Backlink Benchmarking & Gap Analysis Tool

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Benchmark your backlink profile stacks up against your competitors, using live data. Compare domain authority side by side, find the high-authority sites linking to them but not you, and see the links they've earned in the last 30 days.

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Let's find your next lever for growth .

Book a Discovery Call.

Audit current organic performance.

Map out exactly where your opportunity is.

"Our work with Growthack was about much more than just SEO. It was about truly understanding our buyers and bringing our brand to life in a way that resonated with them. The results speak for themselves: a significant increase in qualified leads, stronger brand authority and a website that actively supports our growth ambitions."

Joseph Alexander - Official Framer Partner

Victoria Beaven

Head of Marketing, elementsuite

No pitch decks, no pressure. Tell us where you are and we'll share how we can help.

60+

Partnerships over 5 years

98%

Satisfaction Rate.

Let's find your next lever for growth .

Book a Discovery Call.

Audit current organic performance.

Map out exactly where your opportunity is.

Victoria Beaven

Head of Marketing, elementsuite

No pitch decks, no pressure. Tell us where you are and we'll share how we can help.

60+

Partnerships over 5 years

98%

Satisfaction Rate.

Let's find your next lever for growth .

Book a Discovery Call.

Audit current organic performance.

Map out exactly where your opportunity is.

Victoria Beaven

Head of Marketing, elementsuite

No pitch decks, no pressure. Tell us where you are and we'll share how we can help.

60+

Partnerships over 5 years

98%

Satisfaction Rate.

About the Tool

The Growthack Backlink Benchmarking Tool shows you exactly where your site sits against up to two competitors on the metrics that drive off-site authority. Instead of a single vanity score, it gives you three things you can act on:

An authority comparison: domain rank, total backlinks, and referring domains for your site and each competitor, side by side
A backlink gap: the high-authority domains linking to your competitors but not to you, ranked so you can prioritise the best targets
A recent-links feed: the high-authority backlinks your competitors have earned in the last 30 days, so you can spot fresh opportunities while they're still relevant

Every figure is pulled live from a backlink index at the moment you run the tool, so you're benchmarking against current data, not a stale export.

Use Cases

Link-Building Prioritisation

Turn the backlink gap into a ready-made outreach shortlist, ordered by domain authority.

Competitor Monitoring

Check what links your competitors are earning right now and reverse-engineer the campaigns behind them.

Digital PR Planning

Identify the publications and domains already linking to your space, then plan stories that could earn you the same coverage.

Pitch and Proposal Support

Show a prospect exactly where they stand against named competitors as part of an SEO or PR proposal.

Progress Tracking

Re-run the benchmark periodically to see your domain rank and referring domains close the gap over time.

How to Benchmark Backlinks Against Competitors

Step 1: Enter Your Domain

Type your website's domain into the first field. Just the domain is fine, with no https:// or www: the tool cleans it up automatically. For example: "growthack.io".

Step 2: Add Your Competitors

Enter up to two competitor domains. Choose sites you genuinely compete with in search, rather than much larger brands, so the gap is realistic and actionable.

Step 3: Run the Benchmark

Click Run benchmark. The tool pulls live backlink data for every domain and builds your comparison. This can take up to 20 seconds, as it's querying a large backlink index in real time.

Step 4: Review and Act

Work through the three sections: see where you stand on authority, pull your gap domains into an outreach list, and note any recent competitor links worth chasing. Use Export as CSV to download the full benchmark, including the gap list, for your outreach tracker.

Additional Notes

Domain rank is a 0 to 1000 authority score based on the quality and quantity of backlinks. Higher is stronger. Use it to compare domains relative to each other, not as an absolute grade.
The backlink gap shows referring domains, not individual pages. One high-authority domain in the gap can represent many potential linking opportunities.
Results are cached for up to 24 hours, so re-running the same domains within a day returns the same snapshot instantly.

Tool FAQs

For additional questions or support, please contact [email protected]

What is a backlink gap?

A backlink gap is the set of domains that link to your competitors but not to you. These are among your most realistic link-building targets, because a site already linking to a similar business is more likely to link to yours than a cold prospect.

Why can I only compare two competitors?

Two competitors keeps each benchmark fast and focused on your closest rivals. If you want a broader analysis across a wider competitive set, our team can run that as part of a deeper audit.

What does domain rank actually measure?

Domain rank estimates a site's overall backlink authority on a 0 to 1000 scale, weighing both how many sites link to it and how authoritative those sites are. It's a comparative signal, useful for seeing who's ahead rather than as a precise score.

Does this replace a full backlink audit?

