Backlink Analysis: How Real Startups Find Links That Actually Grow SEO

Author

Alex Dro
November 27, 2025

Hey 👋

Not all backlinks help your SEO. Some do nothing. Others can even hurt your website.

If you want links that bring real authority, rankings, and traffic, you need proper backlink analysis. And the best way to do it? Learn from competitors who are already winning.

Today, I’m breaking down a real startup case and showing exactly how they use backlinks and expired domains to grow fast.

When you analyse competitor backlinks, you can clearly see:

  • Where your competitors get links from

  • Which websites publish their content

  • What type of content performs best

  • New platforms where you can publish too

This helps you find growth points and build a smarter SEO strategy step by step.

Real case: Acquire.com

I chose Acquire because they:

  • Have strong SEO traffic

  • Use expired domains as a growth strategy

  • Focus heavily on organic search

Using SimilarWeb, you can quickly see:

  • Traffic sources

  • Visit duration

  • Geography

  • Engagement metrics

Acquire gets almost 30% of traffic from organic search and has an average visit duration of 2m 29s. That’s a strong signal of quality content and good SEO.

Definitely worth studying.

Here are the tools I recommend:

  • Shows backlinks

  • Anchors

  • Domain authority

  • Link quality

Perfect for deep competitor analysis.

  • Shows first 20 backlinks

  • Domain Rating (DR)

  • URL Rating (UR)

  • Dofollow vs Nofollow links

Only dofollow links pass authority and help rankings.

Smart growth trick: expired domains

Acquire uses a clever strategy many people miss.

When small startups shut down, their domains often expire. These domains still have:

  • Backlinks

  • Authority

  • Traffic

Acquire buys these expired domains and redirects them to relevant pages on their own website. This transfers trust and traffic instantly.

Example: microassets.co

  • 144 backlinks

  • 52 linking websites

  • Authority score: 17/100

After being acquired, it now redirects to Acquire, sending all its SEO value to them.

Tools I personally use

Here’s my quick stack for backlink analysis:

With these tools, you can build a clean, relevant, and strong backlink profile.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, more real SEO tactics and startup growth strategies are coming soon.

Talk soon,

Alex Dro Solo Entrepreneur & SEO Writer

P.S. Want to find high-quality backlink opportunities automatically? Try the GoneDomains Backlink Finder and start uncovering SEO gold ✨