Earlier this week, I came across an article by Michael Martinez about why competitive link analysis wastes your time, which could have been inspired by two posts about the same subject that had been published earlier this week. Although I enjoy reading most of the long posts Michael writes, and I agree with some of the points he makes in the article, I absolutely disagree with his headline and conclusion.
In my opinion, starting an online marketing campaign without a competitive link analysis is like starting a company with only half of a marketing plan. You want to be well aware of your surroundings, before you enter a market or start a new project. Sure, there are plenty examples of companies that succeeded without one, but I think that there are over twice that amount of companies that would still exist today, if they had made a thorough plan when they started. “A well prepared man is worth two others”, as a French saying goes.
Source: http://wiep.net/talk/link-building/why-a-link-analysis-is-anything-but-a-waste-of-time/#ixzz1C3sjnCYI