No. It's a fast, focused benchmark designed to surface gaps and opportunities. A full audit also covers link quality, toxic links, anchor text, lost links, and internal linking. If you want the complete picture, that's where our team comes in.

Is my data saved?

No personal data is stored. The domains you enter are used to fetch live backlink data, and that result may be cached briefly (up to 24 hours) to speed up repeat lookups, but nothing personally identifying is stored or transmitted.

Key Benefits

This tool can help you with analysing:

AI Readiness Score – a 0–100 composite score with a letter-grade verdict
Reach, Read & Recommend performance per AI engine
Which competitors AI names instead of you
AI crawler accessibility and technical readiness

The tool combines live checks – crawler accessibility, robots.txt, structured data – with live queries to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. By showing both a free preview score and a full gated breakdown, it gives you a clear, evidence-based view of where AI search is helping or hurting your brand, and a ranked list of fixes to close the gap.

Use Cases

Client Audits

Diagnose exactly why a brand isn’t appearing in ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews, with a ranked fix list to act on.

Competitive Analysis

See which competitors AI names in your category’s buying questions, and where they’re getting cited from.

GEO / AI-SEO Technical Audit

Check whether AI crawlers are blocked in robots.txt and whether structured data (schema) is in place.

Content Gap Analysis

Identify categories or questions AI doesn’t currently associate with your brand.

How to Check AI Visibility

Enter your Website URL and Company Name (both required).
Optionally add your Brand Name (if different from your company name), Industry, and Target Market to sharpen the buying questions tested.
Click “Run free AI check” to map your brand across AI search, analyse ChatGPT and Google AI Overview visibility, and check crawler accessibility.
Review your free AI Readiness Score and the Reach / Read / Recommends matrix, showing whether each AI engine can access, parse and cite your site.
Enter your email at the gate to unlock the full report.
Review the unlocked sections: Executive Summary, Scoring Framework, Strengths & Weaknesses, Recommendations, ChatGPT Visibility, Google AI Overview Readiness, and Full Readiness Breakdown.
Check the Lost-Deal Map to see which buying questions AI answers with a competitor’s name instead of yours.
Work through the ranked fix list, tagged Reach (crawler/access issues) or Read (machine-readability issues).
Click “Download PDF” for a branded report, or “Book a call” to go straight to a consultation.

Additional Notes

The tool checks visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and cross-references crawler accessibility against a wider set of AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and others).
The free stage never reveals the “Recommends you” result for ChatGPT or Google AI – only the Perplexity result is shown pre-gate, to keep the full report as the incentive to unlock.
Some figures are estimated where an engine has limited data for your specific queries; these are labelled as estimated rather than observed.
The scan runs against a backend service to query live AI engines, so your domain and query results pass through Growthack’s backend during the scan.

Tool FAQs

For additional questions or support, please contact [email protected]

Which AI engines does it check?

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Crawler accessibility is also checked against a wider set of AI bots, including GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended.

What’s the difference between the free and full report?

The free report shows your overall score, grade, and whether each engine can reach and read your site, plus your Perplexity result. The full report (unlocked with an email) adds live ChatGPT and Google AI results, your complete score breakdown, competitor names, source citations, and a ranked fix list.

What is the “Lost-Deal Map”?

It’s a set of real buying-intent questions in your category, tested across AI engines, showing whether your brand is named in the answer or a competitor is recommended instead.

Why are some results locked behind an email?

The full breakdown and live engine results are gated to generate qualified leads – this is a lead-generation tool as much as a diagnostic one.

How is the AI Readiness Score calculated?

It’s a weighted composite across categories including ChatGPT Visibility, Google AI Overview Visibility, AI Accessibility, Technical Readiness, and AI-Cited Authority.

Is my data saved or shared?

The scan runs against a backend service to query live AI engines, so – unlike a purely client-side tool – your domain and query results pass through Growthack’s backend during the scan.

Testimonials

"Repton School has worked with Growthack for the past year and the impact has been outstanding. We have seen a significant increase in organic traffic to our website, much stronger Google rankings across key search terms, and a clear rise in enquiries to the school as a direct result of their work."

The team are knowledgeable, proactive and an absolute pleasure to work with. We would highly recommend Growthack to any organisation looking to strengthen its digital presence.

Repton School

Marketing Team

The team are knowledgeable, proactive and an absolute pleasure to work with. We would highly recommend Growthack to any organisation looking to strengthen its digital presence.

Repton School

Marketing Team

5

/ 5

Based on 30+ Google reviews.

