Daily SEO Fix: Competitive Link Research – Moz

If SEO were a gym routine, competitive link research would be the part you “mean to do” but mysteriously skip when it’s time to sweat.
And then you wonder why your competitors keep outranking you with the effortless grace of someone who definitely remembers leg day.

The truth: competitors are leaving breadcrumbs all over the webpodcast guest spots, resource page mentions, “best tools” roundups, local sponsorships,
broken pages that still have backlinks… the whole buffet. Your job isn’t to copy them like a middle-schooler during a math test. Your job is to
reverse-engineer what worked, then earn similar (or better) links with smarter targeting and stronger content.

This “Daily SEO Fix” approach (Moz-style in spirit) turns link building from a dramatic quarterly panic into a calm, repeatable workflow.
Fifteen minutes a day won’t make you the SEO Thanos overnightbut it will stack wins, protect you from bad ideas, and keep your outreach list
full of prospects that already proved they link to sites like yours.

What Competitive Link Research Actually Is

Competitive link research is the practice of analyzing who links to your competitors (and why), identifying the patterns behind those links, and then
using that intel to build a prioritized, realistic link-building plan.

In plain English: you’re looking for validated opportunitieswebsites that already link to similar businesses, similar content, or similar
solutions. That’s the difference between “spray-and-pray outreach” and outreach that feels like you actually understand the internet.

Link gap analysis in one sentence

A link gap is a list of sites that link to your competitors but don’t link to you yetand that “yet” is your opening.

The Daily SEO Fix Mindset: Small Habits, Big Authority

Most link-building campaigns fail for boring reasons: the list is weak, the targeting is random, and the “strategy” is basically,
“Email 200 strangers and hope one is in a good mood.” Competitive link research fixes this by giving you a steady stream of
prospects and angles that match real-world behavior.

Daily doesn’t mean “do everything daily.” It means you build a lightweight rhythm:
scan, spot, sort, and save. Then once a week, you do deeper analysis and outreach prep.
The result is momentum without the burnout spiral.

The Moz-Flavored Workflow: Competitive Link Research in 15 Minutes a Day

Whether you’re using Moz Link Explorer, another backlink tool, or a mix, the steps stay pretty consistent.
Here’s the repeatable playbook.

Step 1: Identify your real competitors (hint: it’s not always your business rival)

For link research, your most useful competitors are often SERP competitorssites ranking for the keywords you want
even if they sell something different. A comparison blog, a niche directory, or a “best of” affiliate site might be the thing blocking you
more than the company you complain about in meetings.

• Pick 3–5 SERP competitors for your core topics.
• Include one “aspirational” competitor (slightly stronger than you) and one “peer” competitor (similar strength).
• Save them as a consistent set so your tracking stays apples-to-apples.

Step 2: Find the pages that earn them links (aka the “link magnets”)

Competitive link research gets powerful when you stop staring at entire domains and start analyzing specific pages.
Why? Because links usually happen for a reason: a guide, a tool, a dataset, a visual, a compelling opinion, or a timely story.

Your goal is to identify what types of pages attract backlinks in your niche:
original research, templates, tools, best-of lists,
beginner guides, calculators, or local/community resources.

Once you find those pages, ask:
“Could we build something better, more current, more useful, or more targeted?”
That question is the ethical version of stealing.

Step 3: Evaluate the linking sources (quality beats quantity)

Not all links are created equal, and your backlink tool will tempt you with shiny numbers. Resist.
Instead, evaluate link quality using a simple filter:

• Relevance: Is the linking site actually in your topic neighborhood?
• Editorial context: Is the link placed because the content is useful (not because someone paid for a sidebar link)?
• Placement: In-content links usually beat footer/blogroll links.
• Anchor text: Natural, descriptive anchors beat repetitive exact-match anchors.
• Risk signals: Obvious link farms, spun content sites, or weird “sponsored” patterns are a pass.

Competitive link research is not a license to chase spam. Search engines have been pretty consistent:
manipulative link schemes are a bad long-term bet. If a competitor is getting sketchy links, your takeaway is,
“Coollet’s not do that.”

