Tactics Tactics. Tactics. It is all about tactics!
In the world of marketing, or business in general, the tactic is a very big word. For a beginner a valid tactic means everything!
It is hard to stay original in an already developed and overused marketplace. There are literally too many companies trying to do the same thing!
So yes, if you somehow succeed in being original, everything will work out for you.
However, even then you will not have everything to yourself. Another strong word in the world of business is competition.
They are the ones that are trying to beat you, and you should be trying to beat them. Never make the mistake of thinking that you can simply work with them. No! You must beat them if you want the upper hand.
With that being said, here, in this article, I will be talking about one way of beating your opponent with nothing else than his own methods.
These methods may also improve Google rankings of your website.
Before we begin, there are some terms that you need to be familiar with.
Let’s check them first.
BACKLINK – Everything will be based on backlinks. A backlink is basically a link to a website, placed on another website. This is an excellent tool for marketing and popularity increase. Also, it is a fantastic way of boosting a site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rankings.
So, in this article, I will be showing you how to use your competitor’s backlinks in your favor, or against them.
Whatever you want to call it. Let’s dig in.
Top 5 Methods That Will Uncover Your Opponent’s Link Building Strategies
Before we even begin this, you must get the following: It is pointless to read the rest of the article without figuring out who your top competitors are.
If you don’t know their names and their sites, first think about that. Find their URL’s, put them on a spreadsheet, do some digging about them and then come back to this article. Deal?
Now that you know who you are up against, we may proceed.
1. Keep track of your competitor’s backlinks and stay alerted to his mentions
The first one is as important as the rest of the points I will bring today. You absolutely must keep track of your opponent’s backlinks. There are two reasons for this.
First, you will be able to react quickly because you will always be ready and noted.
Secondly, you may realize a certain behavior pattern that your opponent may have. That would make life easy for you.
So how can you do this?
Set Up Alerts for Backlinks
To set up an alert for backlinks, you will need some of the following tools: Ahrefs, SEO Spyglass, Raven Tools, Open Site Explorer.
There are more tools that you may use, but currently, these are the best. Pick one that you would like working on and begin. Personally, I find Ahrefs pretty solid so we will be working on Ahrefs here.
Here is the setup path: Alerts-Backlinks-New Alert = Put in your competitor’s URL and choose the time interval for e-mails.
What we have done here is we have set up a system that will send us e-mails whenever our competitor is putting up a backlink. It’s a pretty handy tool, right?
2. Keep track of your competitor’s brand mentions
In order to do this, we will also be using Ahrefs Alerts tool again. This is the path you have to take in order to set things up and running: Alerts-Mentions-New Alert.
So, we will set up a tool that will monitor your competitor’s brand names and where and when they have been mentioned.
What I would recommend when you are doing this, is to try and find more links that are connected mutually. Or just try and find links that lead to more than one of your competitors. This will be a goldmine.
How can you do this, you ask? Again, very simple – using Ahrefs’ Link Intersect Tool.
Here is what you must do:
You have to enter your competitor’s domains. This is how you do it: Tools – Link Intersect – Enter Domains. Plain and simple.
Now that you have entered their domains, Ahref will return a report.
That report will show you everything; domain names, DR, where they are leading to etc.
You can view individual links by clicking on the numbers.
3. Make gold out of “junk”
First of all, if you find a link leading to a forum, don’t throw it away. People usually make a mistake of thinking that forum is old-fashioned junk. That isn’t true.
Your customers will be on forums. Guess what, so will your competitors. That’s an excellent place for you to be in as well.
Now, here’s what we are going to do.
Let’s run the search with the Intersect Tool in order to find sites that are linking to any of the found domains.
You will do it like this: Tools – Link Intersect – Enter Domains – Set To Any of the Below Targets
So, after we have tried this out, Ahref will give us the same report, only this time, there will be more results. Also, Ahref will return them sorted out based on the number of intersects!
4. Study the report that has been given to you
Now, all that you have to do is work your way through the results that Ahref has given you.
This may be boring and long, but the better you are prepared, the better your chances of success will be.
Once you start, I am sure you will find plenty of chances for link building opportunities.
5. Monitor your competitor’s guest posts
Guest blogging is still one of the purest, cleanest ways of creating links to your sites that will boost authority.
To be honest, your competitor’s links are mostly made out of this.
So, how can we find this out?
There are a few methods for this.
Method 1: GOOGLE SEARCH
You can use your Google search queries. What you may try in your browser, is the following:
“Your competitor’s name” + “Guest post” –site: yourcompetitor’sdomain.com
Fill what I have told you and put it exactly as you see it in your browser. The “+” as well!
You will get good results from it.
Method 2: Looking for pages
To be honest, this is also a Google search query, but what the heck.
The method should be practiced the same as earlier, only this time we should be typing:
“Competitor’s name” + inurl:author
Yep, exactly like that. Just enter the name and the “inurl:author” part should remain the same.
NOTE:
One of the greatest things you may do is find link hubs. Why is this so great, you may ask? Well, with link hubs you will get to know the topic niches.
So, if you find forums like I have already said, don’t skip over them. If you stick around you may even find something more useful than anything we have mentioned before.
Also, what you may find, besides from forums, is the following:
-News sites
– Blogs about your industry
(blogger outreach is an excellent way of promotion)
– Portals about specific industries
– Quality directories about a specific industry
Why should you monitor these places? Well, think of it for yourself! This is where you will find your future potential customers.
Wouldn’t it be great if you can promote your company and brand at the place that is crowded with people who are interested in the things you are selling?
Of course, it would be great! So, check where those places are for yourself, or find where your competitors are posting their links and beat them to it.
Remember, it is all about speed and reaction.
If your opponent is using a forum, portal or some other site to promote himself, and if he is left there with no competition all by himself, people will be checking what he has to offer.
Get yourself over there and get your fair share of customers. If you find a place that isn’t explored by your competitors, hurry up and set yourself up!
The Final Verdict
Well, we have come to an end of this article. This is where my knowledge ends, at least for now.
I have shown you the easiest ways to how you can uncover your opponent’s link building strategies and promote yourself through them.
If you can find a behavior pattern that your rival is using on purpose, or without purpose, the better it will be for you. That way, you will already know when he will be making his next move and what that move is going to be.
So, gather up your knowledge about it and keep your ears and eyes open! This may boost your success rates!
After all, has been said and done, I hope you have enjoyed this article and learned something new and helpful. Until next time!
