Robust Backlink Index for Serious Analysis & Diagnostics
Updated June 08, 2021
Robust Backlink Index for Serious Analysis & Diagnostics
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Ahrefs
My company is a reputation management agency focusing on Google search results. As such, SEO diagnostics are part of our jobs. When a result moves up or down significantly, it's important that we be able to identify a source of the movement if one exists. Ahrefs, at the time of purchase, had the best link index of the other tools we considered (Majestic & Moz).
- Historical backlink indexing
- Fresh / new backlink indexing
- Relevant data on broken links / top pages to fix up
- Anchor text data
- I found it difficult to navigate which version of the data I'm looking at - exact URL, prefix, full domain w/ or w/o subdomains. I'd like this to be selected in the initial search rather than being automatically selected for you and then allowing you to change it (if you even realized it was an issue to begin with).
- I'd love if there was a URL / domain ranking over time graph like there is for new / lost links. This way, it's not just a counting metric, but a metric on impact. I'd need to know that we lost 1 authoritative news media link more than I need to know that we lost 5-10 spammy scraper links from dark corners of the internet.
- I'd love impactful alerts for link metrics as alluded to in the previous bullet. Meaning, I don't want to only find out we lost an important link when I see the rankings drop - I want to know about it when it happens for faster processing of the fix (if one exists).
- We have been able to identify and report to clients on reasons for significant changes in the SERPs. This has led to greater client trust and deeper client relationships.
- We have been able to identify client opportunities for link building from competitors' links.
- We have identified key broken pages for easy fixes and SEO wins.
- Moz and Majestic SEO
At the time, Ahrefs had the most robust link index. Majesitc was a close second, and Moz lagged far behind. Since then, Moz promoted a major update and expansion of their link index, and it now bears further research to determine which product would be better for our purposes. I am willing to give Moz a try, but honestly I'm too busy with clients to deal with testing right now so I'll probably just stick with Ahrefs :)