How to find competitor backlinks in Ahrefs

Are you trying to discover where your competitors are getting their backlinks from? Using Ahrefs, you can quickly analyse a competitor’s backlink profile and uncover link-building opportunities for your own website. Follow these simple steps to find competitor backlinks in Ahrefs.

1. Log in to Ahrefs

Go to ahrefs.com and log in to your account.
From the main dashboard, locate the top navigation menu.

2. Open Site Explorer

Click on ‘Site Explorer’ in the top navigation bar.
This tool allows you to analyse any domain’s organic traffic and backlink profile.

3. Enter Your Competitor’s Domain

In the search bar, enter your competitor’s full domain (e.g., competitorwebsite.com).
Make sure you select the correct mode from the dropdown (e.g., ‘Domain’ or ‘Exact URL’).
Click the search button to run the analysis.

4. Navigate to the Backlinks Report

Once the overview page loads, look at the left-hand sidebar menu.
Under the ‘Backlink profile’ section, click on ‘Backlinks’.
This will show a full list of websites linking to your competitor.

5. Filter the Backlinks

Use the filters at the top of the report to refine results.
Filter by ‘Dofollow’ to see links that pass authority.
Adjust the ‘DR’ (Domain Rating) filter to find high-authority sites.
Use the language or platform filters if you’re targeting specific regions or site types.

6. Analyse Linking Pages

Review the ‘Referring page’ column to see the exact page linking to your competitor.
Check the ‘Anchor text’ column to understand how they are being linked.
Click on the number under ‘Links’ to see how many times that domain links to them.

7. Export the Backlink List

Once you’ve filtered the data, click the ‘Export’ button in the top-right corner.
Choose your preferred file format (e.g., CSV or Excel).
Download the file to analyse or share with your team.

8. Identify Link-Building Opportunities

Look for patterns such as guest posts, directories, or resource pages.
Identify websites that link to multiple competitors but not to you.
Add relevant sites to your outreach list for future link-building campaigns.

What is Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO toolset designed to help businesses analyse their website performance, research competitors, and improve search engine rankings. One of its core features is Site Explorer, which allows you to examine any domain’s backlink profile, organic traffic, and keyword rankings. Backlinks are a crucial ranking factor in SEO, and Ahrefs maintains one of the largest live backlink indexes available. This makes it particularly useful for competitor analysis. By entering a competitor’s domain into Ahrefs, you can see exactly which websites link to them, the anchor text used, and the authority of those referring domains. This insight helps you understand their link-building strategy and identify realistic opportunities for your own website. For beginners, Ahrefs provides a clear interface and filtering options that make backlink research both structured and actionable.

Benefits of using Ahrefs to find competitor backlinks

Using Ahrefs to analyse competitor backlinks gives you actionable SEO insights, not just raw data. It helps you uncover link-building opportunities, benchmark your authority, and refine your outreach strategy with confidence.

1. Discover proven link-building opportunities

Ahrefs allows you to see exactly where competitors are earning backlinks. Instead of guessing which websites might link to you, you can target domains that already link to similar businesses. This significantly increases your chances of securing relevant, high-quality backlinks that positively impact your rankings.

2. Analyse link quality and authority

With metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR), Ahrefs helps you evaluate the quality of referring domains. This ensures you focus your efforts on authoritative, trustworthy websites rather than low-quality links that could harm your SEO performance.

3. Understand competitor strategies

By reviewing anchor text, referring pages, and link types, you can identify patterns in your competitor’s SEO strategy. Whether they rely on guest posts, digital PR, directories, or partnerships, this insight helps you refine your own link-building approach more strategically.