How do you distinguish competitor backlinks by categories?

[Glassworks]

Hi

We are trying to produce an outreach list based on the competitor backlinks using SEOmoz link analysis tool (open site explorer). I have few questions related to this:

1. How many backlinks per competitor would be a reasonable starting point? And maybe suggest a strategy on how these outreach list can be managed over time?

2. Is there a way to distinguish what types the backlinks are? So for example, can we have list of backlinks that are categorised under online bloggers, traditional journalist or article/press release/directories?

3. Should we be more concerned about the Page authority or the Domain authority when creating this outreach list?

I look forward to your answer, thank you.

[Glassworks]

Thanks!

It's been a great help.

[TakeshiYoung]

1. This depends on the amount of resources you have as well as the amount of quality backlinks your competitor has. A shared Google Doc is a good tool for managing something like this. BuzzStream is a great tool if you want a more robust solution.

2. If you're dealing with an incredibly large amount of links, you may be able to sort out some of the list by identifying common blog hosts (wordpress.com, blogger) and by common URL structures used by popular CMSs, but generally this is a manual process. Organize all the links by page authority, then focus on only the high value ones.

3. Page authority is the important metric to keep track of, unless the link is on a brand new page that doesn't have any page authority.

Generally, trying to re-create a competitor's backlink profile is an impossible task. I would use it more to identify what linking tactics your competition is using, and seeing if there's anything you aren't trying, as well as identifying a few hidden gems that could give you a boost.