Competitor backlinks you can actually get vs. a spreadsheet of 4,000 rows
The search query is usually some version of competitor backlinks you can actually get or backlink gap without Ahrefs. The purchase is usually a spreadsheet.
You close a suite pricing tab. You open a freelance listing for competitor / backlink analysis. A day or two later the inbox has a CSV: competitor domains, referring domains, sometimes an authority score. That file is useful. It is also unfinished. The moment you open it, replicability, live pages, contact paths, and this week's next step are still on your desk.
This post is about that missing layer — not another export.
If you already have a licensed suite export and your own filter-and-submit pipeline, you do not need someone else to sell you the export again. This is for owner-led English sites that are already working on backlinks and do not have that pipeline.
What the CSV is for
A competitor-backlink CSV is a discovery dump. At its best it answers: who links to sites like mine, and where? That is a real job. Plenty of people buy it, which is why the category exists.
What it typically does not answer:
- Is this referring domain a search competitor, or just a brand neighbor?
- Is the source page still live?
- Is the competitor still linked on that page today?
- Is the link press, an investor page, a customer-hosted URL, or a directory you could actually use?
- Who do you email or which form do you submit — this week?
"Outreach to webmaster" is not a next step. It is a postponement.
The same backlink, two layers
Take one opportunity that is already public in the Homegrounds sample: studyfinds.com, expert-quote slot on a high-end coffee-makers piece. A competitor (coffeeness) holds a quote slot on that page format; the contact path is a named editor email on a live /contact/ page.
| Layer | What a gap CSV usually leaves you | What an executable opportunity still needs |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Competitor domain + source domain | Same, and a check that it is a search competitor, not a media giant next door |
| Judgment | Rarely more than "high DR" | Page live? Competitor link still on the page? Press / customer-hosted / paid slot, or something a comparable site can copy? |
| Next step | "Outreach to webmaster" | Submit URL, editor email, or write-for-us page — an action that matches the mechanism, not a universal draft |
Judgment is not "filter harder." It is throwing away rows you cannot copy, and writing the rest as something you can click this week.
The coffee-site sample is sparse on purpose: 775 candidate domains after filtering, 19 checked live, 7 qualified. A form-tool sample went 7,000 raw rows → 15 qualified. We published the full measurement in we analyzed 7,000 competitor backlinks. The pattern is the same in every niche we have opened: most of the export is structurally unreplicable before quality even enters the conversation.
What this product does not do
- It does not place links, buy links, or promise dofollow or rankings.
- It does not replace a suite if you already live in the export.
- Directory-only lists are not the point. Editorial, resource, and review pages are. If the shortlist is mostly directories, the judgment layer failed.
You can run the filter yourself. The six questions we use are in the 7,000-row write-up. A report is that filter already run, with live-page evidence attached.
An afternoon version of the filter
If you are staring at an export tonight:
- Drop press, funding stories, and staff features with a tips@ inbox.
- Drop customer-hosted subdomains and shortener / SafeLink wrappers.
- Drop investor, partner, and "as seen in" pages you cannot join.
- Open the remaining source URLs. If the competitor is not linked on the live page, cut it.
- Require a contact or submit path on the same registrable domain.
- Write one next step that matches the page: form, email, or "skip."
That is the same six-question pass in the 7,000-row post. Doing it once by hand is how you learn what "qualified" means. Doing it every week is why people look for a shortlist instead of another CSV.
See the format
The Homegrounds sample is the full artifact: evidence, contact path, next step, no padding.
Read the Homegrounds sample report
Same format on a form tool and a privacy analytics product: Tally · Fathom Analytics
If you want that filter run on a live English site as a one-off report, the listing is here: competitor backlinks you can actually get.