What SeoMoz tools should I use to track the sucess of my SEO efforts and find possible linking partners?

[AndrewY]

HI All,

I am a new user to SEO moz pro and I have a few questions I hope you can help me with.

We are adding a new product category to an existing site and I am wondering what tools to use to track our SEO efforts to build ranking for these new products.

I have already started a campaign that tracks the ranking of our primary keywords but I am wondering if there are other tools I should be using as well.

Currently our SEO strategy is centered around link building. I have been approaching sites that have content related to our products and offering to write articles, guest blogs, and create educational resources that benefit the sites users and have specific anchor text linking back to our site.

Since we are trying to build rank for a new category of products should I be linking to the general product category page or should I try to link to sub categories or individual products?

Also I have used the juicy link finder to help me identify related sites that I can approach but I haven't received very many good leads. Is there a more specific way to use the tool or another tool that I should try?

If you have any suggestions about other SEO strategies/activities that we should be pursuing please share your ideas!

Thanks!

[IPINGlobal54]

There are two great posts in SEOmoz itself that I found very useful;

Competitive backlink analysis

and

Using Google CSE

Both use the tools within SEOmoz itself and will help you mine for link candidates more widely, and then analyse and target the links you want to gain in depth.

With respect to which pages to link to, using the above tools will enable you to link with a wider variety of anchor text to specific pages - keeping the relevance as high as possible. Personally I would be inclined to balance between category and product - if you can get a targeted link for a niche phrase to a specific product page - do it, if the domain you are gaining the link from is in your field, but not product specific, go for the category link.