Knowing where successful competitors have gotten their links can be of course valuable. Getting detailed reports on this information is actually quite easy. There are a variety of readily available and easy to use tools online which do just this. Some options are Yahoo! Site Explorer, Majestic-SEO, Linkscape, and Link Diagnosis. Each of these tools will provide you with lists of inbound links to your competitors.
Though Yahoo! Site Explorer is a search engine provided tool, it’s result are somewhat limited, so consider using another, or all, of the other tools available in order to get a full picture of your competition’s back link profile. The data you accumulate will be far more comprehensive in nature, and as we all know, knowledge is power. Information on PageRank, MozRank, and MozTrust will give you a keen view of where their linking power is derived. By identifying your competition’s most powerful backlinks, you are identifying powerful potential links for your own sites. By pointing out the areas that have worked for them, you have opened your eyes to potentially powerful options to add to your own game plan.
Contacting those who link to your competitors is a good plan, and should be explored, but do not limit yourself to this as your complete strategy. Odds are that you want to surpass your competition, not just follow down their footsteps. Use this as a part of your overall link building strategy.
Remember if your backlink building strategy is to simply to get the same links as your competitors you will always be one step behind them.
