The Professional Web Design Directory performs reviews on tools that we feel help web designers improve the SEO and performance of their site and their clients websites.
A websites position within Google’s listings is strongly determined by how many links are pointing at the site. It is therefore very useful to know what and how many and what kind of websites are linking to yours for a number of reasons.
One reason would be to find out the types of sites which are interested in the information or services you provide. You may then be able to target your information to these sites in order to attract more backlinks. Another reason is to track backlinks from sites who you may have agreed a link exchange with.
Below are some reviews on a list of backlink tools which are totally free to use:
With no need to download any software, Backlink Watch is a really easy and quick method of checking backlinks to your site.
To find out who is linking to your site simply visit backlinkwatch.com, where you will find a search box asking you to enter your URL. Once you have entered your domain just click on the check backlinks button and within a couple of seconds you should be greeted with a list of all the web pages linking to your site. In addition to this it will also provide information on what anchor text sites have used when linking to your website, how many outgoing links each of these sites have and it will also flag up any links where they have used a nofollow code.
The two down points about this service is that Backlink Watch is supposed to display the Page Rank of each page linking to your site but this service does not always work. Plus the site does not operate in real time, meaning that the backlinks may take a while to be updated.
Rating: 6/10
The Link Diagnosis site needs a Firefox extension before you are able to access any reports. If you try to use the Link Diagnosis function you will be prompted to download the extension and given a download link. The installation is very simple and quick allowing the user to restart Firefox and access reports within a few seconds.
Link Diagnosis provides the user with a search box. The search may take a couple of minutes but provides website designers with a detailed list of the backlinks pointing towards your website. Like the Backlink Watch website, Link Diagnosis includes information on the page URL, anchor text, and outbound links. In addition it also allows designers to see Page Rank, link strength and link history (how old the link is).
Although Link Diagnosis takes slightly longer than Backlink Watch to use, you can be assured that this is a more reliable source with more useful information in an easy to view format.
Rating: 9/10
The Open Site Explorer has been created by the same team who run the SEOmoz website. There is no need to download any extensions, although you are required to fill out a form to join for free.
Once again the service given provides information on the linking URL’s and anchor text. However instead of providing information about Page Rank, the site has chosen to provide information about page authority and domain authority of the linking websites, based on the amount and quality of inbound links. A nice feature that Open Site Explorer has included is information about your own web pages and domain authority, which gives a good indication of how well you site is doing.
Although this site gives the visitor some unique and interesting statistics, the data is not so easy to view quickly and will only display the authority information on the first 20 sites without upgrading to a pro account.
Rating: 8/10
Online Utility – Backlink domain analyzer
The Online Utility website has a basic backlink domain analyzer. This backlink analyzer does not give out as much detailed information as competitors, with no information on anchor text or page rank. However the way it provides information on these backlinks is unique and maybe useful to certain web designers. Instead of displaying information in a random list or by page rank, Online Utility has sorted backlinks by domain type. For example it will show all backlinks from .com sites, then .org sites and so on.
Plus you are told how many backlinks you are receiving from each domain. This service is very quick, making this a useful tool if you just wish to search who has linked to your site. However its not so good for an in depth analysis of all your backlinks.
Rating: 5/10
At first glance the SEO Spyglass does not appear very user friendly. When you first visit the website link-assistant.com you will find a red button called ‘Download free edition’ and with all the promotional content on this page you get the feeling you will be asked to pay a fee at some point. Don’t worry this does not happen and once you have download the software, which will take around 30 minutes you will gain an application that will give you an easy to search and completely comprehensive backlink tool matching the Link Diagnosis site with similar functions. However being a slower application to use and access I have marked it one point less.
Rating: 8/10
Google webmaster tools – Links to your site
Google webmaster tools is surprisingly basic for checking backlinks. However being a Google tool you can be assured that you are getting very reliable information. Although it doesn’t contain any information about Page Rank or anchor text, Google has provided information about when the backlink was added, a very useful piece of information that none of the other backlink tools show.
Rating: 7/10
Yahoo Site Explorer is also quite basic for checking backlinks. Once again very reliable, but not containing that vital information on Page Rank or anchor text. What Yahoo Site Explorer does have is a report spam button which is very useful to break any association with sites you would not wish to be affiliated with. You can explore the sites that have linked to yours, but this method is not as easy to assess the backlinks quickly.
Rating: 7/10
Special note
Although I have marked Link Diagnosis with the highest rating, I strongly recommend that you try the Open Site Explorer for its neat function to measure how successful your site is doing for the amount of quality links you have built.
