Reverse-engineering a competitor's edits: 3 documented runs

Cases where someone mapped a rival's link inserts and matched them.

— An SEO blog exported a competitor's referring domains, found 9 host pages taking edits, secured edits on 6 of the same — target closed a 4-position gap on the head term in a quarter.
— A Reddit thread describing the same tactic at smaller scale: 3 shared hosts, modest movement, but they note the outreach was easier because the host already sold edits.
— Also circulating: an agency cautioning that 4 of the competitor's links were unsellable (genuine editorial), so full replication wasn't possible.

Editor's note: the 'already sells edits' insight from the Reddit case is the practical takeaway — known-seller hosts cut outreach time.

Pick of the week: the 6-of-9 writeup — it quantifies what 'matching' a competitor actually achieved.