What is Link Planner?

Link Planner is a free competitor gap analysis tool. It compares your backlink profile against up to five competitors and gives you a prioritized list of link building targets. This guide walks through the full workflow — from entering your domain to knowing exactly what to do next.

Step 1: Start a new analysis

Go to Link Planner in the top nav and click New Link Plan. The setup wizard has three steps.

Type your domain — just the bare domain, no https:// needed. Below the field you'll see your quota: free plans get 3 analyses per month, paid plans get more or unlimited.

Click Find Competitors. Link Planner auto-discovers your top competitors based on shared backlinks. It takes a few seconds.

Step 2: Pick your competitors

You'll get a suggested list showing each competitor's Domain Rating (DR) and how many backlinks they share with you. The top 3 are pre-selected, but adjust as needed. You can add up to 5 total, and you can type in a domain manually if someone's missing.

Before moving on, think about who you actually compete with. If you're a local SaaS company and you add Forbes to the list, the data gets skewed fast. Stick to competitors in your weight class.

Step 3: Set your intersection mode and run it

The confirm screen shows your domain, your chosen competitors, and one important toggle: intersection mode.

Partial (default) — finds domains linking to any of your competitors. Broader results, more targets.
All — finds domains linking to every competitor you selected. Fewer results, but higher-confidence targets.

Start with Partial on your first run. You can always tighten the filter later.

Click Start Analysis. Results usually land in 1–3 minutes.

Step 4: Read the summary cards

When the analysis finishes, four cards at the top give you the quick picture:

Gap Domains — total sites linking to competitors but not you. This is your full target universe.
2+ Competitor Overlap — domains linking to two or more of your competitors. These are your best bets. A site that links to multiple competitors in your space is clearly open to linking in your niche.
Traffic Gap — organic visits per month you're currently missing out on.
Est. Opportunity — a dollar estimate of that traffic gap, based on conversion rate and order value. Click Customize to plug in your actual numbers. Do this before sharing it with a client — the default figures won't mean much to them.

Step 5: Understand the comparison

Scroll down to the Link Profile Comparison table. Your domain sits at the top, highlighted in teal, with competitors listed below. Compare DR, referring domain counts, and keyword totals.

Ask yourself: where's the biggest gap? If your competitors have 3x your referring domains, that's likely why they're outranking you — and it tells you the scale of what you're up against.

Next to the table, the DR Distribution chart breaks down everyone's backlinks across five authority tiers (DR 0–20 through 81–100). Look for the tier with the widest gap between you and the competitor average. It'll have a "Biggest opportunity gap" badge on it. That's the authority range to focus your outreach on first.

Step 6: Find your keyword gaps

The Keyword Performance Gaps table shows keywords where competitors rank and you don't — or where you rank far behind them. Each row shows the keyword, search volume, your position vs. their best position, their traffic, and estimated monthly value.

Two things to look for. First: keywords where you don't rank at all but a competitor sits in the top 10 — those are straight missed opportunities. Second: keywords where you rank but poorly. Moving from position 17 to position 5 isn't a small win; it can mean a significant traffic jump.

The table defaults to 10 rows. Click View all keywords if there are more.

Step 7: Work through the gap domains table

This is the core deliverable. The Link Gap Domains table lists every site linking to your competitors but not you.

Use the filters to work through it efficiently rather than scrolling blind:

DR filter — start with the authority tier where the distribution chart flagged the biggest gap
Competitor pills — click a competitor's badge to see only sites linking to them
Search — type in a specific domain you want to check

Domains with checkmarks across multiple competitors are your top priority. They've already linked to two or three players in your niche — they know the space and they're willing to link.

Step 8: Check the prospect sections

Below the gap domains, two more sections add to your pipeline:

Prospect Sites for Your Keywords — sites ranking for your target keywords, pulled from our site database. Good for topic-based outreach like guest posts or resource pages.
Outreach-Ready Sites — niche-matched sites with verified contacts already on file. You can pitch these immediately.

These aren't from the gap analysis itself. They're additional targets matched to your profile to round out your list.

Step 9: Share or export

Click Share to generate a public link for clients or stakeholders. The link includes a freshness badge so anyone viewing it knows how current the data is.

Click Export to download the gap domains as a CSV. Use it for client deliverables, internal spreadsheets, or importing directly into Link Builder.

What to do next

You've got your targets. Now pick an approach:

Move to Link Builder — import your gap domains into a project and run outreach campaigns with email templates, contact enrichment, and automated follow-ups.
Go after keyword gaps with content — write content targeting the keywords where competitors rank and you don't.
Run another analysis — try a different competitor mix, or switch to "All" intersection mode to find your highest-confidence targets.

Link Planner shows you where the gaps are. Link Builder is where you close them.