Hidding Backlinks from Competitors

H.lang · Thursday at 3:42 PM

Hi

So i am thinking about starting to hide my backlinks from my competitors, reason being that i noticed that the websites a step and two behind mine is copying all my backlinks straight out, so i am wondering how i can hide my backlinks from various SEO tools like Ahref and SEMrush, basically as many of them as possible, since i am planning on getting some good links soon and wanna keeep them to myself =)

Also will hiding my affect my DR or traffic in any way in Ahref or Semrush for example, does anyone have experience with this?

Much appreciated

Shaffay12 · Thursday at 3:43 PM

You can block some SEO crawlers through your robots.txt or firewall, but that won't hide links already discovered by other sources. I'd focus on building links competitors can't easily copy, like relevant partnerships and original content, since blocking tools won't protect every backlink.

H.lang · Thursday at 3:55 PM

Shaffay12 said:
You can block some SEO crawlers through your robots.txt or firewall, but that won't hide links already discovered by other sources. I'd focus on building links competitors can't easily copy, like relevant partnerships and original content, since blocking tools won't protect every backlink.

Okay and that would be done in my wp backend then i guess, understand that it dosent block already discovered backlinks, but i am more focused on the new ones im getting since they are 10x better and cost alot, im sure my competitors can afford themaswell since we are in the casino nisch, i just dont want them to find out about them

Do you know which SEO tools can be blocked?, and would it then make my DR frezee at the current point so to speak ?

jimmmbrooo · Thursday at 4:10 PM

If you are using cloud flare then there is option to block ahref and semrush bots but from my own experience trying that- it didn’t really stop they estimating my traffic and getting my backlinks.

Although it might be still working as I only applied it couple months back

hamzaiqbal1327 · Thursday at 4:13 PM

H.lang said:
Okay and that would be done in my wp backend then i guess, understand that it dosent block already discovered backlinks.

Bro it doesn't make sense, the backlinks are the links of your site on someone's other site (called inbound links). So if you block the crawlers on your website it will just hide the outbound backlinks (links on your website to other site) as they are still able to crawl those websites that are giving you inbound link.
So blocking Ahref or Semrush crawlers on your website will just block them to see outbound links on your website.

H.lang · Thursday at 4:17 PM

jimmmbrooo said:
If you are using cloud flare then there is option to block ahref and semrush bots but from my own experience trying that- it didn’t really stop they estimating my traffic and getting my backlinks.

Although it might be still working as I only applied it couple months back

Thanks, but not using cloudflare, just regular old WP

H.lang · Thursday at 4:18 PM

hamzaiqbal1327 said:
Bro it doesn't make sense, the backlinks are the links of your site on someone's other site (called inbound links). So if you block the crawlers on your website it will just hide the outbound backlinks (links on your website to other site) as they are still able to crawl those websites that are giving you inbound link.
So blocking Ahref or Semrush crawlers on your website will just block them to see outbound links on your website.

No man, so by blocking the crawlers from "listing" which sites link to me, this would result in them not showing up in ahref for example when someone adds my website url in ahref, its not about "blocking" backlinks, its about them not getting listed as pointing to my website, even when they do

Shaffay12 · Thursday at 4:18 PM

You can block some SEO crawlers through your hosting firewall or security plugin, but it won't guarantee your new backlinks stay hidden. Tools may discover them from other sources, and blocking crawlers won't freeze DR since Ahrefs updates it independently.

H.lang said:
Okay and that would be done in my wp backend then i guess, understand that it dosent block already discovered backlinks, but i am more focused on the new ones im getting since they are 10x better and cost alot, im sure my competitors can afford themaswell since we are in the casino nisch, i just dont want them to find out about them

Do you know which SEO tools can be blocked?, and would it then make my DR frezee at the current point so to speak ?

H.lang · Thursday at 4:20 PM

Shaffay12 said:
You can block some SEO crawlers through your hosting firewall or security plugin, but it won't guarantee your new backlinks stay hidden. Tools may discover them from other sources, and blocking crawlers won't freeze DR since Ahrefs updates it independently.

Great much appreciated =)

hamzaiqbal1327 · Thursday at 4:26 PM

H.lang said:
No man, so by blocking the crawlers from "listing" which sites link to me, this would result in them not showing up in ahref for example when someone adds my website url in ahref, its not about "blocking" backlinks, its about them not getting listed as pointing to my website, even when they do

Yeah i know it but blocking them on your website will just stop them crawling your website. But your backlinks are not on your website right, they are on other websites so when they will crawl that those websites (where your backlinks are) they will know and list them.
There are better ways to compete against your competitor (if you think that they can invest more than you on backlinks) as authority isn't only coming from backlinks.

H.lang · Thursday at 5:33 PM

hamzaiqbal1327 said:
Yeah i know it but blocking them on your website will just stop them crawling your website. But your backlinks are not on your website right, they are on other websites so when they will crawl that those websites (where your backlinks are) they will know and list them.
There are better ways to compete against your competitor (if you think that they can invest more than you on backlinks) as authority isn't only coming from backlinks.

