Backlinks data: How to ask ‘What if’ questions for competitive advantage

Asking ‘what if’ questions about backlinks data is a great creative exercise for search marketers. The answers to such questions can be the secret sauce that makes you stand out and differentiates you from the competition. But it’s frustrating if you come up with a fantastic ‘what if’ question and can’t find the answer immediately – that’s a problem we’ve just fixed with expanded sorting in Site Explorer.

SEOs, marketers and link builders send us a lot of ‘what if’ questions and suggestions about what extra they can do with backlinks data. We love to get these questions and we want to do our best to help.

We’ve extended the sorting options on Site Explorer so that you can see backlinks data in new ways – ways that will inspire your own creativity and allow you to steal a march on your competition.

The new sorting has just gone live and you can see it right now in your account when you log in. (If you haven’t yet got an account, follow this link for pricing options + 7-day money-back guarantee).

Here’s a quick taster of the type of questions you can ask on your own backlinks data.

• What top companies link to me and why?
• What are the most recent high Trust Flow pages Majestic has seen on this site?
• What are the most valuable backlinks I’ve recently lost?

The new sorting features allow you to answer these questions and many more.

I’ll take you through a couple of examples and hope this inspires you to come up with your own ‘what if’ questions.

(And if you come up with your own questions and solutions, let me know. I’ll publish the best and reward you with a nice link!]

#1: What top domains link to me and why?

So, your client wants to know the very best backlinks that you’ve earned for them and they want the answer now.
Let’s take this example from our own backlinks data on Majestic.com. Go to the ‘Ref Domains’ and you’ll see the new sorting options.

Follow these 3 steps:

• Step 1: Order by Trust Flow Descending
  Step 2: Order by Alex Rank Descending – where domains have identical Trust Flow, we’ll order by Alexa.
  Step 3: Click to see the link appear – click on the number in the Backlinks column and the links to that domain will appear.

I’ve chosen a backlink from the BBC to Majestic – click on the backlink and you can see why it was given – because we’re part of the UK’s ‘digital cluster’ in Birmingham:

#2: What are the most recent high Trust Flow pages Majestic has seen on this site?

It’s really important to know the high Trust Flow Pages on your competitors’ sites – and now it’s really easy to find them.
I’ll use backlinks data from the eyeglass retailer, WarbyParker.com as an example.

Just go to the ‘Pages’ tab on Site Explorer. Go to ‘Default’ and you’ll see the dropdown menu – choose ‘Trust Flow’:

The results show the backlinks with the highest Trust Flow, appearing at the top.

Once you choose your option, the new sorting options appear:

Now choose ‘Last seen – descending’.

This combination shows the most recent high Trust Flow pages we have found on this site:

#3 What are the most valuable backlinks I’ve recently lost?

Ouch! Nobody likes losing backlinks, especially when they come from domains with a high Trust Flow.

But these backlinks can be lost through no fault of your own. Often, you can contact the domain and retrieve the situation (as long as you know about it – that’s why backlinks data is so important!)

Here’s how to answer that question, again using WarbyParker.com as an example.

First, choose a recent timeframe – (I chose the last week at the time of writing):

Once the results appear, sort them by the Domain Trust Flow descending.

This now gives me a list of backlinks that Warby Parker has lost in the specified week. If that was your site or client, you’d want to check out those links and see what you can do to get them back.

So, over to you – could you earn yourself a backlink from Majestic?

As we said earlier, I hope this inspires you to come up with your own ‘what if’ questions on backlinks data. If you discover your own questions and solutions, let us know.

We’ll publish the best and reward you with a nice link! Just email me using [my first name] @majestic.com.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Ken McGaffin

Head of Marketing at Majestic

Latest posts by Ken McGaffin (see all)

• New Domains Now Available in Site Explorer Preview - July 23, 2019
• How 3 Companies Turned Embarrassing Mistakes into an Avalanche of Backlinks and Media Coverage - June 24, 2019
• How to use the Campaigns feature with Search Explorer to easily create targeted backlink prospects - May 21, 2019

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