"Working with Growthack over the past 12 months has been transformative for PassMeFast's organic performance. From the outset, the team took the time to understand our business model, customer intent, and technical challenges — especially following a complex CMS migration that had a significant impact on traffic and leads."

Albena Dimitrova

Head of Digital, PassMeFast

"Kevin and his team provide not only expertise in organic search optimisation, but great communication and care for our business. We recently relaunched our website, and their advice and attention to detail played a significant contribution to a seamless migration with immediate positive results in organic visit activity."

Matt Ward

Head of Retail, Manage At Home

"I've found Growthack easy to work with and communication has been consistently good. They explain things clearly and make SEO straightforward for us to understand and implement. The team brings a broad range of expertise, with everyone contributing their own perspective and ideas. We'd happily recommend them to other companies looking for a practical and knowledgeable SEO partner."

Adam Dickens

Marketing Executive, SIS Pitches

Albena Dimitrova

Head of Digital, PassMeFast

Matt Ward

Head of Retail, Manage At Home

Adam Dickens

Marketing Executive, SIS Pitches

Albena Dimitrova

Head of Digital, PassMeFast

Matt Ward

Head of Retail, Manage At Home

Adam Dickens

Marketing Executive, SIS Pitches

Average organic growth within 12 months post-migration

Annual revenue attributed to organic each year

Client retention rate after year one

Brands helped with our organic growth systems

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I've personally led 60+ growth engagements. Let me show you what's possible for yours.

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Founder & Director

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FAQs

AI Search

Migrations

General

Beyond SEO®

Pricing

Process

How do you actually measure AI visibility?

We start by defining a representative set of commercially relevant prompts and buyer queries around your products, services and market. These become the benchmark for ongoing AI visibility tracking, reported in a live dashboard alongside your traditional organic performance instead of a one-off audit.

The dashboard tracks AI Overview Presence (how often Google's AI Overview cites you across that keyword set), AI Brand Mentions (how often ChatGPT names you directly), and AI Search Opportunity (keywords you already rank for but aren't yet cited on –– the fastest-moving target).

Underneath that sits your actual citation footprint: which of your pages AI systems are pulling from, broken down by content type, with real example answers showing exactly what was asked and what got cited.

Every keyword is checked head-to-head against named competitors, so it's clear not just whether you're showing up, but whether a rival is showing up instead. Because generated answers can change considerably over time, we focus on trends across a consistent query set rather than individual responses.

You can see a live example, with sample data, at reports.growthack.io/demo/

What does an AI Search Visibility engagement actually include?

We begin by establishing a baseline of your existing AI visibility and identifying the topics, prompts and competitors that matter commercially.

From there, we assess and audit the signals influencing that visibility across technical architecture, entities, structured data, content and third-party authority. Recommendations are prioritised according to the gaps identified rather than applying a generic GEO checklist.

For ongoing engagements, we then monitor the same query set over time, compare your visibility against competitors and report AI performance alongside organic search and commercial KPIs.

This creates a repeatable process:

Benchmark → diagnose → prioritise → implement → monitor → improve.

Can I check my own AI visibility before talking to you?

Yes. Our free AI Visibility Checker provides an initial benchmark of how your brand appears within AI-powered search experiences.

You can also use our AI Overviews Share of Voice tool to assess visibility within Google's AI-generated results and compare your presence against competitors.

These tools provide a useful starting point. Client reporting goes further by tracking a defined set of commercially relevant queries consistently over time.

Is AI search reducing organic traffic, and how do you account for that?

AI-generated answers can reduce clicks for some searches because users increasingly receive information without visiting a website. That makes click volume alone an increasingly incomplete measure of organic performance.

Our reporting therefore considers search visibility, AI visibility, qualified traffic and commercial outcomes together. The objective isn't simply to maximise clicks. It's to understand whether your brand is being discovered by the right audiences and whether organic and AI search are contributing to demand, conversions and revenue.

This also means we don't interpret declining informational clicks in isolation if visibility and commercial performance tell a different story.

Do you guarantee AI visibility or citations?

No. No credible agency can guarantee rankings, AI citations or inclusion within a particular generated response.

AI results are dynamic and ultimately controlled by the platforms producing them.

What we do guarantee is clear strategy, honest advice and execution based on evidence. We establish a measurable baseline, identify the areas where your visibility can realistically be improved and monitor performance over time.

What makes a brand more likely to appear in AI search results?

There isn't a single GEO ranking factor.

AI visibility is influenced by a combination of signals including technically accessible content, clear brand and entity information, topical relevance, structured information and credible third-party references.

We therefore look for gaps across your website and wider digital footprint rather than simply optimising individual pages for ChatGPT. Our Technical Architecture and Authority Building systems address two important parts of that wider picture.

