Acting on New Competitor Backlinks
Competitor Watch has told you that a rival picked up a new backlink. That alert is a lead, not an instruction. Some new links are from journalists, trade bodies or local organisations who might happily mention you too. Many others are directory listings, paid placements, sponsored posts or scraped copies that are worth nothing to you.
This guide shows you how to open the linking page, work out how the link was earned, check whether it carries any weight, and decide in a few minutes whether to pitch the same source, build something better for it, or simply log it and move on.
This is how to check competitors backlinks when an alert fires: open the linking page first and judge why it links.
- What a new backlink alert actually tells you
- The common kinds of competitor link and what each one means for you
- Checking a link properly before you spend time on it
- The fix, step by step
- What a good pitch looks like
- Where your offer should live on your own site
- Edge cases and traps
- Making backlink alerts a routine rather than a distraction
- Questions and answers
What a new backlink alert actually tells you
A backlink alert says that a page somewhere on the web now contains a link pointing at one of your competitor's pages, and that the link was not there when the previous check ran. That is all it says. It does not tell you whether the link was bought, begged, earned or scraped, whether a search engine will give it any weight, or whether the same site would ever be interested in your business.
It is easy to treat every new link as a threat, because links are one of the signals search engines use to judge which pages deserve to rank. In practice, a single link rarely moves rankings on its own, and a large share of the links any site picks up are low-value: automated directories, scraper sites that copy content wholesale, forum signatures and profile pages. The useful minority are links a real person chose to place because the competitor had something worth pointing at. Those are the ones you want to understand, because the same person may have a reason to point at you.
So the job is not to "match" a rival's links one for one. It is to spot the handful of sources that write about businesses like yours, understand what made them link, and decide whether you can offer them something at least as useful.
The common kinds of competitor link and what each one means for you
Most new links fall into one of the categories below. Classifying the link first saves you from pitching sites that could never cover you and from ignoring the few that would.
| Link type | How to recognise it | Worth pursuing? |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial mention in an article | The link sits inside the body copy of a news story, blog post or feature, and the writer is quoting, citing or recommending the competitor. | Often. Find out who wrote it and what they cover. |
| Resource or "best of" list | A roundup of tools, suppliers or local businesses, often updated periodically. | Yes, if you genuinely fit the list. These editors expect suggestions. |
| Trade body, association or awards page | A member directory, accreditation list, sponsor page or shortlist. | Only if you qualify on the same terms. Joining for the link alone is poor value. |
| Local organisation or community page | A school, charity, club or council page thanking a supporter or listing local services. | Sometimes, if you have a genuine local connection. |
| Guest article by the competitor | The competitor's own staff wrote the piece and linked back in the author box or body. | Possibly. The site accepts contributors; check its guidelines. |
| Sponsored or advertorial post | Labelled "sponsored", "in partnership with" or "advertisement",
or carrying rel="sponsored". | Rarely. It was paid for and passes no ranking credit. |
| Directory or citation site | A business listing with name, address and phone number. | Only the major, relevant ones, and mainly for local visibility. |
| Scraper, spam or auto-generated page | Copied text, nonsense content, many unrelated outbound links, no author. | No. Ignore it completely. |
If you cannot tell which category a link belongs to within a minute or two of reading the page, it is usually a low-value one. Genuine editorial links are obvious because a human being has written around them.
Checking a link properly before you spend time on it
Three quick checks tell you whether a link is real, whether it is likely to count, and whether the page will still be there next month.
1. Is the link actually on the page?
Open the source address in a normal browser window. Use your browser's find function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to search for the competitor's domain. If you cannot see it, the link may be inside a tab, an accordion, a comments section that has not loaded, or it may already have been removed. Right-click the page and choose "View page source", then search again. If it is in the source but not visible, it may have been added by a template or hidden, which reduces its likely value.
2. What does the link tag say?
In the page source, find the <a> tag that points at the competitor and look for a rel attribute.
<a href="https://rival.example.com/guide">useful guide</a>
<a href="https://rival.example.com/" rel="sponsored">Rival Ltd</a>
<a href="https://rival.example.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">rival.example.com</a>The first is a plain editorial link. The second has been declared as paid or sponsored. The third
is marked as a link the site does not vouch for, typically in user-generated content such as forum posts
and comments. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints
rather than strict rules, but in practice links carrying them are far less likely to help rankings. They
can still send visitors, which is worth something if the page is popular with your customers.
