What Is Media Intelligence?

Media Intelligence performs competitor backlink gap analysis. It compares your competitors' backlink profiles against yours to identify high-value domains that link to competitors but not to your site. These are proven link sources: they already cover content in your space.

For high-authority domains, ILLIXIS also extracts journalist and author contact information to enable direct outreach.

URL: /pr/media-intelligence/

Available on: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans.


How It Works

Automated Scanning

ILLIXIS runs competitor gap analysis monthly:

  1. Retrieves competitor backlink profiles using domain intersection analysis
  2. Compares against your referring domains to find gaps
  3. Scores gap domains by authority, relevance, and link count
  4. Extracts contact information for high-DA domains (journalists, editors, authors)
  5. Surfaces actionable results on your Media Intelligence page

Opportunity Details

Each competitor gap shows:

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| Domain | The site that links to competitors but not you |
| Domain Authority | Authority score of the linking domain |
| Competitors Linked | Which of your competitors this domain links to |
| Link Count | How many links this domain gives to competitors |
| Contact Info | Journalist/editor name and publication (when available) |
| Quality Score | Combined score (0-100) based on all factors |

Taking Action

For each gap opportunity:

  1. Review the domain to understand what content they link to
  2. Check if you have relevant content to pitch
  3. Click "Generate Outreach" to create a personalized pitch
  4. Review and edit the draft (introduces your content, explains why it's relevant to their audience)
  5. Send to the contact (or research the right contact if none extracted)
  6. Track status (Pending, Contacted, Won, Lost)

Triggering Manual Scans

Click "Run Scan" on the Media Intelligence page to trigger an immediate analysis. Gap analysis is the most compute-intensive scan and may take 2-3 minutes.


Understanding Gap Analysis

What Makes a Good Gap Opportunity?

  • High domain authority (DA 30+) passes meaningful link equity
  • Multiple competitor links means the domain actively covers your space
  • Content relevance indicates you have something to pitch
  • Contact information available reduces research time

Why Some Competitors Show More Gaps

  • Competitors with larger link profiles naturally produce more gap domains
  • Competitors in adjacent niches may have links from domains irrelevant to you
  • Review opportunity relevance before acting on every gap

Best Practices

Do:

  • Focus on domains that link to multiple competitors (higher intent to cover your space)
  • Create content that fills the specific gap before reaching out
  • Use extracted contact info to pitch the right person
  • Add discovered contacts to your Media Contacts CRM

Don't:

  • Reach out without relevant content to offer
  • Target domains far outside your niche just because they have high DA
  • Ignore the gap context (understand why they link to your competitor)

Troubleshooting

Few Gaps Found

  • Your link profile may already be strong relative to competitors
  • Try adding competitors with different backlink profiles
  • Check that competitors are correctly configured in Settings

Contact Information Missing

  • Not all domains have extractable journalist contacts
  • For high-priority gaps without contacts, research the right person manually
  • Contacts are added to Media Contacts CRM automatically when found

Related Features


Need help? Contact support or check the ILLIXIS Help Center.

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