SEOmoz link report VS. open site explorer

[iivgi]

Hi,

I run a campaign on one of my new clients

in the links report - i see 1970 - external links and i can press " see more in open site explorer)

when i press the button, open site explorer is opened but with a message that there is no link data on this website

any advice?

Are you familiar with another tool that can help me investigate links to website?

Thank you

SEOwise

[jesse-landry]

If Open Site Explorer says there are  no inbound links pointed at your domain then there are only a few possibilities:

1.) Your robots is blocking. (doesn't sound like this is the case.)

2.) You have no inbound links. (also doesn't sound like it)

3.) Something happened and you should try again.

I guess what I'm saying is go plug your domain into OSE and try again. If you have inbound links, it will find them.

If OSE continues saying there are no inbound links... well... huh.

[Harbor_Compliance]

Type in the full URL including "www." in OSE.  For some reason the Moz toolbar and campaign dashboard don't link properly to OSE.  When you include the full URL you should see the links populate correctly.

OSE is probably the weakest link (no pun intended) in the SEOMoz suite.  Linkscape updates are only monthly (they've been working on this) and I've been told by an SEOMoz representative that OSE only indexes around 25% of the total links to your site.  That said, the application still has utility.

Most people like Majestic SEO's link analysis tool, which is more powerful than OSE.  Majestic has a free tool that will show you up to 10 links at once and has quite a few features that SEO doesn't have such as a "fresh" index to show links that are relatively new and therefore more valuable.  The UX isn't great, but once you get used to it, you will be happy to find more of your links being shown in that explorer.  Of course we want to see the progress of our efforts!

[jesse-landry]

The Just Discovered feature on OSE is pretty useful just as the fresh index in Majestic's alternative. And also, entering the www shouldn't make a difference as OSE will follow redirects (assuming your site redirects non-www to www that is. if it doesn't you have a whole other problem.)

[Harbor_Compliance]

I disagree on both fronts, Jesse.  What you said about the www is not true - I literally asked the exact same question by email to SEOMoz and the response they gave is what I provided above, of course without the editorial bit and mention of Majestic.

[jesse-landry]

when i type in my site's non-www form it automatically redirects it to www. there is no possible way for me to grab link info in non-www format.

think about it.. if they were separate you'd have to run two reports constantly.. that would be ridiculous. not only that, i've run this for sites that redirect the other way around as well. type in the www and it spits you to the non-www.

I've ALSO done this for clients that aren't redirecting either way and it warns you that the data will be split and you should consider a redirect.

TRY THIS RIGHT NOW: Go to OSE and type in google.com (NO WWW) What you will see is it automatically redirects you to the WWW information and then gives you this message, which I just copied and pasted direct from OSE:

The URL you've entered redirects to another URL. We're showing results for www.google.com/ since it is likely to have more accurate link metrics. See data for google.com instead?

In other words, I don't know what you're talking about but the www redirection is most certainly true and it's easy to determine the validity of my statement. takes about 4 seconds...

[iivgi]

Guys

First thank you for your answers.

Second - regard the WWW

I tried it once - for one of my clients websites, and i got different results to a URL with WWW and if i entered the URL without WWW

i thought it might be because under Domain( with no WWW) i can have more than 1 sub

But - its only a thought i don't have enough info to argue about it

Thank you again

SEOwise

i.

[jesse-landry]

if you got different results for the www and the non-www it is because the site does not have a redirect setup. This should be rectified immediately from an SEO standpoint.

There's honestly no debate: OSE follows redirects. That is a fact and is plain to see. So if OSE is giving you two different link profiles, your site isn't redirecting.

To confirm: try going to http://yoursite.com and then to http://www.yoursite.com

If after going to both, neither url changes in the browser then there you have it. Always redirect one to the other or Google will see it as two different sites and index them both.

[Harbor_Compliance]

Jesse, check out harborcompliance.com.  The URL redirects but does not show up as you say in OSE.

[jesse-landry]

cough cough yes it does.

"Oh Hey! It looks like that URL redirects to www.harborcompliance.com/. Would you like to see data for <a class="clickable redirects">that URL instead</a>?"

did you try the google one?

Anyway, seriously TC I think you're issue is the domain does not redirect. At least that's what it sounds like from the limited information we have. If you'd like to share the domain we'd be happy to look into it further.

Good luck everybody!

[iivgi]

Ok guys here it is:

try : http://www.navongroup.co.il

And http://navongroup.co.il

BTW - when i run campaign on it - Under Link Analysis--> summary - i get 481 external followed links

The campaign is on navongroup.co.il (without the www)

Thanks

[jesse-landry]

Okay so this is a FANTASTIC example of why you should always include your domain when asking questions here at the SEOmoz forums. While I enjoyed my little debate with Mike, it was completely irrelevant to the actual issue at hand which would have been instantly evident had we seen your site.

In about 30 seconds after looking at your site's source I discovered this:

NAME="SEOMOZ" CONTENT="NOINDEX" />

Yep. Sitting there in your header for some reason. Did you add that tag or did your client? ...strange. Anyway goes to show - always check your source code and always provide your domain.

TL;DR - Take out that tag specifically designed to prevent OSE from indexing your site and it will index your site. Enjoy.

[jesse-landry]

One more note - I see you have a blank robots file. Not necessary. If it were my site I'd remove that unless I were trying to disallow a directory or file.

Anyway carry on.

[iivgi]

Jesse

First thank you very very much

I have no clue who insert that TAG - maybe the guys who build the website

I will try to check with him

Just to delete this tag?

Again Thank you so much

SEOwise

I.