Monitor Backlinks, as its name implies, allows users to be notified when websites gain or lose backlinks, and also to understand what links are good for SEO.
$20
per month
Moz Link Explorer
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Link Explorer from Moz is a link building utility, replacing the former Open Site Explorer. Moz describes Link Explorer as a highly accurate link tool that lets users check the backlink profile and Domain Authority of any site.
Moz was acquired by iContact in June, 2021.
Monitor Backlinks is perfect for any small business that has a website. Every website gets hit with spammy backlinks, and being able to identify and remove them is critical to online success, and in preventing the Google penalty. In addition, it helps SEOs locate good backlinks they might not know about, which can then be posted on social networks and social bookmarking sites to generate more referral traffic. I would not recommend Monitor Backlinks for a business that does not have a website, or for a business that only has a blog.
It is helpful if you are trying to understand where a site stands in terms of the links coming to it from different websites. It is less helpful in terms of providing specific actions or steps to take to get more links. However, it is a part of a larger Moz package so other areas provide information that can help there.
It is highly recommended if you have a high ranking website that is prone to competitors building spam. It makes the process if identifying, tracking and disavowing spam links fast and easy.
It is a good tool to track positive mentions of your site as well and does a good job monitoring the reputation of your site by picking up mentions of your website across the web.
It's affordable for what it does compared to its competitors and its also very easy to use. But their customer service is always there to help out in case you need it.
Moz Link Explorer has a straightforward and easy to use interface. It’s very simple to navigate and understand the data.
The anchor text tool gives you an idea of the most widely used anchor texts other websites use when linking to your site. It can raise a red flag when too many sites are linking to you using exact match keyword anchor texts.
A great option would be to have the ability to create organic keyword ranks for keywords in specific categories, not just keywords for our entire website. Specifically, the ability to create custom lists for keyword groups. This would be a huge time-saver for SEOs whose websites have varied keyword groups.
Currently, I get email notifications from Monitor Backlinks once every week or so. These emails show new backlinks and any changes in existing backlink status. I log into the platform each morning to see what is going on, but a great addition would be real-time emails that alert you when a really low-quality backlink is uncovered.
You need to subscribe to Moz Pro to get all features, which is pricey if you aren’t using the tool regularly.
I’ve found that competitor tools give larger lists of inbound links.
You’ll need some understanding of how SEO works to maximize the tool. Would non-SEO specialists understand the difference between domain authority and page authority, or the difference between follow back, and non-follow backlinks? Moz offers lots of training resources, but it takes time to learn what you need.
They were fast, eager to help me out on my project and very knowledgeable on how to user their product and helping me to get up and running. This gave me the confidence to purchase the product and execute my projects knowing that I could ask for help whenever needed.
I put a middling score here because of the difference in support between the free and premium uses. The Free tool was a great service, but there wasn't much support. It was tool that was intended to have a skilled SEO utilize it and save time. The Premium version has great support, but also offered more information so that skilled SEOs and novices alike could benefit from the tool.
I used Ahrefs Site Explorer for two years, and it is a really good platform with lots of backlink tools. Ahrefs stacks up well against Monitor Backlinks, and it has slightly more features. I opted for Monitor Backlinks because it has a simple and streamlined dashboard and just the right amount of tools and features I need.
Ahrefs is much more comprehensive than Open Site Explorer. If you are in need of a deep backlink analysis there are better options out there for your money. If you need a quick look at the state of a client's backlink profile than OSE is for you. It will give you the top metrics you are looking for and then some. I find OSE to be more user-friendly than competitors
It's hard to gauge the effect of negative SEO attacks but they have the power to bring your whole site down, so having a tool like this setup is really priceless.
Their cost is also very affordable when compared to similar tools that do not have the same functionality or level of detail that they offer on their analysis so from that perspective is a savings right from the start.