3. Is the source page indexed and alive?
Check the source page's own <meta name="robots"> tag for noindex,
and look at whether it has a sensible canonical tag pointing to itself. A page that is set to noindex,
or canonicalised to another address, is less likely to pass value. You can also search for a distinctive
sentence from the page in quotation marks to see whether it appears in search results at all.
The fix, step by step
Step 1
Open the linking page and read the context
Open the source address from the Competitor Watch alert and read the paragraph around the link, not just the anchor text. Note what the writer was trying to say, which of the rival's pages they chose to point at, when the piece was published, and who wrote it. A link to a competitor's pricing calculator inside a buying guide tells you something very different from a logo in a sponsors strip, so record the context in one plain sentence before going further.
Step 2
Work out how the link was earned
Put the link into one of the familiar categories: an editorial citation, a resource list, a membership or awards page, a local community page, a guest article written by the competitor, a sponsored post, a directory entry, or a scraper page. Look for labels such as sponsored or partner, an author box belonging to the competitor, or a membership badge. If the page is obviously spam or scraped, stop here, mark it as ignored in your log and move on to the next alert.
Step 3
Check the link attributes and whether the page is live
View the page source and search for the rival's domain to find the anchor tag.
Note whether it carries rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc",
and check the page head for a noindex robots tag or a canonical pointing somewhere else.
Search for a distinctive quoted sentence from the article to confirm the page is actually in search results.
A marked or unindexed link can still bring visitors, but it should drop down your priority list.
Step 4
Decide whether this source would ever cite you
Look at what else the site has linked to over the last year. If it regularly covers businesses of your type, size and location, it is a realistic prospect. If it only covered the competitor because of a partnership, a sponsorship or a personal connection, it probably is not. Ask one honest question: would a reader of this page be better served if you were mentioned too? If the answer is no, log the decision and stop rather than sending a pitch nobody wants.
Step 5
Prepare a reason to be included
Editors add links when doing so improves their page. Work out what you can offer that the competitor did not: more recent figures, a free tool, a clearer explainer, a local angle, a quote from someone with direct experience, or simply a correction to something now out of date. If you do not yet have anything suitable, add the source to a list for when you do, and note which of your planned pages would give you a genuine reason to get in touch later.
Step 6
Send one short, specific pitch
Find the writer or editor responsible for the page, using the author byline or the site contact page, and send a brief personal message. Name the exact article, say what your resource adds in one or two sentences, include one link, and make it easy to say no. Do not offer payment for a followed link, do not ask them to remove the competitor, and do not send automated follow-up sequences. One polite follow-up after a week or so is plenty.
Step 7
Log the result and set a recheck
Record the source, link type, attributes, your decision and the outcome in a simple spreadsheet so you can see patterns over time. Set a reminder to look again in about three months, because resource lists are refreshed and journalists return to the same subjects. After a few months, sort the log by link type: if most useful links come from one kind of source, such as local press or trade roundups, put your effort into that channel directly.
What a good pitch looks like
The best outreach messages are short enough to read on a phone and specific enough that the recipient can tell you actually read their page. Here is an example from a fictional heating engineer, Brightwell Heating, writing to the editor of a local homeowners' guide that had just linked to a rival's boiler servicing checklist.
Subject: Your boiler servicing guide - an updated checklist for 2026
Hi Sam,
I read your guide to preparing a home for winter on example.co.uk and
found the section on boiler servicing really clear.
We have just published a free servicing checklist that also covers
heat pumps and hybrid systems, which your readers may be asking about:
https://brightwell.example.com/servicing-checklist
If it would be useful alongside the existing link, please feel free
to use it. No worries at all if not.
Thanks,
Alex, Brightwell HeatingNotice what it does not do. It does not ask for the competitor to be removed, it does not claim to be "the best", it does not attach a media kit, and it does not offer money. It gives one reason and one link. If you send ten of these a month to carefully chosen sources, you will learn more than you would from a hundred template emails.
Where your offer should live on your own site
A pitch is only as good as the page you point at. Before you send it, make sure the destination is something an editor would be comfortable linking to.
- WordPress: publish linkable resources as pages rather than posts if they are evergreen, so they are not buried by date in your blog archive. Keep the address short and free of dates so it can be updated without breaking existing links.
- Shopify: buying guides and care instructions usually work best as blog articles or standalone pages, not as product descriptions. Link from the guide to relevant collections, rather than making the guide itself a sales page.
- Custom and static sites: give resources their own permanent address, a clear title and a visible "last updated" date. If you move the page later, set a permanent 301 redirect so any links you have earned still reach it.
