What is my competitor doing with these backlinks?

So I was checking a competitor's backlinks and using tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, Monitor Backlinks etc. I couldn't find anything suspicious or interesting at all: about 15-20 backlinks with poor anchor text on 12-15 domains. However, he's been ranking number 1 or number 2 for most keywords in a competitive area.

I now just installed SEO Spyglass and the software shows 2500 backlinks on 194 domains. But the thing is that most of these backlinks do not exist. The page does exist but when I check it there's no mention of the competitor. Plus, it doesn't make sense, one link is about photography, the other one is about fashion, the next one is about machinery etc. while he is in the computing area. Some websites are legit businesses so they wouldn't have any interest in putting a backlink. There's even a backlink from a French city website... like wtf?

Does anyone know what is happening?

I can't speak for the 2500backlinks but perhaps the 12-15 domains are PBN's. You said they are legit businesses, maybe they were legit businesses. He could have completely rebuilt them as they were before they expired. Just a thought.

Hidden sape links on hacked sites.

The 12-15 domains are just directories and forums. His website is less than 3 years old. It says he's a backlink on this page: ville-cognac.fr/Conseil-de-Quartier-du-25-septembre-2012.html but I obviously can't find anything and there's over 100 pages like that...

check the source code
You will find the links

I just ran a backlink update and it actually says that the backlinks are either missing or the page doesn't exist anymore.
I also checked the source code for some pages and couldn't find anything.
So how does he keep ranking?

SEOlink843579 said:

I just ran a backlink update and it actually says that the backlinks are either missing or the page doesn't exist anymore.

I also checked the source code for some pages and couldn't find anything.
So how does he keep ranking?

Click to expand...

check the pages again with a google referrer
so drop the url in google then click through but from a different browser and ip
The links may be cloaked