your competitors rank higher partly because of backlinks pointing at them that aren't pointing at you - and you can't even see that list without paying ahrefs or semrush around $130 a month. here's a 2-minute walkthrough of a free way to get the exact list, and then actually do something with it.
the walkthrough
the gap nobody shows you
a backlink gap is the set of domains that link to your competitor but not to you. every one of them already links to a site in your exact category, so they're the most pre-qualified link prospects you have. the problem has always been visibility: the feature sits behind a $100+ per month plan, so most people never look.
crawlgraph is built on common crawl - an open index of billions of links across the web - so the data isn't something we have to rent to you. the gap analysis is free.
how the gap analysis works
you put in your domain and up to three competitors. crawlgraph unions every domain linking to those competitors, subtracts the ones already linking to you, strips the platform and cdn noise, and ranks what's left by authority. the top rows are the highest-value sites you could realistically earn a link from, because they already link to someone just like you.
a domain linking to three of your competitors and none of them linking to you is worth far more than one that links to a single rival. the more competitors a site links to, the more obvious your absence is - and the easier the pitch.
find the contact, send the pitch
a list of domains is useless if you can't reach anyone. this is the part no tool at any price does end to end: on each target you hit "get contact email", crawlgraph crawls that site on demand and pulls the real outreach address, then drafts a ready-to-send message in your mail app. find the gap, find the contact, send the pitch - in one place.
$99 once, not $129 a month
the gap analysis is free - run it as many times as you want. if you want the contact finder, csv exports, and the api, crawlgraph is ninety-nine dollars one time. not per month. once. compare that to around $129 a month, forever. there's also an mcp server, so you can ask for gaps right inside claude or chatgpt.
seen enough? run it on your site free.
5 backlinks free. $99 once for unlimited.
go run your own gap analysis and see which sites link to your competitors but not you yet. that list is your next month of outreach.
writes the queries we run internally. ships one tactical post a week.
plus one when a new common crawl release lands. that is all.