I get your point, but still, that the competitors just randomly comes across the sites where my backlinks would be shown, is minimal, but thanks for your input =)

Steptoe · Thursday at 5:43 PM

This isn't feasible. You'd have to ask all the sites that link to you to block Ahrefsbot, SemrushBot etc from accessing the pages that contain your links. You blocking those bots on your own site does nothing, as the tools will still see a link from third party site > your site, and report that data when queried. Reference: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles...it-take-for-my-site-to-be-removed-from-ahrefs

H.lang · Thursday at 8:14 PM

Steptoe said:
This isn't feasible. You'd have to ask all the sites that link to you to block Ahrefsbot, SemrushBot etc from accessing the pages that contain your links. You blocking those bots on your own site does nothing, as the tools will still see a link from third party site > your site, and report that data when queried. Reference: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/79493-how-long-does-it-take-for-my-site-to-be-removed-from-ahrefs

i pretty sure your incorrect, i just need to block the Ahrefsbot, SemrushBot etc in my own robot.txt, anyway, the question has been answered, thanks for your input

jimmmbrooo · Friday at 5:08 AM

Steptoe said:
This isn't feasible. You'd have to ask all the sites that link to you to block Ahrefsbot, SemrushBot etc from accessing the pages that contain your links. You blocking those bots on your own site does nothing, as the tools will still see a link from third party site > your site, and report that data when queried. Reference: https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/79493-how-long-does-it-take-for-my-site-to-be-removed-from-ahrefs

Yeah that makes more sense, I was wrong before.

SEOMonster01 · Saturday at 6:50 PM

Steptoe's point is the key one here, and it explains why blocking crawlers on your own site alone will not do what you want. A referring page lives on another site, so a tool can still discover it by crawling that site, even if you block its crawler on yours. Historical data also stays visible for a time, and different tools use different data sources, so there is no single switch that removes a profile everywhere.

On your second question, a lower score in a third-party tool is not the same as a ranking change. Those scores are estimates based on what that tool can see. If you block a tool's crawler, its reported score may freeze or fall because it sees less, while your actual search traffic can stay the same, because Google uses its own crawl and ranking data. Just be careful not to block Googlebot itself, and do not confuse a tool's estimate with real performance. A more reliable approach is to focus on pages and topics that are harder to copy directly, such as original data, clear examples, and a distinct angle, rather than trying to keep referring pages secret.

H.lang · 2026-11-01T04:50:58+0000

SEOMonster01 said:
Steptoe's point is the key one here, and it explains why blocking crawlers on your own site alone will not do what you want. A referring page lives on another site, so a tool can still discover it by crawling that site, even if you block its crawler on yours. Historical data also stays visible for a time, and different tools use different data sources, so there is no single switch that removes a profile everywhere.

On your second question, a lower score in a third-party tool is not the same as a ranking change. Those scores are estimates based on what that tool can see. If you block a tool's crawler, its reported score may freeze or fall because it sees less, while your actual search traffic can stay the same, because Google uses its own crawl and ranking data. Just be careful not to block Googlebot itself, and do not confuse a tool's estimate with real performance. A more reliable approach is to focus on pages and topics that are harder to copy directly, such as original data, clear examples, and a distinct angle, rather than trying to keep referring pages secret.

Makes sense, much appreciated

Roronoa_Zoro · 2026-11-01T04:56:25+0000

Interested to see if its possible to hide backlinks from Ahrefs and SEMrush without impacting SEO. Has this been tested?

HenryObi · 2026-11-01T18:35:10+0000

H.lang said:
Hi

So i am thinking about starting to hide my backlinks from my competitors, reason being that i noticed that the websites a step and two behind mine is copying all my backlinks straight out, so i am wondering how i can hide my backlinks from various SEO tools like Ahref and SEMrush, basically as many of them as possible, since i am planning on getting some good links soon and wanna keeep them to myself =)

Also will hiding my affect my DR or traffic in any way in Ahref or Semrush for example, does anyone have experience with this?

Much appreciated

I don't think it's worth it though. If they're truly dedicated to copying your backlinks, they could still use Bing to see your backlinks.

Titans · 2026-11-02T09:07:17+0000

You can make backlink discovery harder, but you can't completely hide links that are publicly accessible. SEO tools collect data through their own crawlers, so blocking some crawlers may reduce what they can discover, but it won't guarantee that competitors can't find your links.

It also won't affect your actual Google rankings or organic traffic. Ahrefs and Semrush DR/authority metrics may change if they can no longer crawl certain data, but that's only a reporting difference.

Instead you can focus more on keeping your link building sources diversified and not using the same backlink patterns as your competitors.

Topiano · 2026-11-02T10:32:34+0000

If your competitor can copy your exact links, then that means you are not building that much of an authority link. I would suggest you look into links they can’t easily copy. That's your moat. Those kinds of links cant easily be replicated.

I will work more on the authority of your links and let the crawlers be. You don't have to block them. You're not building a PBN. It's a website for the public. Just work on the type of links that get linked to you.

For example if you build highly resourceful pages, that's your business moat. No one can copy that from you. If websites naturally link to you, then they can easily get links from all those pages that naturally link to you.

Hidding Backlinks from Competitors

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Elite Member

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Elite Member

Elite Member

Elite Member

Main Menu

Marketplace

Making Money

BlackHat World