There are two things that many bloggers struggle with in the fight to grow a successful blog. The first is developing well-written, relevant content and the second is attracting high-quality backlinks. The latest search engine updates and all of the other changes to internet landscape have left scrambling to squeeze out as much of that precious link juice as we can get our hands on.
At this point, you're probably asking yourself a few questions.
What sites are linking to my blog now?
Do I have enough of the high-quality backlinks I need?
What is the anchor text that is being used for those links? I'm using Monitor Backlinks to find answers.
Get answers from Monitor Backlinks
I asked myself those same questions a few weeks ago and that is when I found out about a tool called Monitor Backlinks. It was a good thing too because as it turns out, most of the link discovery tools I used in the past stopped working ages ago.
For example, Technorati used to provide some information on backlinks, but at some point over the last few months they removed the data.
The WordPress dashboard widget seems to have stopped working too because the only message I ever see is:
“This dashboard widget queries Google Blog Search so that when another blog links to your site it will show up here. It has found no incoming links… yet. It’s okay — there is no rush.”
Fortunately, I read this post about Monitor Backlinks by Kristi Hines over on the iAcquire blog, and she provided a fantastic description of how this online backlink monitor tool works best.
Here's a brief video introduction from Monitor Backlinks
Get Email alerts from Monitor Backlinks when new links are discovered
One reason I'm found of Monitor Backlinks is because it makes link discovery much simpler by sending email alerts whenever new links appear. This is a huge advantage over constantly logging in to Google Webmaster Tools and trying to remember which links I already knew about. This is what a typical email alert looks like:
I would not have discovered most of these links on my own and even if I did, I would need to use different SEO backlink software to see if they are NoFollow links or not. However when I see the green OK in the email, I know that the link is DoFollow. Otherwise, I would see NoFollow in red. When you click the link in the email, on the dashboard you'll learn a ton more about the link including Page Rank, Moz Rank and Social Shares! Pretty neat having access to all that info on one dashboard isn't it?
Recommended: Read more about the difference between DoFollow and NoFollow links here
When I looked through my link reports, I was also a little surprised to find that status of some of my profile links from sites and services I use. Here's what I mean:
Profile links that are DoFollow
- Intense Debate
- Inbound.org
- IAIB (Interntional Association of Internet Broadcasters)
- About.me
- Triberr
- WordPress.org (support)
- Website Babble
Profile links that are NoFollow
- SoundCloud
- MixCloud
- YouTube
- Spreaker
- iTunes
- Audioboom
- Speakpipe
Five Link Discovery Methods
There are 5 ways you can discover your links with this backlink checker software. SEO Discovery using Google Analytics integration among other things, by adding a Quick Link that you already know about, the back links checker (more about that in a minute), by importing links from a csv file and by using the BookMarklet.
The Backlink Checker tool will provide a detailed report that you can download as a PDF file. This is listing of what you can learn:
As you can see, these reports cover everything from soup to nuts in terms of your link profile. The Advanced Options require a credit which you can purchase for a small fee (three credits cost $9.95 USD).
What's next?
When you digest the wealth of information you can get from the reports and alerts you get from Monitor Backlinks you can begin to understand the quality of the links you have coming to your blog. You'll find area where you can make improvements and perhaps do some additional guest posting and blogger outreach. Clean up your link profile if necessary and request removal of any unnatural links. Another feature I want to mention is that this tool also allows you to compare your link profile of one of your competitors too. I actually prefer to use the word “peer” over “competitor” but I think you get the idea.
The good thing is, now you know how Monitor Backlinks gives you a fighting chance at link discovery. Take action and keep me posted with your results.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave it in one of the comment sections below.