Easy Tech TutsHow to Find Competitors Backlinks in Semrush Easily 2026
By Impran M NLast checked against official docs
Studying where your competitors get their backlinks is one of the fastest ways to find new link building opportunities. Someone else has already done the outreach work and proven those sites will link out.
This guide walks through Semrush's Backlink Analytics tool using a real competitor lookup: reading the overview numbers, digging into the raw backlink list, and filtering down to the links that matter most. It's aimed at anyone (blogger, in-house marketer, or agency researcher) who wants to reverse-engineer a competitor's link profile instead of guessing where to pitch next.
01Open Backlink Analytics and load a domain
In the Semrush sidebar, Backlink Analytics sits under Competitive Research (Semrush's current label for that section; older screenshots and guides may still call it Competitive Analysis). Type any competitor's root domain into the search box and hit Analyze.
Semrush pulls up an overview page headed with that domain, plus a note on how current the data is. Along the top sit the headline metrics, including referring domains, backlinks, monthly visits, and organic traffic, with a compare panel next to them where you can add up to four more domains side by side: five in total including the one you started with. Checking your own domain against a handful of rivals at once tells you quickly whether you're behind on links or just behind on content.
02Switch to the Backlinks tab for the raw link list
The overview gives you the scale of a competitor's link profile; the Backlinks tab gives you the actual links. Every backlink is listed with the source page's Authority Score, title, and URL, its external and internal link counts, the anchor text used, and the exact target URL it points to.
Two dates matter more than people expect: First Seen and Last Seen. A link with a recent Last Seen date is still live and passing value; one that stopped updating months ago may have been removed, and that's exactly the kind worth checking before you copy the same placement.
03Filter by follow type before you do anything else
Right above the link list sit quick filter tabs. One group covers link status: All, Active, New, Lost, with a time period selector for the New and Lost views.
The other covers attribute: Follow, Nofollow, Sponsored, UGC. This second group decides whether a link is even worth chasing for SEO purposes.
Follow links pass authority to the destination page; Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC tags tell search engines not to. If you're building an outreach list to replicate a competitor's link building, filter to Follow first. It narrows thousands of results down to the subset contributing to their rankings, instead of the review-site and comment links that just add noise.
04Add filters for referring domain, anchor text, and more
Click Add Filter next to the search box and Semrush opens a dropdown of additional fields: referring domain, anchor text, link type, IP address, page language, mobile optimization, and TLD zone, among others. Anchor text is worth filtering on specifically: it shows what phrases other sites use to link to your competitor, a direct signal of how the market perceives that page. It's useful both for spotting keyword opportunities and for noticing if a competitor's anchors look unnaturally clustered around one exact phrase.
05Sort by Authority Score to prioritize outreach
A large domain can have well over a million backlinks, so chasing every one isn't realistic. Click the Page AS column header to sort the list from highest to lowest authority score and work down from the top.
A handful of high-authority referring pages usually contribute more ranking value than hundreds of low-authority ones. This single sort turns an unmanageable list into a realistic weekly outreach target of maybe twenty to fifty sites.
06Run a Backlink Gap report to find what you're missing
The sidebar also lists a dedicated Backlink Gap tool under Competitive Research. Enter your own domain alongside up to four competitors and it returns a comparison table of every referring domain, flagging which ones link to your competitors but not to you. It's the most actionable output of the whole workflow: not just a list of links, but a list of sites that have already shown they'll link to businesses in your space, which makes cold outreach considerably warmer.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see every backlink a competitor has?
Semrush shows a large database of backlinks it has indexed, though it may not capture every single link that exists across the entire web.
What's the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?
Dofollow (Follow) links pass link equity that can help SEO. Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC links generally don't, though all of them can still bring referral traffic.
What is the Backlink Gap tool used for?
It compares your domain against up to four competitors to reveal referring domains linking to them but not to you, a ready-made outreach list.
How does Authority Score help prioritize link building?
Sorting the Backlinks tab by Page AS lets you focus on the handful of high-value referring pages first instead of working through a list that can run into the millions.
Should I filter by anchor text when researching a competitor?
Yes. The anchor text filter under Add Filter shows exactly what phrases other sites use to link to a competitor's pages, which surfaces keyword opportunities and can reveal over-optimized anchor patterns.
Sources and last check
Click path and screens come from a recorded walkthrough. Re-checked against Semrush's own knowledge base in September 2026: the sidebar section is labeled Competitive Research now, not Competitive Analysis as this guide previously said, and the domain comparison panel holds five domains total (yours plus up to four competitors), not three competitors as previously stated. The Active/New/Lost link-status filters were also added, since the original write-up covered only the Follow/Nofollow/Sponsored/UGC group.
About the author
Impran M N
I've been hooked on technology for as long as I can remember — especially the new tools and AI apps that seem to land every other week. Easy Tech Tuts is where I write up whatever I've just worked out: I do the task in the real product, record the screen, and turn it into the guide I wish I'd found first.
