How to isolate a competitor's first link-build day

How to isolate a competitor's first link-build day
Word is half the industry sorts referring domains by traffic and calls it analysis. The real tell is the first wave. Here's the teardown sequence multiple operators run:
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Pull the new referring domains report in Ahrefs, sort by First seen ascending, not by DR
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Find the date where 8-15 domains land inside a 72-hour window — that's a campaign ignition, not organic
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Grab the anchors used that week. If they're all exact-match money terms, you found a paid push, not editorial
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Cross-check those domains against Majestic's Topical Trust Flow. One shared category = same vendor list
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Note the link velocity per day after ignition. A steady 3-5/day drip means a managed program, not a one-off blast
Do this across three competitors and the same 'seed' domains keep reappearing. That's your shared network. Watch this space.