Djarot Studio

Backlink 101 Day 29 : 7 Ultimate Backlink Tools

Jarot, June 29, 2008 6:02 am.

It 's been one helluva busy month this June, and it seems i failed to keep my commitment to write this Backlink 101 topic, 1 subject for each day. It was kinda hard to catch up with many sites I should 've work on my daily work. So, I 've decided to skip the past days.. and guess what?
I 'm gonna close this June with some ultimate Backlink resources for us blogger / webmaster would definitely need. It's the Backlink Checker Tools.

Why We Need the Tools?

Anchor text is a major ranking factor - it is hard to manipulate - well, at least it is getting harder now after Google started its anti-paid-links war and got really good at spotting link schemes. Thus by exploring the anchor text of the site backlinks, you will:

1. Get an idea of the competitors’ link building strategy
2. Understand what people think of your site
3. Get help with your keyword research (webmasters usually focus on their most important keywords when building links).

So based on Ann 's awesome article about the same subject, here 're the 7 Ultimate tools to check our site's backlinks in regard gaining the above purposes.

The 7 Ultimate Backlink Tools :

1. BacklinkWatch - Tool Type: Web Based

BacklinkWatch is a bit stuffed with advertisements and slow, but it’s free. It will take time visiting each page linking to your site and find the anchor text.

2. Smart backlinks tool - Tool Type: Web Based

Smart backlinks tool is the next Web based tool. Offers a handy FireFox extension and viewing options (anchor text on/off; nofollow on/off) speeding up the checking process.

3. Analyze Back Links - Tool Type: Web Based

Analyze Back Links a new but promising tool also allowing for a number of useful settings and ofcourse anchor text being one of them. Some figures however - total backlinks, for examples - seems inaccurate, or I didn’t understand what they stand for.

4. Link Diagnosis - Tool Type: Web Based, Firefox Extension Required.

Link Diagnosis tool takes a lot of time but that’s worth it. The utility offers the widest variety of sorting options, anchor text is one of them, enabling you to quickly find any page you need. The result will include how many PR your site has, anchor texts, no-follow information and more.

5. Seobook BackLink Analyzer - Tool Type: Desktop application (Windows-only)

Seobook BackLink Analyzer is a great free application that has a number of useful options:

• backlinking TLD
• backlink anchor text
• linked page URL
• backlinking site IP address
• linking page outbound links
• backlinking domain Dmoz and Yahoo directory presence
• backlink nofollow flag.

It also has a handy export feature, and offers overall backlink summary, link summary per IP address and keyword-in-anchor-text summary. One more promising option I haven’t tested effectively include reciprocal link check.

6. SEO SpyGlass - Tool Type: Desktop Application (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X)

SEO SpyGlass is another impressive - paid application - that offers an exhaustive backlinking report:

• backlinking page Google PR
• backlinking page title
• reciprocal link presence
• link anchor text
• linked page URL
• backlink page outbound and total links
• backlink domain IP address
• backlinking site Alexa rank
• backlinking domain Dmoz and Yahoo directory mentions

You can also save the project and enjoy a range of analysis options: anchor text, PageRank distribution, etc.

7. BackLinks Master - Tool Type: Desktop Application (Windows only)

BackLinks Master looks neat but I had some problems to get it running. The good news is that it’s free and has a number of good features:

• you can view all links or links sorted by domain
• it will also check the anchor text and link type.

So what about you? Got other tools you use the most to analyze your - or your competitor's - backlinks? Feel free to share them here!