Find competitors (i.e. similar websites and/or pages in your niche) with many high-authority inbound links (research)
Figure out how competitors are building links (learn)
Replicate/steal their tactics (replicate)

It helps you understand several key things about your competitors:

  • Get a behind-the-scenes look at your competitor’s backlink profile, and why they rank for different search terms
  • The specific strategies and tactics used to land quality links
  • The growth of their link profile (are they dedicating a lot of resources?)
  • The types of content attracting the most backlinks