The Copycat Technique

By researching your competitors, you’ll be able to uncover hundreds (if not thousands) of potential link opportunities.

Here’s how to do it:

• Find competitors URLs
• Extract their backlinks (using Ahrefs/OSE/Majestic/etc)
• Sift through the results to find the best link opportunities

First, open Simple SERP Scraper and enter a keyword that you’re looking to rank for (e.g. “Miami plumbers”):

[ecko_wide][/ecko_wide]

Click “Scrape.”

Note: Make sure to set “Number of results” to “100”, and “Number of pages” to “1”.

Now, you should have a spreadsheet of the results that looks something like this:

[ecko_wide][/ecko_wide]

Next, copy all the URLs and paste them into Ahrefs Batch Analysis tool:

[ecko_wide][/ecko_wide]

Download the .csv file and open it using Excel (or Google Sheets).

It’s now a case of sifting through the links to find the best opportunities.

Finding the “best” opportunities will always be subjective, and there are a million ways to sift through the data in Excel.

However, here’s a basic method:

1. Sort the data by Ahrefs rank
2. Open up each link individually in the browser
3. Make a note of any links that appear easily replicable

While a random news link on Forbes may be virtually impossible to replicate, other types of links such as guest posts, directory listings, web 2.0 profiles all provide opportunity.

Here’s how:

• Guest posts: If your competitors have written a guest post for a site, chances are that you can write a guest post there too. Reach out to the site (via email) and pitch an idea for a contribution.
• Directory Listings: Head over to the directory and look for a “Submit a listing” page (or something along those lines). While some directories are paid, many will be free and links can be added in seconds.
• Other….

You can rinse and repeat for multiple keywords and pages; just start the process again.

Tip: You don’t have to limit yourself to direct competitors, you can also look at indirect competitors (e.g. if you sell jeans, look at how t-shirt sellers are getting links), other sites in your geographical area (e.g. other local businesses), or even other ecommerce sites.

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