Quick article contents
What this online tool does
This tool creates a practical link-building strategy from real backlink exports. Upload the competitor backlink profile and, optionally, your own website backlink profile. The script removes spam rows and calculates the strategy either with your existing links subtracted or from competitors only.
Unlike the expired-domain value calculator, this page does not estimate link price or purchase value. The goal is different: to produce a 6-month and 12-month link-building plan split by text links, crowd links, image links, and homepage links.
Which files you can upload
The best source is a backlinks CSV export from Ahrefs. If you have XLSX, save it as CSV first. The parser looks for standard columns such as Referring page URL, Domain rating, Anchor, Type, Nofollow, Is spam, Domain traffic, Target URL, and close alternatives.
- Competitor file: a combined backlink export for several competitors.
- Your website file: an optional current backlink export for your money site. If skipped, the calculation runs without subtracting your own links.
- Number of competitors: used to turn the combined competitor export into an average profile for one competitor.
- Spam filter: removes Ahrefs Is spam = true rows and additional auto-spam signals in anchors, titles, and URLs.
Why this calculation is more practical
You should not take the total number of competitor backlinks and copy it blindly. If your competitor file contains 3 websites, the right benchmark is the average profile of one competitor. That is why the tool divides the cleaned competitor profile by the number of competitors before comparing it with your own website if you uploaded your profile. If your profile is skipped, the cleaned competitor benchmark becomes the base plan.
This is not a magic SEO formula. It is a practical benchmark: which link types competitors already have, which link types your site already has when your own profile is uploaded, and where the real gap is. The gap is then distributed across 6 and 12 months so the plan looks more natural and does not create a sudden backlink spike.
What is compared
- Text links: normal text links without crowd pages and image links.
- Crowd links: links from forums, discussions, topic/thread/page/post URLs, and similar pages.
- Image links: links where the export type is image.
- Homepage links: a separate placement-quality benchmark. They may overlap with text or image links, so they are not always summed as a separate budget.
- Average DR: used as a quality benchmark for each link type.
- Follow / nofollow and anchors: shown in the summary so the strategy does not become one-sided.
How to read the result
If competitors have an average of 60 clean text links and your site already has 24, the gap is 36 links. For a 6-month strategy, that is about 6 text links per month. For a 12-month strategy, that is about 3 text links per month. The same logic is applied to crowd links, image links, and homepage links.
The report can be copied as text or downloaded as XLSX. The Excel file contains separate sheets for the summary, 6-month strategy, 12-month strategy, clean competitor links, clean links for your website when uploaded, and excluded spam rows.
Ahrefs CSV → link strategy
Link Building Strategy Generator
Upload one or several competitor CSV/TXT files. Your own backlink profile is optional: if uploaded, the tool subtracts existing links; if not, the plan is built from competitors only.
Calculating the backlink strategy
Preparing files for analysis...
Ready link strategy
Upload one or several competitor files. Your own profile is optional: without it, the strategy is calculated from competitors only, with no own-link subtraction.
How the calculation works
- The competitor file is cleaned from spam and divided by the number of competitors to build an average one-competitor benchmark.
- Your own website file is optional. If uploaded, it is cleaned by the same filter and subtracted from the gap. If skipped, the strategy is built from competitors only.
- The tool calculates the gap for text links, crowd links, image links, and homepage links.
- The gap is divided into 6 and 12 months. This gives a smoother acquisition plan without a sudden backlink spike.
- Average competitor DR is used as a donor-quality benchmark, not as a strict requirement.
FAQ about the link strategy tool
Which files are suitable for the link strategy calculation?
A backlinks CSV export from Ahrefs works best. You can also upload a TXT file with one URL per line. If your report is in XLSX, save it as CSV first.
Why is the competitor file divided by the number of websites?
When one file contains backlinks for several competitors, the total volume should not be compared with one website directly. The tool divides the cleaned competitor profile by the number of sites and builds an average one-competitor benchmark.
How does the tool remove spam links?
It removes rows where Ahrefs marks Is spam = true. It also applies an automatic filter for long SEO-spam anchors, suspicious words, suspicious titles and URLs, and CJK characters in anchors or pages.
What does the 6- and 12-month strategy mean?
It is a monthly distribution of the backlink gap. The 6-month plan is more active, while the 12-month plan is smoother and better suited for gradual backlink profile growth.
Is this calculation an exact SEO forecast?
No. It is not a ranking guarantee or a universal SEO formula. It is a practical benchmark that shows which link types competitors have, what your site already has, and which gaps should be covered first.