Step 4: Run a link intersect (your fastest path to “warm” prospects)

This is the core move. A Link Intersect (or Backlink Gap / Link Gap, depending on the tool) identifies domains that link to
multiple competitors but not to you. These sites have already demonstrated they:

1. Link out in your niche.
2. Consider similar content “worthy” of a link.
3. Are not allergic to referencing other resources (a rare and beautiful trait).

Prioritize prospects that link to two or more competitors. One-competitor links can be flukes; two-competitor links are patterns.

Step 5: Turn link data into outreach angles (don’t just “ask for a link”)

A good outreach angle is a reason. Competitive link research gives you several:

• Broken link replacement: If a competitor’s linked page is 404 or outdated, offer a better replacement.
• Resource page inclusion: If they list competitors, pitch your stronger/updated alternative.
• Data upgrade: If competitors earned links from stats, publish fresher data and invite updates.
• Tool alternative: If they link to a tool, offer yours as an additional option with a unique feature.
• Unlinked brand mentions: If your brand is mentioned without a link, politely request attribution.

Your email should never be, “Hi, can I have a backlink?” That’s not outreach; that’s a toddler asking for candy.
Your email should be, “Hey, noticed you referenced X. That resource is now outdated/broken/limited.
Here’s a stronger option your readers might prefer.”

Step 6: Track new and lost links (because link building includes link keeping)

Competitors don’t just build linksthey monitor them. New links show what’s working right now; lost links show what needs repair.
If you earn a great link and the page later changes, redirects, or removes your mention, you want to catch it quickly.

A weekly “new and lost” review is often enoughdaily for very competitive niches or launches.

Anchor Text: The Quiet Signal People Mess Up Loudly

Anchor text is the clickable text of a link, and it’s a hint about what the linked page is about.
It’s also one of the easiest ways to accidentally look manipulative.

Competitive link research helps here because you can analyze competitor anchor patterns:
Are they earning mostly branded anchors? URL anchors? Topic anchors? Product anchors?
A natural profile usually has variety.

Your goal isn’t to force anchor textit’s to earn links where the anchor naturally fits the sentence.
If you’re “requesting exact match anchors,” you’re basically writing a penalty love letter.

A Practical Example: Competitive Link Research for a Local SaaS Brand

Let’s say you run Acme Scheduling, a scheduling tool for medical clinics.
You’re trying to rank for “patient appointment scheduling software” and related queries.
Here’s how the workflow looks with real-world decisions.

1) Pick competitors

• A direct competitor in your market (similar product).
• A broader competitor (general scheduling software).
• A SERP competitor (a “best scheduling tools” site ranking above you).
• An adjacent competitor (practice management platform that ranks for your terms).

2) Identify their link magnets

You find that competitors earn links to:

• A “HIPAA scheduling checklist” guide
• A calculator (“time saved per week with online scheduling”)
• A yearly industry stats post (“patient no-show rates by specialty”)
• A directory page (“Top appointment scheduling tools for clinics”)

That tells you what to build: not another generic product page. You need at least one linkable asset that’s specific,
useful, and easy for other sites to cite.

3) Run a link intersect and prioritize

Your intersect report reveals 120 domains linking to 2+ competitors but not you. After filtering for relevance,
you find three high-yield buckets:

• Healthcare associations that maintain vendor/resource pages
• Clinic consulting firms that publish “recommended tools” lists
• Health-tech bloggers who frequently update comparison posts

4) Outreach with an angle

Instead of begging for links, you pitch:

• Your new HIPAA checklist as a direct replacement for an older, thinner competitor post
• A stats update for bloggers with outdated numbers
• An “add us as an additional option” pitch where the page already lists competitors

Suddenly your outreach isn’t randomit’s a targeted, value-based request with a clear reason to update the page.

Common Mistakes That Make Competitive Link Research Useless

Mistake #1: Collecting backlinks like Pokémon

“Gotta catch ’em all” is not a link strategy. Focus on links that match your topical niche, build trust, and are earned editorially.
A smaller list of high-fit prospects beats a massive list of “maybe” sites every time.

