The team at SheerSEO recently launched a brand new Site Explorer at SheerExporer.com. It's totally free to use (as you can see from the screenshot below) but they do ask that you register to use the tool.
I started playing around with it when they contacted me to see if I'd be interested in reviewing it here on ClickNewz. Of course the first thing I did was pop in my own sites. But then... I got smart, and all stealth-like, and started using it to find really cool backlink opportunities! 😉 ...
There used to be a Yahoo Site Explorer tool that was really popular, but that's been down for years. People would use it to see how many backlinks they had, and of course to look at how many backlinks competing sites had.
Here's the link to the tool:
http://www.SheerExplorer.com
Type a domain name in right there on the main page and you can see all the different data it gives you. It will tell you the Top Pages on that domain, and list the Inbound Links. You can see whether they are dofollow or nofollow, exactly what they link to (the specific page), the number of Outbound Links on that page, etc.
Here's a screenshot too, so you can see a live example:
This gives me a whole slew of sites & blogs to explore for high quality link building opportunities! 😀
Now I'm not talking about spammy backlink stalking. Just smart research, and finding who links to what and why - and coming up with creative ideas to do the same.
All you have to do is type in a "competing domain" (the domain of a Market Leader in your niche), and then look through the Inbound Links. There is a small arrow in the bottom right corner in the first column on the left - that will open the page with the link in a new tab or window.
From there you can go through the list and start making notes about who to connect with, where to submit your content, and other creative ideas for getting high quality backlinks from some of the same - or similar - sources. Easy!
I found easy places to submit recipes (for my niche blog), and I found bloggers who "link freely" and obviously love to find cool stuff on other blogs to talk about (hey! I need to connect with that blogger! *wink*)
A note about SheerSEO: I wasn't familiar with the company before they contacted me, and haven't used any of their tools or services. That said, their software serves tens of thousands of clients, and has been since 2006. They do offer a 2-month free trial, and their software has a long list of features with very affordable pricing plans (as low as $7). And this new free tool they released at SheerExplorer should prove very popular...
Give it a whirl for yourself:
SheerSEO's new site explorer- SheerExplorer.com
Find anything useful? I'm betting you do. 🙂 Leave a comment below and let us know how you used it, and what you thought of the tool!
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Hey Lynn,
This looks like a great tool! I'm about to set up a new niche site and I will use this for finding great people and places to connect with and contribute to.
Thanks so much for the heads up Lynn!
~Leigha
It's VERY useful for that. 😉 Enjoy!!
Definitely going to try. Backlinks are one of the hardest thing to get. Nevertheless, I'm sure this will just give us minimum information without signing up as members.
Thanks for the tips!
Actually, the screenshot I shared was *without* registering. There's tons of information there, and all free to use! 😉
Good timing on this post Lynn. In addition to building a list in two different niches, I'm currently building wicked little review sites that get ranked quickly. I was actually just looking around for some good seo/back linking strategies. Thanks for the post kid. Cheers!
Awesome, Shane - you're most welcome! 😉
A big thank you to SheerSEO for bringing their new tool to my attention, and sponsoring the review! 😀 Very cool tool...
Awesome Lynn! I've been looking for a new backlinking tool since Open Site Explorer went away. Going to start ferreting out some more link opportunities right now.
Thanks!
Very cool, Greg - Enjoy! 😉
I used to work with Site Explorer of SeoMoz (now Moz) but this one is awesome and its FREE. I registered to explore this tool more.
Thank so much for nice work. Cheers
Its good to see healthy competition between MOZ/majestic/ahrefs. And good to see companies like this keeping them on their toes. Hopefully we'll see better UI's from everyone around that are trying to gather link data into a pretty report.
This is a great post, thanks for sharing it with us! You’ve got some very strong ideas!
Teri, do you have any recommendations for a good company to outsource back links? I find that doing this myself a time consuming item that I would like to outsource.
Hi Steve,
My name is Lynn, but no worries. It gets mixed up a lot. 😉
You want to be VERY cautious about outsourcing link building. Ideally you will hire a VA or assistant and train them to do exactly what you want them to do. Most "link builders" have their own ideas about what should be done, which may be outdated and could get you penalized in the search results. Just know what you want done (organic link building that benefits your market) and be very specific in the tasks you outsource to someone.