Which AI platforms do you track?

We monitor visibility across major AI-powered discovery platforms including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.

Rather than treating every platform equally, reporting focuses on the platforms and query types most relevant to your audience. The monitoring set can also evolve as AI search behaviour changes and new platforms gain meaningful adoption.

How is AI Search Visibility different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO primarily measures how webpages perform within search engines through metrics such as rankings, impressions, clicks and organic conversions.

AI Search Visibility adds another layer: whether your brand appears within generated answers, how frequently it appears compared with competitors and which sources AI systems use when forming those answers.

The disciplines overlap heavily. Strong technical SEO, useful content and established brand authority remain important foundations for AI visibility. This is why we treat AI search as part of our Beyond SEO® approach rather than as a replacement for SEO.

What is AI Search Visibility (or GEO)?

AI Search Visibility measures how visible a brand is within AI-powered search experiences such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) describes the work involved in improving that visibility. Rather than focusing solely on where an individual webpage ranks, we look at whether AI systems understand, mention, cite or recommend your brand for commercially relevant topics and buyer queries.

FAQs

AI Search

Migrations

General

Beyond SEO®

Pricing

Process

How do you actually measure AI visibility?

You can see a live example, with sample data, at reports.growthack.io/demo/

What does an AI Search Visibility engagement actually include?

We begin by establishing a baseline of your existing AI visibility and identifying the topics, prompts and competitors that matter commercially.

For ongoing engagements, we then monitor the same query set over time, compare your visibility against competitors and report AI performance alongside organic search and commercial KPIs.

This creates a repeatable process:

Benchmark → diagnose → prioritise → implement → monitor → improve.

Can I check my own AI visibility before talking to you?

Yes. Our free AI Visibility Checker provides an initial benchmark of how your brand appears within AI-powered search experiences.

You can also use our AI Overviews Share of Voice tool to assess visibility within Google's AI-generated results and compare your presence against competitors.

These tools provide a useful starting point. Client reporting goes further by tracking a defined set of commercially relevant queries consistently over time.

Is AI search reducing organic traffic, and how do you account for that?

This also means we don't interpret declining informational clicks in isolation if visibility and commercial performance tell a different story.

Do you guarantee AI visibility or citations?

No. No credible agency can guarantee rankings, AI citations or inclusion within a particular generated response.

AI results are dynamic and ultimately controlled by the platforms producing them.

What makes a brand more likely to appear in AI search results?

There isn't a single GEO ranking factor.

Which AI platforms do you track?

We monitor visibility across major AI-powered discovery platforms including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.

How is AI Search Visibility different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO primarily measures how webpages perform within search engines through metrics such as rankings, impressions, clicks and organic conversions.

What is AI Search Visibility (or GEO)?

AI Search Visibility measures how visible a brand is within AI-powered search experiences such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.

FAQs

AI Search

Migrations

General

Beyond SEO®

Pricing

Process

How do you actually measure AI visibility?

You can see a live example, with sample data, at reports.growthack.io/demo/

What does an AI Search Visibility engagement actually include?

We begin by establishing a baseline of your existing AI visibility and identifying the topics, prompts and competitors that matter commercially.

For ongoing engagements, we then monitor the same query set over time, compare your visibility against competitors and report AI performance alongside organic search and commercial KPIs.

This creates a repeatable process:

Benchmark → diagnose → prioritise → implement → monitor → improve.

Can I check my own AI visibility before talking to you?

Yes. Our free AI Visibility Checker provides an initial benchmark of how your brand appears within AI-powered search experiences.

You can also use our AI Overviews Share of Voice tool to assess visibility within Google's AI-generated results and compare your presence against competitors.

These tools provide a useful starting point. Client reporting goes further by tracking a defined set of commercially relevant queries consistently over time.

Is AI search reducing organic traffic, and how do you account for that?

This also means we don't interpret declining informational clicks in isolation if visibility and commercial performance tell a different story.

Do you guarantee AI visibility or citations?

No. No credible agency can guarantee rankings, AI citations or inclusion within a particular generated response.

AI results are dynamic and ultimately controlled by the platforms producing them.

What makes a brand more likely to appear in AI search results?

There isn't a single GEO ranking factor.

Which AI platforms do you track?

We monitor visibility across major AI-powered discovery platforms including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.

How is AI Search Visibility different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO primarily measures how webpages perform within search engines through metrics such as rankings, impressions, clicks and organic conversions.

What is AI Search Visibility (or GEO)?

AI Search Visibility measures how visible a brand is within AI-powered search experiences such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.