For many prolific real estate agents, SEO has become an essential facet of their lead generation, surpassing printed media, direct marketing, etc. And although algorithms used by search engines continue to evolve and place weight on different metrics, links remain a constant factor having a big impact on SERP’s. Up until Yahoo Site Explorer perished, it was a favorite tool among SEO’s for link analysis – particularly when researching competitor’s link profiles. Yahoo Site Explorer continues under Bings Webmaster Tools, but as it only provides data for a webmaster’s own sites, it has left many SEO-savvy agents looking for alternatives to YSE – particularly if the cost (if any) is minimal. With that said, here are a few options for those searching for a link-analysis tool:
LinkDiagnosis
The first thing you will notice about LinkDiagnosis is the amount of information provided:. linking url and its PageRank/Page Authority (and added bonus, Domain Authority), number of outbound links, landing page, link’s anchor text, and other data that was simply above my level of understanding. As comprehensive as the data is, it requires quite a bit of time to run full reports, even under the fastest setting. Also, a Firefox extension must be downloaded in order to view full reports, which can then be exported as CSV files for further analysis.
OpenSiteExplorer
Powered by the SEO geniuses at SEOMoz, OpenSiteExplorer is an excellent tool . Data is broken down summarily, such as Title and Url of linking page, Anchor Text, Page Authority (which some argue is a better metric than PageRank when gauging a page’s value/trust), Domain Authority, and nofollow attribute. With a free account, information is limited to only the top 5 links. For those who are willing to shell out the money, sign up for a free 30 day free trial and memberships start at $99 thereafter. Use in conjunction with the popular SEOmoz toolbar and link analysis becomes as efficient as it gets.
Majestic SEO
Very well known among professional SEO’s, the Majestic SEO Site Explorer and Backlink History tools provide useful information in a very user-friendly format. Choose between the Historic Index and the Fresh Index (from the past 30 days). With over 20 Billion pages in their database, it is comprehensive and link data includes top backlinks (including anchor text), top pages, number of linking domains, referring IP addresses, etc. Paid subscriptions start at £29.99 but with the amount of information provided, it is worth it for those who are serious about planning and executing link strategies.
Blekko
Blekko is a search engine and signing up for a free account is required in order to access SEO information. Upon searching a url on Blekko, there is a ‘SEO’ link below each individual result, which provides a fair amount of information – including inbound links, crawl data, and duplicate content. Link information is broken down by State and Country of origin, linking domain (not specific url though), number of links from linking domain, and host rank. Upon clicking on the number of links from a specific linking domain, the results show the linking page, the anchor text, and the landing page. Although not the most efficient of set ups, the sheer amount of information is worth the time and effort. A caveat, their database is much smaller than those of Google or Bing and the SEO information provided is reflective of such, particularly for non-US based websites.
This is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of ALL available link-analysis tools, just a brief review of ones that have been used by the author since the demise of YSE. Comment away and share your favorites.