How do I see a competitor's profile and copy their backlink plan?

Open a profile

Every competitor's name in a grid is a link: the Competitor column on Analyse → Backlinks → Competitor gaps and in the backlink profile's Competitors & gap tab, the Competitor column of Keyword gap, the competitors in Search settings and in a search's results, and Against a competitor in Technical SEO. Press it, or the Competitor profile button, and the profile slides in from the right. On Competitor gaps, the Competitor filter shows the websites linking to one competitor at a time.

Everything in the profile comes from what is already stored for this project: opening it never buys data and never shows another project's data.

What the profile shows

• Who they are: their domain and, when Google's local results or their website scan gave one, their business name.
• Watch list: whether they are one of the project's competitors. Competitors on the watch list are scanned, compared in your rank checks and can have their backlinks checked. Add to watch list and Remove from watch list change it (your plan sets how many competitors a project may have; removing one deletes its website scans).
• Reach: local, a certain area, region or nationwide. Until your team chooses one, the profile recommends one from your data and says why: Google's local results that list them, the towns and areas they were seen in (checks made from a town and markets set to a town), and the countries of the markets they rank in. Choose another under Classify as, with the town, area or region if you like.
• Where they rank: per market, how many of your searches they were found for, their best and average position and how many are in the top 3 and top 10; then each search with their position, yours and the date it was read. Positions come from your own rank checks and from competitor look-ups (Keyword gap's Check competitors again, used for 30 days). A "place" is their place among the websites in the first results, counted per website, so it can be a place higher than Google's own count.
• Their backlinks: from their latest backlink check: their authority, linking websites and backlinks, the strongest websites linking to them (and whether those link to you too), and how many link to them but not to you. "Not checked yet" when they have no finished check.
• Linked domains: other domains the data links to them: their pages redirecting to another domain, their subdomains in search results, their main website when the profile is of a subdomain, and the same business name in Google's local results under another domain. Click one to open its profile in the same panel; Back returns.

Analyse and act

• Check their backlinks: the competitor backlink check, with its price on the button. Only for competitors on the watch list, and only where competitor backlink data is set up; otherwise the profile says what is missing and offers Ask for early access.
• Look up the searches they show up for: Keyword gap's look-up for this competitor alone, using one of your plan's keyword gap refreshes.
• Copy their backlink plan: every website that links to them but not to you is approved and added to your Outreach (earned) list on Competitor gaps, strongest first, and one task is added to your AI plan (Authority). Websites you dismissed or put in a paid marketplace campaign are left as they are. Pressing it again adds only what is new and never a second task. How many it adds at once and the lowest domain rank it takes are settings.

Your watch list in Project settings

Settings → Project settings → General → Competitors lists the watch list with each competitor's reach: the recommendation, or what your team chose. Change it there, open the Competitor profile, or remove a competitor.

Who can do what

Anyone who can read the project can open a profile. Adding, removing and classifying competitors needs the right to manage competitors; copying a backlink plan and checking backlinks need the right to manage backlinks; looking up searches needs the right to run scans.