How to Ethically Spy On Competitors And Steal Their Strategy

In the old days, SEO was basically a matter of creating a bunch of spam.

But today, the game has changed, and it's a lot harder. You need great content, and not only that, but you can't get the backlinks you need to promote that content from easy sources like social bookmarking sites and spam directories.

You have to actually reach out to legitimate publications.

If you're trying to build some links to your latest niche site project, it can be challenging at first to figure out exactly where you should ask.

You need niche-relevant sites with some genuine authority, but at the same time, you need to make sure getting in contact with a given website is something that's within your reach.

There's an easy way to find targets for SEO and content promotion outreach, though: look at what your competition is doing, and steal their strategy.

There are software tools out there that let you do this pretty easily, and with a solid outreach email and the right volume of emails, you're bound to get some hits.

In a recent post from Quicksprout, Neil Patel explains how he used this strategy, among others, to build over 800 backlinks to one of his articles in just a couple of months.

Spy on competitors for backlink opportunities

Sometimes, the best way to build backlinks is to simply ask for them.

But how do you know whom to ask?

One technique I’ve found useful involves first seeing where your main competitors are getting their backlinks from.

Since you’re in the same niche, there’s a good chance the sites that link to your competitors will link to you too.

Here’s what you do.

Start by searching for a competitor’s backlink profile on Cognitive SEO’s Site Explorer.

I’ll just use Backlinko as an example.

Scroll down a bit, and you’ll see who’s been linking to their site.

[image source: Quicksprout]
From here, I can see exactly where those links are coming from.

Next, reach out to those relevant sites with an email like this:

[image source: Quicksprout]
This is a great way to get on the radar of some of the more influential sites in your niche, and it can help you quickly gain some valuable backlinks.

It can be a bit of a numbers game, so you may need to send out a high volume of emails to get the results you’re looking for.