7 replies to this topic

[Alibonbon]

I am struggling to find a reliable go-to link analysis tool. Free would be great, but I would be open to a modestly priced tool if it is reliable.

Ideally, I would like something that gives me a comprehensive inbound link list, anchor text and nofollow info. PR rank would be a nice value-add but certainly not necessary. (I understand that PR is antiquated, but I admit to using it from time to time as a base level metric when examining a link profile.)

Historically I have used Webmaster Tools, the Yahoo link search function (sadly, no longer exist), Link Diagnosis, and Majestic SEO. I have used the link: command in Google, but that just returns a sample set and Webmaster Tool's data is more comprehensive. I also have a SEOMoz Pro account that has a link profile feature... I simply can't use this on every account and prospect.

So as many have probably noticed, results vary - and I accept that there has always been and will always be some variance - but in the past year it seems like the results are becoming progressively more crappy and disparate. Are there any tools out there that I am missing? I suspect I am out of luck on this and will just have to deal with the ambiguity, but I thought I would check with the HR community and see if I am missing something.

Many thanks!

Ali

[chrishirst]

And all that link counting tells you what exactly?

[StraightUpSEO]

I enjoyed the days where we could check back links easily. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

Webmaster Tools, is the best at this point. You should really only be worried about loosing high-quality back links, and WMT or Majestic are the best IMO.

[Jill]

Try ahrefs.com.

[chrishirst]

Webmaster Tools, is the best at this point.

Do you REALLY think that Google are going to tell you which links actually count for anything??

Personally, and on the extremely rare occasions I actually take any notice or bother to look at links in webmaster tools it looks to be the worst bunch of scraper sites and other assorted crud they could actually find.

[StraightUpSEO]

Do you REALLY think that Google are going to tell you which links actually count for anything??

Personally, and on the extremely rare occasions I actually take any notice or bother to look at links in webmaster tools it looks to be the worst bunch of scraper sites and other assorted crud they could actually find.

I've never had that problem I guess..

If WMT is picking up scraped content and counting them =links, they would definitely count your good links, why would they not?

I can probably speak for everybody when I say that it's obvious the back link system is flawed severely.

[Alibonbon]

Right on. I have not used ahref.com before. I'll check it out and run it by my team. Thank you!

And all that link counting tells you what exactly?

Links have a time and a place. They can give me an idea of a site's engagement / past activity, who's naturally linking, what tactics the client have used in the past (because they aren't always honest or actually know) and to gauge whether or not someone has bought craptastic paid links. I also use the link profile to examine competitors' links. Lastly, I include a link sample when folks pay me to audit their site. There is a time and place for link audits. In fact, I probably don't monitor link profile as often as I should... but at a start of a campaign, I always do.

Thanks Jill and StarightUPSEO! If anyone else has suggestions, please let me know. Gracias!

p.s. I tried to upload an image, but my "My Profile" is delivering a 404. You are probably aware, but just in case, I thought I would pass that along.

[thomasr]

ahrefs is good but Blekko is starting to come up in the world.

type in the full url with /seo at the end

http://www.site.com /seo

you can get to the backlink data that way