Mistake #2: Worshipping a single metric

Domain-level authority metrics are helpful for quick triage, but they’re not the whole story.
A relevant link from a smaller niche publication can outperform a random link from a big site that has nothing to do with your topic.

Mistake #3: Copying competitors’ spam

If a competitor is using manipulative tactics, your correct response is not imitation.
It’s building a durable strategy rooted in useful content, legitimate mentions, and real partnerships.

Mistake #4: Doing research and never shipping anything

Competitive research is a map. It is not the road. If you aren’t turning insights into:
a new asset, an update, an outreach list, or a partnershipthen you’re just collecting trivia.

Your “Daily SEO Fix” Checklist

Daily (10–15 minutes)

1. Check one competitor’s newest links or mentions.
2. Save 5–10 promising prospects (with notes on why they linked).
3. Tag opportunities: broken link, resource page, list post, data citation, partnership.

Weekly (60–90 minutes)

1. Run a link intersect / backlink gap refresh.
2. Filter and prioritize your top 20 prospects.
3. Create or update one linkable asset (or improve an existing one).
4. Send outreach in small, personalized batches.
5. Review new/lost links and reclaim easy wins.

Field Notes: of Real-World Experience With Daily Competitive Link Research

Practitioners who commit to daily competitive link research usually experience a weird emotional journey that starts with:
“This is easy, I’ll do it every day,” and ends with: “Wow, why did I wait so long to treat link building like a system?”
The first week is mostly discovery. You realize competitors aren’t “magically better”they’re just consistently showing up in the right places.
You start spotting repeating domains: the same industry blogs, the same resource hubs, the same local orgs, the same newsletters that love linking out.
It’s like turning on a blacklight in a hotel room (informative, slightly horrifying, but ultimately useful).

Week two is when the pattern recognition kicks in. You stop focusing on individual backlinks and start seeing link types.
“Oh, they’re getting links from outdated comparison posts.” “Oh, they sponsor events and end up on partner pages.”
“Oh, their best links point to a calculator, not their homepage.” That’s where the “Daily SEO Fix” method pays off:
you’re not building a listyou’re building a playbook. And the playbook tells you what to create next.
Most teams notice that a single good linkable asset (a benchmark report, a checklist, a tool, a template) can outperform
dozens of generic guest posts because it gives other sites an easy reason to cite you.

By week three, you become pickierin the best way. Early on, it’s tempting to think, “Any link is a good link.”
But once you’ve reviewed hundreds of competitor backlinks, you can smell low-quality placements instantly:
thin blogs with no audience, weird network patterns, or pages where every outbound link screams “paid.”
People who stick with the routine usually start filtering harder for relevance and editorial context, which improves response rates.
Outreach gets less awkward too, because you’re no longer asking for favorsyou’re offering updates, replacements, and genuinely better resources.
In practice, the emails that win are the ones that make the site owner’s job easier: fixing a broken link, refreshing old stats,
adding a missing category, or improving a “best tools” list with a clearly differentiated option.

Around day 30, the biggest shift is strategic: you stop seeing link building as “a campaign” and start seeing it as
“distribution for the best content we can produce.” Competitive link research becomes less about spying and more about serving:
which communities link out, what format they prefer, how often they update, and what they consider trustworthy.
The teams that win long-term don’t just match competitor linksthey earn links competitors can’t get because their content is
more current, more specific, more useful, and easier to reference. That’s the real daily fix:
not chasing backlinks, but building reasons people want to link to you.

Conclusion

Competitive link research is the simplest way to stop guessing and start building links with intent.
Done daily, it becomes a compounding advantage: you discover proven prospects, learn what content earns citations,
avoid risky tactics, and keep your outreach pipeline stocked with “warm” opportunities.
Whether you do it inside Moz tools or elsewhere, the winning formula stays the same:
analyze patterns, build linkable assets, and pitch updates that help real readers.