Probably you have heard the demise of the once popular Yahoo Site Explorer or YSE. Yahoo Site Explorer proved quite a hit with internet marketers, bloggers and webmasters who made use of it to check backlinks of websites indexed by search engines. Yahoo Site Explorer was merged with Bing Webmaster Tools as part of Yahoo’s strategy. However, Bing Webmaster Tools does not provide the same service as the Site Explorer and thus is not much of assistance for users who are looking for the same service as before. So what next for lovers of Yahoo Site Explorer?
Blekko: An Alternative to YSE
There are a couple of alternatives to Yahoo Site Explorer that can be of great assistance. One of the sites likely to be used by those shifting from Yahoo is Blekko. With the shutdown of Yahoo Site Explorer, the popularity of Blekko is bound to rise. Like YSE, Blekko also enables webmasters to spy the backlinks used by competitor sites. However, the number of backlinks provided by Blekko is limited compared to YSE. Only time will tell how this site performs.
The other possible YSE replacement is Open Site Explorer that is operated by SEOMoz, a SEO company. The good thing about the site is that it provides the same service at YSE. Even though it requires users to register, one can easily access itscontents without having to register. In addition, it also provides data on anchor texts, nofollow/follow, page and domain authority. Users who want to access the sites full capabilities can register at a monthly subscription.
QualityBacklinks to Webmasters
Exalead is also another possible alternative for Yahoo Site Explorer. When you first look at it, you might mistake it to be a just search engine. However, this is a site that provides webmasters with backlinks used by competitor sites. It provides plenty of data that is quite useful to webmasters. In addition to providing backlinks, Exalead also gives a brief description of the sites that have links back to your website. Other informationit provides include title and the URL of where the links are originating from.
Limited Backlinks
Link Diagnosis might also be a popular alternative to Yahoo Search Explorer. This tool is free and uses SEOMoz metrics to give details of backlinks. The only limitation of Link Diagnosis is that it provides only 250 backlinks and thenrequests the user to pay inorder to view the remaining backlinks. With Yahoo Search Explorer, users could easily click on a link but this feature is not supported by Link Diagnosis. Inorder to check a link, users have to copy andpaste in onto the browser.
Backlink Watch also provides users with free backlinks data. The similarity between this tool and YSE is close as it also shows backlink pages that contain outbound links, page rank of a site and anchor texts. The onlydrawback of this tool is the number of ads that pop up that might confuse users. Thereis certainly room for a couple of tools to replace the once popular Yahoo Search Explorer.
Crystal J. Briscoe is from Exams Expert. Looking for IT exams help? Let’s take advantage of Exams Expert self paced E20-816 Test training and pass your exams on first try.