Whatever the platform, the page should load quickly, work on a phone, contain no pop-up that blocks the content for a first-time visitor, and make sense to someone who has never heard of you. Editors check before they link.
Edge cases and traps
- A sudden burst of links from unrelated sites. This is usually spam, a scraper network or a negative SEO attempt aimed at the competitor, not a strategy. It needs no response from you.
- Links from the competitor's own network. If the new links come from sister brands, a parent company or sites they own, you cannot and should not replicate them.
- A link from a site that also links to you. Check the page that mentions you is still live and accurate. If the competitor has been added to a list you were already on, make sure your own entry is current.
- Unlinked mentions. Sometimes the alert reveals a site that mentions your brand without linking to you. A polite note asking whether they would add a link is reasonable and often welcomed.
- Coverage of a news event. If a journalist linked to the competitor while reporting news, the chance has passed. Note the journalist and the topic and offer a useful comment next time the subject comes up.
You do not need to disavow links pointing at your competitors, and you should not worry that their links somehow harm you. Search engines assess each site's link profile separately.
Making backlink alerts a routine rather than a distraction
Treat backlink alerts as a weekly prospecting list. Set aside a fixed half hour, review the week's new links using the classification above, and aim to leave the session with no more than two or three genuine prospects. Everything else goes into the log as ignored, with a word explaining why.
Over a quarter, the log will show you which types of site cite businesses in your market and what kind of asset they link to. That is far more valuable than any single link, because it tells you what to make next. If the pattern is that local journalists cite rivals' price surveys, a short annual survey of your own may be worth doing. If trade roundups dominate, keep a list of editors and the months they refresh their lists.
For a broader view of your own link profile and how to build links deliberately, see the Backlinks Guide and the guide to acquiring backlinks through outreach.
1. Should I try to get a link from every site that links to my competitor?
No. Most of the links a competitor picks up are directory listings, scraped copies, sponsored posts or pages from their own network, and none of those are realistic or worthwhile targets. The useful minority are editorial links from sites that regularly cover businesses like yours. Classify each new link first, then pursue only the sources where a reader would genuinely benefit from also seeing you, and where you have something specific to offer them.
2. Does a nofollow or sponsored link to my competitor matter?
It matters less than a plain editorial link. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc attributes as hints rather than strict rules, so such links may carry little or no ranking weight. They can still send real visitors if the page is popular with your audience, and they can reveal which publications and communities your customers read. Keep them in your log for context, but put pitches to sites that give editorial, unmarked links higher up your list.
3. How can I tell if a competitor paid for a link?
Look for labels such as sponsored, advertisement, promoted or in partnership with, a rel attribute of sponsored, or a page that exists only to promote one business with little other content. Some paid links are not labelled, and you cannot always prove it. If a link looks bought, the right response is to ignore it. Paying for links that pass ranking credit is against Google's spam policies, and copying the tactic puts your own site at risk.
4. Is it acceptable to ask a site to add my business next to a competitor?
Yes, provided the request is polite, relevant and honest. Editors who maintain resource lists and buying guides often welcome suggestions that make their pages more complete. Explain briefly why your business or resource belongs there and let them decide. Do not ask them to remove the competitor, do not offer payment for a followed link, and do not keep chasing. A single follow-up after a week is reasonable; after that, move on.
5. What if the competitor's new link is from a news story?
News coverage is usually tied to a moment, so asking to be added after the event rarely works. Instead, note the journalist, the publication and the subject. The next time that topic is in the news, you can offer a short, useful comment or a relevant piece of data. Journalists appreciate sources who respond quickly with something concrete, and over time that relationship is worth far more than one retrospective link request.
6. Can a competitor's new links hurt my rankings?
Not directly. Search engines judge each site's links separately, so a rival gaining links does not take anything away from yours. What can happen is that their page becomes stronger for a query you share and moves above you. If that is happening, the keyword gains guide shows how to work out whether links, content or something else caused the change, and what a proportionate response looks like for the queries that matter to your business.
7. How long should I wait before rechecking a link opportunity?
About three months is a sensible default. Resource lists and buying guides are often refreshed on a quarterly or annual cycle, journalists return to recurring subjects, and your own site may have gained a better asset to offer in the meantime. Set a reminder in your log for each prospect you decided not to pitch yet. When you recheck, confirm the page still exists and still links to the competitor before getting in touch.
Competitor Watch tracks the competitors you name for new content, backlinks, schema changes, page redesigns, pricing, keyword rankings, product launches and tech changes, so you can decide calmly which new links are worth following up.
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