12 replies to this topic

[paranoidandroid]

Hi all, it's been a while since I last posted - nice to see the site has a new design.

In the past I used a Firefox extension called SearchStatus to check backlinks - it used Yahoo Site Explorer to provide the results, which of course is no longer available.

Can anyone please recommend an alternative? Would rather not have to use a dedicated application, but would consider that option if there is one that works on a Mac (OS X Lion).

Paul

Edited by paranoidandroid, 08 January 2012 - 01:22 PM.

[edf]

Paul - Since Yahoo Site Explorer went away I've been using Blekko.com. Click the SEO link, then Inbound Links (under Domain SEO).

It does a good job of finding my backlinks, so I assume it does for my competitor's sites as well.

Ed

Edited by edf, 08 January 2012 - 01:32 PM.

[paranoidandroid]

Thanks Ed, but I've not had much luck with Blekko.com. SearchStatus has included it as an alternative to Yahoo, but for some reason it can never find any backlinks for the sites I check.

[jonbey]

MajesticSEO?

[paranoidandroid]

thanks jonbey - that looks more promising

[edf]

My issue with MajesticSEO is that they want you to allow their bot, User-Agent: MJ12bot access to your site.

After doing a search for: MJ12bot
I decided to pass.

Ed

[marting]

Backlink of any particular website can be checked in Google.Just search the syntax : link:www.xyz.com in Google,it will give you the list of sites which has given it the backlinks.

[glyn]

I don't check anymor,its diversionary, just focus on the road ahead

[JVRudnick]

majestic....works perfectly! up to date daily, new charts/reports too!

would HIGHLY suggest you check for same - their index it's said is bigger than googles, eh!

:-)

Jim

[iamlost]

I'm more to glyn's point of view: that it's diversionary - with one exception I mention below - with the proviso that knowing which backlinks produce and that can only be determined via a site's log files (or to some degree by analytics software). Subsequently, of course, one can identify those that produce below average/mean conversion and investigate why, which may be an extremely more productive use of time than chasing new links.

The exception is in two parts: (1) you believe in doing competitor backlink analysis (I still have heard no compelling reason to do so except morbid curiosity) and (2) you like to (or have to) produce apparent SEO stats and charts to impress the ignorant.

There are sources wthat can likely show you most, if not all, of your backlinks, i.e. Majestic, SEOmoz, but neither can tell you:
* which of those a particular SE has indexed - nor to which index.
* what values a particular SE has attached to a particular link.

[DonnaFontenot]

The only uses I have for competitor backlink analysis are:

1. Gauge the competition. Do they have a bazillion extremely high quality links to compete against, or are they ranking well based on a bunch of crappy directory links?

2. Dig up some ideas for places that might give me a link. And no, I'm not necessarily talking about getting links from the same places, but just spur ideas for related topics/sites that might be interested in linking.

Otherwise, yep, kinda sorta a waste of time. Or at least it is for me as one person. Now perhaps if I was an agency with 50 link builders working for me, then I might be able to let them gnaw through all those links to find some gems that might work well for me too. But I know I don't have that kind of time by myself, that's for sure.

[Michael_Martinez]

We all do backlink analysis. I just rant and rave about how some people seem to spend so much time trying to build their SEO strategies around backlink analysis. The learning curve seems to be steeper than we really acknowledge, or else there are just a LOT of people trying to learn SEO.

Backlink profiles give me an idea of what the other guys are doing for their search marketing. The ones who have all the crappy links are usually the ones who worry me the least. I know what they'll be doing 24/7.

The ideal backlink reporting tool would tell you:

• Where all your backlinks are
• Which ones are indexed in which search engines
• Which ones are helping in which search engines

Good luck finding THAT tool.

[Rachael]

You will come across many online tools for checking the backlinks of any web page. I have been using the SEOmoz tool, its a paid tool but it is very efficient in terms of providing all the website related information.