subject: One simple trick for finding backlinks [print this page] One simple trick for finding backlinks One simple trick for finding backlinks
People go to all sorts of extreme efforts to find out the backlinks of their competitors. Even SEO experts are guilty of it. People involve all sorts of software and analytics packages, twisting and turning the information until they get a list that they like.
Using specially-developed tools is a part of the advantages you gain when you bring a search engine optimisation professional on board when you optimise your site. Analysing backlinks using these tools does have its advantages. When you're simply after a hint of what your competitors have been up to, however, something simpler will do. Employing any kind of sophisticated trick just to get a basic list of a competitor's inbound links is not worth it.
Most people interested in optimisation will tell you to use Google's tools to look at anyone's backlinks, and you can certainly do that. The difficulty is that Google likes to hold some of the cards back, so you can't be certain you're really seeing everything possible.
There is one trick that is much, much easier, and involves doing something you do every day anyway. This trick is so easy most business owners fail to even think about it.
Google the domain. It really is too simple. Something about the everyday nature of this act makes people think that it's too easy, that there has to be something else involved in discovering a competitor's links. Googling the top-level domain of a competitor will give you the instances where someone has featured that link on their pages. This in turn will give you a good idea of where your competitor is getting their links from, and perhaps a few ideas for your own. It's not perfect, and there are ways to find out more in-depth links, but when you're first searching, Google is the way to go.
