Backlink Gap Analysis, Explained

The fastest way to build relevant links isn't to invent a strategy from scratch - it's to copy the homework of sites already outranking you. If three competitors all earned a link from the same industry directory, roundup, or resource page, that site links to companies like yours. You just aren't on the list yet. Backlink gap analysis finds exactly those sites.

This guide covers what a gap campaign does, the difference between Union and Intersect mode, and how to read prospect scores so you spend outreach time on links worth chasing - all using the Backlink Analysis campaign builder.

What a gap campaign does

You give a campaign your domain and one to twenty competitor domains. It pulls each domain's backlink profile, then returns the referring domains that link to at least one competitor but not to you. Each of those is a prospect - a site that has already shown it will link to companies in your space.

Union vs Intersect mode

The mode you pick decides how aggressive the prospect list is:

• Union mode returns domains linking to any competitor. Widest net - more prospects, more noise. Use it when you're starting from a thin link profile and want volume.
• Intersect mode returns only domains linking to all of your selected competitors. Far fewer prospects, but each is a high-confidence target - if everyone in your category has the link, you almost certainly should too.

Reading the prospect table

Each prospect domain comes back with the signals you need to triage it without visiting every site:

• Score (0-100) - an overall opportunity score combining authority, link counts, spam, and competitor overlap. Sort by this first.
• Authority rank - how strong the linking domain is.
• Referring domains & backlinks - how established the site's own profile is.
• Competitor overlap - how many of your competitors it links to. Higher overlap = stronger signal it fits you.
• Dofollow - whether it passes authority.
• Spam score - lower is safer; high-spam prospects are usually not worth pursuing.
• First seen / lost - when the link appeared, and whether it has since dropped.

Filtering to a shortlist worth contacting

Raw gap lists are long. The filters exist to get you to a list you'd actually email:

1. 1Set a minimum authority so you skip weak domains.
2. 2Cap the maximum spam score to avoid risky neighborhoods.
3. 3Toggle dofollow only when you specifically want authority-passing links.
4. 4Filter by a specific competitor to reverse-engineer how one rival built links.
5. 5Export the shortlist to CSV and hand it to outreach.