For Those Who Don’t Have a Clue: What Was Site Explorer?

Since Site Explorer was quite a primitive tool if compared to, let’s say Google Webmaster Tools, it didn’t give us any real value on its own. A few of the valuable things that we could pick up from it were

1. seeing the number of pages indexed by Yahoo

and

2. the number of inbound links from external sources leading to single pages or the whole site.

For Those Who Wonder: Should We Miss It?

Since we still can get an idea about how many pages are presently indexed by Yahoo for a given domain (if we query its search with “site:somedomain.com”), then the only thing that is missing now is the ability to lookup the backlink count for a given web property. And for those who acquired a habit of using Yahoo Site Explorer for checking backlinks, I’ll be listing a few free alternatives at the end of this post. After you check out those tools, let me know if you still miss Site Explorer and I’ll try to help you more.

For Those Who Still Wonder: What Else Will It Affect?

As I mentioned above, by itself the Site Explorer was not that effective or useful. Yet quite a few SEO tools were relying on its API to collect backlink data for their reports. As a matter of fact, just about a week ago Market Samurai has posted the following message at the program startup:

“A change has been made to the backlink sources available in the Rank Tracker and SEO Competition modules. As the Yahoo Site Explorer has been decommissioned, it is no longer possible to retrieve backlink data from Yahoo…”

We will see this type of changes in many other search engine optimization tools. So, if you notice that one of your favorite programs is having a problem displaying backlink data, then you know why. (Remember, you can always drop a line in comments and tell us about your experience with this change.)

For Those Who Want To Get Over With It:

Should I Say: “Yahoo Site Explorer FREE Alternatives?”

1. BackLink Watch (http://backlinkwatch.com/)

Besides showing you the backlink count, this tool gives you the overview of anchor texts, outbound link count for the pages that host your links and some other valuable information.

2. Blekko (http://blekko.com/)

Requires registration, but it is quick and free. Enter a domain name you want to research in their search box. When search results come up, look at the end of the displayed result snippets. Click on “seo” and you will see all sorts of information about the homepage of the domain you are investigating.

3. Exalead (http://www.exalead.com)

Use “link:example.com” to see the number of backlinks indexed by Exalead. You can try the “link:” command in other search engines, including Google.

4. SEO Attack (http://www.seoattack.org)

Gives link count and shows limited result set. Requires free registration. The data comes for SEOmoz (Open Site Explorer) via LinkScape API.

Just to name a few…

If you want to suggest other options (FREE options), leave a comment.

UserFly will record every action performed by a visitor at one’s site and will organize them by visitor sessions. Then one can play back and see everything a given visitor did with his mouse or keyboard, just as if the tester was standing behind the visitor’s back. The importance of initial and recurring site usability testing is also discussed in the new chapter of SEO Jumpstart Guide called Website Usability Testing.

As of now a free account provides you with 10 visit captures a month. There are paid plans that will fit the needs of companies and developers of all sizes. For more information refer to the video bellow or visit UserFly’s website.

The interface of this tool is very simple and easy to use. Reports are shown with highlighted links that will take one to the original data providers’ websites, where he or she can get more details. Page boss is available in four different languages: English, German, Turkish and Italian. If the service proves to be useful and its popularity grows, we can expect it many other languages.

This tool is free to use and is available without any registrations. It will fit the needs of most novice bloggers and webmasters by saving time that would be required to access all these online statistical services manually. If you have comments or wish to suggest similar online tools, leave a word or two at the bottom of this page.

BM Button (BM stands for BookMark) is a great FREE solution for those folks, who wish to be promoted by their visitors to a multitude of bookmarking, sharing and social news sites. It makes it so much easier to submit the pages from your site! But it is not the only benefit of having a bookmark button within your texts. One can also run some advanced reporting to analyze visitors’ responses to his or her content.

BM Button Stats

Ever wondered which pages are shared or bookmarked by your visitors? Do you want to know the users of which bookmarking services are the most active at your site? Then use the button script from BMButton.com and find the answers for your questions.

BM Button Plugin for WordPress

If you run a self hosted WordPress blog, check out the BM Button plugin for WP – available to download as soon as you register your free account. This BM Button plugin will automatically insert a button into every post of your blog and will give you a 7-day button use stats right from your dashboard.

More to Come

According to the team that created this cool button more cool features will be added very soon. One of them will be “Custom Looks” to fit designs of your sites 110%. Other features are being prioritized and planed out. The developers will be happy to get any suggestions from the users of the button to give them in future releases exactly what they want. If you have a comment, visit their contact page at the support section and drop a line.

When it comes to SEO, having the right tools is what makes all the difference. Today we are introducing our readers to a new tool – Exact Factor – that may come in handy for the website owners who would like to track the success of their online content in relation to keywords and search engine results.

Exact Factor is a free online tool that does not require any downloads and can be accessed via a quick registration. It is equipped with a simple intuitive interface that will get you started without excessive documentations and introductions. All one needs to do is to supply his or her website’s address and the key words to find out how well his or her website is situated in search result pages of the major search engines per this word or phrase. One may opt in to receive electronic notifications as the picture of the search result landscape changes.

Idan Ohayon, who proudly represents the project, gladly answered our questions regarding the service. He stated that the tool will remain free for as long as it stays active online. The team is planning to add some more services in addition to the core one, which they will provide for a small fee. These will be extra SEO tools that will help analyze the tracked data.

We wish the guys all the best luck with their project and welcome any comments that you may have about this tool.