SEO – How to Track Links

You just hired an SEO team. They are doing a solid job of research, on-page optimization and reporting. You are now trying to figure out how many and what type of links they are getting for your web site. Here are some helpful ways to track links.

Tracking links is always inexact.

First, please note that there is no perfect way to track links. We rely on various search engines to get a guestimate of the number of links pointing to your web site.

Track Links with Tools

1. OpenSiteExplorer.org
   1. You can get a free report from OpenSiteExplorer and compare to another web site at http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/.
   2. Free users can see up to 200 links, registered users up to 1,000, and if you subscribe to SEOMoz.org, you get everything.
2. Bing Webmaster Center
   1. Create a Bing Webmaster Center account and view your link via the Index > Links Tab. More information – http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/gg132926.aspx .
3. Google Webmaster Tools
   1. Sign Into Webmaster Tools – https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools . If you don’t have an account, get one!
   2. Click on Your Site on the Web.
   3. Click on Links to your Site.
   4. Total Links will be listed, along with who links the most, and content pages.
4. Google.com Directly
   1. Google will tell you some of the links pointing to your web site.
   2. Search for “link:www.your-domain-name.com””  (replace your-domain-name with your domain name please).
   3. Note that Google does not reveal all links to your web site, so it is not exactly accurate.

Other Tools

Here are some other ones that are recommended by other teams. We have used RavenTools and Hubspot Grader in the past.

1. RavenTools – http://raventools.com
2. Majestic SEO – https://www.majesticseo.com/
3. Sheer SEO – http://www.sheerseo.com/seo-software/backlinks-watchdog.html
4. Plugin SEO – http://www.pluginseo.com/
5. BuzzStream – http://www.buzzstream.com/link-building

If you know of any other ways to track links, please comment. Thanks!