22 November 2011
It's been on the cards for many months now, but the day has finally arrived and Yahoo has retired it's Site Explorer facility. For years, Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE) has been a favourite resource for SEOs and backlink builders everywhere. YSE could be used to check backlinks to any page on a website and included the ability to download backlink information for further analysis. The facility was used extensively by third party software developers to produce a wide range of free and paid backlink analysis tools.
The following notice was recently posted on the Yahoo Blog to inform users of the impending closure of the service.
YSE Alternatives
Now that Yahoo Site Explorer is gone, people are asking what alternatives are available for backlink research? In their notice Yahoo mention Bing Webmaster Tools. However, this does not even come close as a replacement. Like Google Webmaster Tools, Bing only provides information about websites you can control and requires verification before you can access backlink data. In short, Webmaster Tools cannot be used for competitive backlink research.
Free Backlink Checkers
Google
Some backlink information has always been available in Google by using the link:yourdomain.com command. Unfortunately the results are extremely inaccurate and
some say deliberately misleading. So, please be warned - steer clear of Google for backlink research.
Blekko
Blekko is one of the better free alternatives for checking backlinks. You can explore the details of any site by entering
the URL followed by the slashtags /links OR /domainslinks. Clicking on the SEO link in the results page returns a variety of backlink information.
Unfortunately, you can't export or download information from the site which somewhat limits the functionality of Blekko as a fully fledged backlink analysis solution.
However, if you just want to run a quick check with basic functionality, Blekko is a reasonably good option.
Reverse Internet
Another site worth checking out is Reverse Internet. Just enter your domain name and Reverse Internet returns
a wide range of competitive intelligence data including information about backlinks. Reverse Internet is on a par with Bekko in terms of functionality.
Backlink Checkers with Free and Paid Options
A number of services offer limited backlink analysis for free with access to full data for subscribers.
Open Site Explorer
Open Site Explorer gives you access to the first 100 results for free. The interface is very user friendly
and displays a wide range of useful information such as total number of links, number of linking root domains, link anchor text, page authority and domain authority of the
linking page. To access full details you must sign up for a Pro account with SEOMoz.
SEO Attack
SEO Attack provides various levels of backlink data for free with more information available for subscribers.
A free account allows you to run up to 10 searches per day and view the first 100 results. The interface is very user friendly and data is taken from SEOMoz and Majestic
SEO. You can view all the top pages from either a domain or a page and all the top pages linking to any url sorted by Page Juice Power. Anchor text information is also
provided along with a Link Quality score. SEO Attack claims to offer more and better information that Yahoo Site Explorer even for free subscribers. Whether or not you
agree with their claim, the service is definitely worth checking out. Paid subscriptions which allow a higher number of searches and more advanced features start at
$9.97 per month which is cheap by comparison with many other paid services.
Paid Backlink Checkers
SEOMoz
SEOMoz is the Big Daddy of SEO and Social Media tools with prices starting at $99 per month. It's important to note
that SEOMoz offers a whole range of tools for this price as well as full access to it's backlink analysis service via Open Site Explorer. SEOMoz is geared more towards
SEO agencies, marketing professionals, and businesses with deep pockets to invest in their SEO efforts.
Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO offers a dedicated backlink analysis service with a wide range of powerful features. The Site Explorer
includes sumary information about domains, sub domains and URLs ibcluding the type of backlinks, the type of domains the backlink comes from and the anchor text. Historical
backlink information is also available, showing when backlinks were first discovered on a month by month basis. Backinks can be sorted according to their AC score to
determine which links are the most valuable, making it easy to assess sites for any backlinking campaigns. Majestic SEO subscriptions start at £29.99 per month.
iBacklinksPro
iBacklinksPro may be a good solution for anyone who only wants to run a limited number of backlink
searches. The pricing model works on a pay as you go basis allowing you to buy a set number of credits depending on how many reports you need. At the lower end of the scale,
you can purchase 15 credits for just $8.99 which lets you run reports on 15 websites analysing up to 10,000 links per site.
If you require help with your backlinking campaign or would like to develop a backlinking strategy contact us today to see how we can help. For more information call: 024 7655 1111 or email: info@currant.it
