If you have ever wondered why a competitor with a similar product and similar content keeps outranking you, the answer is usually not their content. It is their backlinks.
A competitor backlink gap analysis shows you exactly which websites link to your competitors but not to you. For SaaS companies, this single report often reveals more actionable link building opportunities than weeks of cold outreach guesswork — because you already know these sites link to companies like yours.
This guide walks through the complete process: choosing the right competitors, running the report, separating real opportunities from noise, and turning that data into actual placements.
What Is a Backlink Gap Analysis (and Why SaaS Teams Can’t Skip It)
A backlink gap analysis compares your site’s referring domains against two to five competitors and surfaces the domains linking to them but not to you. Each of those domains is, by definition, a site that has already agreed to link to a company in your exact space — which makes them dramatically easier to pitch than a cold, unqualified prospect.
For SaaS specifically, this matters more than in most industries. SaaS buyers research heavily before signing up — comparison articles, “best tools for X” roundups, integration directories, and review platforms all influence the decision. If your competitors are the ones showing up in that content and you are not, a gap analysis is how you find out exactly where.
The Tools You Need Before You Start
You do not need an expensive stack to run a useful gap analysis.
Semrush — has a dedicated Backlink Gap tool that compares up to five domains side by side. This is the fastest way to run the report described below.
Ahrefs — Site Explorer’s “Link Intersect” feature does the same job with slightly different metrics (Domain Rating instead of Authority Score).
A spreadsheet — for filtering, scoring, and tracking outreach once you have exported the raw data. Do not skip this step; raw exports from either tool are too noisy to work from directly.
Step-by-Step: Running Your First Backlink Gap Analysis
Step 1 — Choose the Right Competitors
Pick two to four competitors that are close to your actual size and audience — not the market leader with a ten-year head start, and not a company far smaller than you. If you compare yourself only to a dominant player, most of the report will be sites you have no realistic shot at yet. Mix one aspirational competitor with two or three realistic ones.
Step 2 — Run the Gap Report
Enter your domain plus your competitor domains into the Backlink Gap or Link Intersect tool. Set the filter so it shows domains linking to at least two of your competitors but not to you — this single filter removes a huge amount of noise and surfaces the sites most likely to accept your pitch too, since they clearly link to more than one company in the space.
Step 3 — Filter for Quality, Not Just Quantity
A raw export can easily contain 500+ rows. Filter out:
- Domains with near-zero organic traffic (check the traffic column, not just DR/Authority Score)
- Directory or citation sites with no editorial content
- Domains completely unrelated to SaaS, tech, or B2B (a random lifestyle blog that happens to link to a competitor’s footer is not a real opportunity)
What should remain is a shorter list of blogs, review sites, and publications with real audiences and genuine topical relevance.
Step 4 — Prioritize by Opportunity Score
Score each remaining domain on three factors: authority (DR or Authority Score), relevance (how closely their content matches your niche), and traffic (are real people reading this site). A DR 35 site with strong SaaS relevance and real traffic is a better target than a DR 70 site with no organic visibility and no topical connection to what you do.
Step 5 — Build Your Outreach List
Group your final list by the type of link opportunity: guest post candidates, resource/listicle pages that could add you, and broken or outdated links you could replace. Each type needs a different pitch, so keep them separate rather than sending one generic email to the whole list.
Reading the Data — What Actually Matters
It is easy to get distracted by the sheer volume of a gap report. Two numbers matter more than the rest: how many of the gap domains link to multiple competitors (a strong relevance signal), and how many of those domains have meaningful organic traffic of their own. A domain that sends real visitors is valuable even before you factor in the SEO benefit — the referral traffic alone can justify the outreach effort.
Ignore vanity metrics like total referring domain count for a competitor. A competitor with 4,000 low-quality directory links is not necessarily ahead of you — check how many of those links come from sites with real traffic and topical relevance before assuming you are behind.
Turning Gaps Into Links (Execution)
Once you have a prioritized list, the execution channel depends on the opportunity type:
Guest post candidates — pitch a genuinely useful, original article idea. Our guest posting sites list is a good starting reference if any of your gap-analysis targets overlap with known guest-friendly publications.
Resource/listicle pages — a short, specific email asking to be added, referencing exactly why you fit the existing list, converts far better than a generic pitch.
Broken or outdated competitor links — if a gap-analysis domain links to a competitor’s page that no longer exists or is outdated, this is a broken-link-building opportunity: offer your equivalent (and better) resource as the replacement.
Whichever channel you use, do not rush all the outreach in a single week. A gradual, natural pace across four to six weeks produces a healthier link profile than a single burst.
Tracking Results Over Time
A gap analysis is not a one-time report — competitors keep earning new links every month, and yesterday’s gap list goes stale quickly. Re-run the analysis monthly or quarterly, and use a backlink monitoring tool alongside it to confirm which of your outreach targets actually went live, track whether they stay live, and catch any links that get removed after a few months (which happens more often than most SEOs admit).
Common Mistakes in Backlink Gap Analysis
Comparing against the wrong competitors. Comparing yourself only to companies far bigger than you produces a list of opportunities you cannot realistically win yet.
Treating every gap domain as equal. Not every domain linking to a competitor is worth pursuing — a low-traffic, low-relevance site is not a real opportunity just because it appears in the export.
Running the analysis once and never again. Competitor backlink profiles change monthly. A gap analysis from six months ago is already outdated.
Skipping the traffic check. Authority scores can be manipulated or simply misleading. Real organic traffic is a much harder metric to fake and a better quality signal.
How Often Should You Run a Gap Analysis?
For an active link building program, run a full gap analysis quarterly and a lighter refresh monthly — just checking for new referring domains your competitors have picked up since the last full run. This keeps your outreach list current without requiring a complete rebuild every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many competitors should I include in a backlink gap analysis? Two to four is the practical sweet spot. Semrush’s Backlink Gap tool supports up to five domains, but including too many competitors dilutes the “linked to multiple competitors” filter that makes the report useful in the first place.
Is a backlink gap analysis useful for a brand-new SaaS site with zero authority? Yes — arguably more useful than for an established site, since it gives a brand-new domain a prioritized, realistic starting list instead of cold, unqualified outreach.
What’s the difference between a backlink gap analysis and a general backlink audit? A backlink audit reviews your own existing backlink profile for quality and toxic links. A gap analysis compares your profile against competitors to find links you are missing. Both are useful, but they answer different questions.
Can I do a backlink gap analysis without a paid tool? Free backlink checkers can approximate the process, but the quality and completeness of the data is significantly lower than Semrush or Ahrefs. For a serious campaign, the paid tools pay for themselves quickly in outreach time saved.
How long does it take to convert a gap-analysis list into live links? Expect a similar timeline to any outreach campaign: 3-6 weeks for initial placements, with some slower responses (especially from higher-authority publications) extending that to 8-10 weeks.
Conclusion
A backlink gap analysis is one of the highest-leverage exercises in SaaS link building because it replaces guesswork with a prioritized, evidence-based list of sites that have already proven they link to companies like yours. Run it quarterly, filter ruthlessly for relevance and real traffic, and track what actually converts to live links over time.
For a complete managed approach that includes ongoing competitor gap analysis as part of your monthly link building program, explore our SaaS link building services.
Start building. Stay consistent. Results will follow.
