkthrough below to see how to inspect and filter each competitor's backlink profile.
Note that the organic competitors report may list some sites that aren't exact analogs of yours.
For example, a report for lawyers might include legal directories in the list. Those aren't relevant when you run a backlinks analysis. To get an accurate picture of the content you should create, limit the competitors you inspect to other lawyer sites.
Repeat this process for each of your competitors.
3. Determine the Types of Content to Create
Now, you're ready to start surveying the types of content on competitors' sites that attract the most links.
The goal of this step is simple: Find the pages on your competitor's sites that have attracted links. Then, consider whether it makes sense for you to create a similar but better page.
The walkthrough below will give you an idea of how this process works.
You may be tempted to export each competitor's report and place it in a spreadsheet so you can take notes on what's working for them. Or you may just want to jot down notes and ideas as you look at what your competitors have.
There's just one thing you must check before you start creating new content like your competitors: link velocity.
Some pages attract links all at once, but the number of links they accumulate over time starts to dwindle.
This can happen because the page covers something timely or newsworthy. By the time you find it, it will almost never be worth emulating.
Look for pages that steadily acquire links over time.
Pages that continue to gain new links month after month are the best topics to cover for your link-building campaign.
Here's how you can identify these types of topics:
And that’s it. Once you’ve noted down some topics that interest you, you’re ready to start creating content and building links.
What to Do After Analyzing Backlinks
Analyzing your competitors' backlink profiles may be the end of this particular process, but it's just the beginning of building new links to your website.
Once you've seen what's working for others, you're ready to start planning your next steps.
Benchmarking Your Firm's Backlink Profile Against Competitors
Understanding where your law firm stands in comparison to your competitors in the digital landscape is invaluable for crafting an effective SEO and link-building strategy. Benchmarking your firm's backlink profile against those of your competitors provides a clear insight into your relative online authority and visibility.
Once you have gathered the data, analyze the key metrics. Compare the total number of backlinks, the diversity of the backlink profile (referring domains), and the authority of the websites linking back to your and your competitors' sites. Look for patterns or common sources of backlinks among the top performers that may be missing from your profile.
Based on your analysis, set realistic but ambitious goals for your firm’s backlink profile. These could include increasing the total number of backlinks, targeting backlinks from high-authority domains, or expanding the diversity of your backlink sources to match or exceed those of your key competitors.
Create Content to Attract Links
The backlink analysis shows you who's linking to your competitors and what they like to link to. That information should give you an idea of what might work for you.
Looking at what attracts links to your competitors can help you create a few different types of content.
In the first category, you have content that could replace what your competitors have. You might find that your competitors have an article that's out of date or inaccurate. This is a golden opportunity for you to create something better and get referring domains to link to you instead.
In the second category, you have the types of content that naturally attract links.
Linkable assets include things like detailed guides, data studies, original research, or unique thought leadership. It takes time to create this kind of content, but great content of this type is easier to pitch to referring domains.
Link Building Outreach
You didn't spend all this time finding out which sites link to your competitors just for fun.
Now, it's time for you to plan how you'll reach out to these referring domains.
Some referring domains may accept guest posts. You might reach out to the site owner to ask if they're interested in letting you write a post for their blog. These sites may let you link back to a relevant page on your own website.
You can also reach out to the referring domains you found in your competitor backlink analysis.
If you've created something that improves upon or updates a flaw in a competitor's page, contact the referring domain's webmaster. They may be willing to replace the backlink with one that points to your site instead.
The same goes for linkable assets. If you think the content you created fits in with what they tend to publish, you can ask webmasters, editorial teams, and site owners for a link.
Monitor Progress and Adjust Strategy
Regularly monitor your backlink profile and those of your competitors. Track your progress toward the goals you've set, and don’t hesitate to adjust your strategies based on what’s working. Celebrate the wins, learn from the misses, and continually strive to build a stronger, more authoritative online presence for your law firm.
By systematically tracking your firm’s backlink profile against competitors, you can gain strategic insights into your current standing, where you need to improve, and how to better position your firm in the competitive legal market. This approach paves the way for targeted, informed, and effective SEO strategies that drive visibility, authority, and, ultimately, client engagement.
Final Thoughts: Linking Everything Together
A competitor backlink analysis is a powerful tool for figuring out what's working for competitors that will translate to your own site.
It can help you figure out what type of content tends to get links. It's great for finding sites that like to link to sites just like yours. It can even inspire you to create new content.
But a backlink analysis is just one tool for starting an attorney's link-building campaign. It's just a sliver of a complete SEO checklist.
Creating new linkable content and reaching out to website owners for valuable backlinks is unfamiliar territory for most lawyers. And even doing the backlink analysis can be an uphill battle. The best choice for most law firms is to work with a law firm SEO expert to get real results.
At Rankings.io, we help elite personal injury firms get more high-value cases through search engine optimization. If you want to increase your backlinks, create great content, and bring in more leads, contact us today.
