How to get into '[competitor] alternatives' articles

To get your product listed in articles about alternatives to a competitor, find the alternatives posts that rank for that competitor, check you’d genuinely suit someone leaving it, and send the editor a short pitch that says why a switcher would pick you. Give them everything they need to add you: pricing, a free plan if you have one, one differentiator and a screenshot.

Alternatives posts are one part of listicle link building, and often the best part for smaller products. The reader has already decided to leave something, so they’re open to a name they haven’t heard. This guide covers which competitors to target, what editors look for, and how to write the pitch.

Key takeaways

• Choose competitors by search overlap and fit, not by size. The biggest name isn’t always your best target.
• Alternatives articles answer one question: “why leave X, and for what?” Your pitch should answer it too.
• Editors usually need a “best for” label, pricing, pros and cons, and a screenshot. Send them.
• Skip competitors’ own alternatives pages. Pitch independent and adjacent blogs.
• One pitch per post, naming where you’d fit, beats any template.

Why do alternatives articles matter for backlinks?

Alternatives articles reach buyers at the moment they’re open to switching, and they link to every product they recommend. Someone searching “Mailchimp alternatives” is unhappy with something specific: price, limits, complexity. An article that answers that is one of the few places a lesser-known product gets a fair hearing.

For links, the appeal is relevance. An alternatives post groups you with the products you actually compete with, on a page that ranks for a search your buyers make. That’s about as topically close as an editorial link gets.

Do alternatives pages rank?

Yes. “[product] alternatives” is a common search pattern, and search engines return pages built for it. When we searched “Asana alternatives” on 18 October 2026, the results split into four groups:

Notice how many of the results were written by other software companies. That’s typical, and it’s good news: the adjacent ones have every reason to make their list more useful and no reason to keep you off it. The mix varies by category, so check your own competitors’ results before deciding how much effort to spend.

Which competitors should you target?

Target the competitors whose alternatives searches return posts you’d genuinely fit, starting with three to five. Brand size is a poor guide. A huge incumbent’s alternatives posts may be crowded with enterprise suites, while a mid-sized rival with a similar audience might have smaller lists where you’d be an obvious addition. A quick competitor backlink analysis shows which rivals already earn links from editorial lists, which is a good sign there’s room for you too.

Use search overlap to choose:

Our search string builder generates the alternatives queries for every competitor you enter. The wider method, including how to log results, is in how to find every listicle in your niche.

Who should you avoid?

Two groups aren’t worth pitching. The first is competitors’ own blogs: a vendor publishing “[rival] alternatives” ranks itself first and won’t add another rival. The second is products so different from yours that the switch makes no sense. If a reader leaving that product wouldn’t consider yours, the editor won’t either.

What do editors need to add a tool to an alternatives post?

Editors need enough to write your entry without research: what you are, who you’re best for, what you cost, how you differ from the product being replaced, and something visual. Look at how existing entries are formatted and match it. Zapier’s Asana alternatives article, for example, opens with an at-a-glance table that has a “best for” column, then gives each tool a list of pros, a list of cons and a pricing line.

Send this checklist’s worth of information:

The more of this you hand over, the cheaper the edit. Our alternatives post email template shows how to fit it into a short email without turning it into a press release.

How do you pitch an alternatives article?

Keep it short, name the post, say why a switcher would pick you, and offer the details. Editors of alternatives posts get many pitches from products that don’t really replace the one in the title, so lead with the fit. Before you write, find the editor’s address rather than sending to a generic inbox.

A pitch with that shape, using a made-up product:

Subject: A free-plan option for your Asana alternatives list

Hi Priya, I read your “best Asana alternatives” post. Most of the tools you list start charging at three users. Tasklane is free for teams up to 10 and imports Asana projects in one step, which covers the two reasons your intro gives for switching.

Happy to send a two-line entry in the same format as the others, our pricing and a screenshot. I can also set up a test workspace.

Jordan

What makes it work:

• It proves the sender read the post. It references the intro’s stated reasons for switching.
• It answers the switcher’s question. Free for small teams, easy import.
• It costs the editor almost nothing. Entry, pricing and screenshot ready to go.
• It asks nothing in return. No link swap, no payment, no “dofollow” request.

Offering a test workspace is fine as long as it isn’t conditional on coverage. Google’s link spam policy lists “sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link” as a link scheme, so keep the offer about testing, not trading.

When should you follow up?

Once or twice, about a week apart, and each follow-up should add something. A new feature relevant to the post, a recent price change, or a specific suggestion (“you could add us under ‘best for small teams’”) gives the editor a new reason to look. Stop after the second follow-up. If the post is refreshed later, a fresh pitch with new information is reasonable. Our follow-up email template shows the shape.

What about ‘X vs Y’ comparison articles?

Head-to-head articles are related but harder. An “Asana vs Trello” post is built around two products, so adding a third only works when the article has a section for other options or the writer is comparing a category. Pitch those only when the post already has an “other options” section, and use the same switcher-focused angle as above. Our own head-to-head comparisons show the format these posts usually take.

How do you keep this going for every competitor?

The manual process works well for three to five competitors. It gets heavy when you add more, re-check results monthly and keep track of which editors you’ve already contacted. Once links land, keep checking that they stay live, because alternatives posts get refreshed often.

That’s the loop BacklinkGenie runs. It searches alternatives, comparison and “best X” posts for the competitors in your profile, never contacts the competitors you name, drops posts where you wouldn’t fit, finds and verifies the editor, and drafts one pitch per post for you to approve. How it works shows each step. If you want an example of the format, our own alternatives pages for link building tools follow the same structure editors use: who each option is best for, what it costs and where it falls short.

For the full set of listicle tactics, including roundups and resource pages, go back to the listicle link building hub. For the short step-by-step checklist, see our guide to getting listed in ‘best X’ and alternatives articles.