Compare your backlinks against your competitors
Put your domain next to the sites you compete with and see the gap that actually decides rankings: referring domains. Free, no signup, results in seconds.
Referring domains is the number that matters
Most tools lead with the total backlink count because it is the biggest number. It is also the most misleading one. A single site linking to you from its footer across 5,000 pages adds 5,000 backlinks and exactly one referring domain, and Google treats it much closer to one link than to 5,000.
When we measured 596 real websites, the median site had about 21 backlinks per referring domain, and half the sites were above that. So when a competitor looks untouchable with two million backlinks, check the second column first. Read the full breakdown in referring domains vs backlinks.
What to do with the gap
If your competitors average far more referring domains than you, no amount of extra content will close it. That is an authority problem and it needs links. If the gap is small and you still get less traffic, the problem is on the page instead: intent, depth or internal linking.
For the how, see how to check competitor backlinks for the full method, and how to get backlinks without paying for the ways to close it that do not involve buying links.
A note on the strength score
The 0 to 100 score is a proxy for link authority, not a traffic prediction. In our own data the correlation between that score and actual organic traffic was 0.16, and about 15% of sites scoring 40 or above were getting fewer than 100 visits a month. Use it to compare like with like, not as a target in itself.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
Enter your domain and up to four competitors above. The tool returns each site's referring domains, total backlinks and a strength score from 0 to 100, side by side. There is no signup and no credit card.
Backlinks counts every individual link, so one site linking to you from its footer on 5,000 pages counts 5,000 times. Referring domains counts each linking site once. Referring domains is the number that tracks rankings, which is why a large gap between the two is a warning sign rather than a strength.
Across the 596 sites we measured, the median was about 21 links per referring domain. Much above that usually means sitewide footer or sidebar links inflating the total, so the raw backlink count overstates real authority.
There is no fixed threshold, but the practical target is to close the gap with the sites already ranking for your keywords. Use the comparison above to see the size of that gap, then judge how many links a month it would take to close it.
Yes. Results are fetched live and then cached for 30 days, so a domain someone already checked answers instantly. There is a daily limit per visitor to keep the tool free for everyone.
Not reliably. In our own data the correlation between strength score and organic traffic was only 0.16, and 15% of sites scoring 40 or above got under 100 visits a month. Treat it as a rough proxy for link authority, not a traffic forecast.