See which websites link to your competitors but not to you. Enter your domain and your competitors, and get the link opportunities worth going after first.
A list of the websites that already trust your competitors, sorted so the best opportunities come first.
Every referring domain that links to at least one of your competitors and has never linked to your site.
Domains linking to two or more of your competitors. They already cover your category, so they are the warmest opportunities.
How strong each linking domain is, so you spend outreach time on links that move rankings.
Which competitor page each site links to, so you can see the content that attracts links in your market.
Where you and your competitors both have links, so you know which ground is already covered.
Compare your domain against the companies you lose deals to, not only the biggest names in your space.
Four quick steps.
Type your website into the tool above.
Add the companies that rank for your keywords or show up in AI answers instead of you.
Whether you work at the company, independently or at an agency, and your top priority, so the results fit your goal.
See the sites linking to your competitors but not to you, ready to work through.
A backlink gap analysis compares the websites that link to you with the websites that link to your competitors. The difference, the sites that link to them and not to you, is your backlink gap.
Those sites have already shown they will link to a company like yours. They write about your category, keep lists of tools or providers in it, or review products like yours. That makes them far easier to win than a random site from a link list.
Backlinks still decide a large part of who ranks on Google. And the same review sites, roundups and industry publications are the sources ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews cite when they recommend companies. Closing the gap helps you in both.
Start with the free analysis. When you want to track it over time, or have the outreach done, pick the option that fits.
| Free backlink gap tool | ContentMonk software | ContentMonk Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | One-off backlink gap analysis | Ongoing SEO and AEO platform | Done-for-you SEO, AEO and PR |
| Competitor gaps | Your domain against your competitors | Competitor rankings and AI citations, tracked over time | Researched and prioritized by our team |
| AI search | Not included | See which sources AI answers cite in your category | Third-party mentions on the sources AI cites |
| Who does the outreach | You | You, with content built to earn links | Our team |
| Cost | Free | From $99 a month, 7-day free trial | Scoped on a free strategy call |
| Start | Run the analysis | Start free trial | Book a strategy call |
A list of gaps is only a starting point. This is how we work through one for the 70+ companies our agency runs SEO and AEO for.
A site that links to one competitor might be a one-off. A site that links to three of them covers your category on purpose. Work the list in this order:
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for the best company in your category, the answer is built from a small set of third-party pages: roundups, review sites, Reddit threads and industry articles. If your competitors are on those pages and you are not, you are missing from the answer.
So inside each group, rank first the pages that already show up in AI answers for your buyers' questions. Getting onto them does two jobs at once: a backlink for Google and a mention for AI search. This is the part most agencies skip.
A link from a small, focused site your buyers actually read beats a high-authority link from a site that has nothing to do with your market. Use authority to break ties, not to choose the list. Relevant links send referral visitors who convert, and they tell Google and AI engines what you are an authority on.
The page each site links to tells you what your market rewards. If competitors earn links with original surveys, free tools, pricing guides or detailed comparisons, that is the content you need. Build a better version on your own site first, then reach out. Outreach without something worth linking to rarely works.
Hi, we'd love a backlink from your site. Can you add us?
StrongHi Sarah, your list of the best route planning tools for distributors doesn't cover multi-depot routing. We built that for food distributors, and I can send you a 2-line summary and a test account if it helps the update.
Paid links, link networks and "guaranteed DR 70 link" packages put your whole domain at risk and they rarely appear in the sources AI search trusts. Strong positioning and genuinely useful pages earn links that keep working for years.
Links are how you get there. The result is customers. Track referral traffic and conversions from each new link, check whether AI answers start naming you for your buyers' questions, and watch rankings on the pages you built links to. Re-run the gap analysis every quarter. Your competitors keep earning links, so the gap keeps moving.
| Week | Focus | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Sort gaps by competitor count and type. Claim and complete review site and directory profiles. | Every relevant profile is live and complete |
| Week 2 | Pitch the roundups and comparison articles that link to 2+ competitors | First 20 to 30 personal pitches sent |
| Week 3 | Build or improve the one linkable page your market rewards most | A page clearly better than what competitors earn links with |
| Week 4 | Pitch publications with that page, follow up once, set up referral and AI mention tracking | Outreach running, results measured |
High numbers on irrelevant sites earn little. Relevance to your buyers wins.
"Can you link to us?" gets ignored. A better resource or a real data point gets answered.
Some links came from partnerships or customer stories you can't repeat. Skip them.
The roundups and review sites AI cites are worth more than ten random links.
Want this done for you? ContentMonk software shows you the sources AI cites in your category and builds the pages that earn links, from $99 a month. Or the ContentMonk Agency runs the whole plan for you.
Yes. Enter your domain and your competitors and you get your backlink gaps at no cost.
A backlink gap is a website that links to one or more of your competitors but not to you. These sites already cover your category, which makes them the easiest links to win.
Three to five. Pick the companies that rank for your keywords or show up in AI answers instead of you, not only the biggest brands in your market.
A backlink audit looks at the links you already have and checks their quality. A backlink gap analysis looks at the links your competitors have and you don't, so you know where to get new ones.
Yes. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews build their answers from third-party pages like roundups, reviews and industry articles. Getting mentioned and linked on those pages helps you rank on Google and get recommended in AI answers.
Every quarter, and whenever a new competitor starts showing up in your search results or AI answers.
Run a free backlink gap analysis in minutes.
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