Majestic SEO Tool Review: Laser Focused Link Database
Majestic SEO is different from SEMrush or Moz because the tool focuses primarily on one thing: backlink analysis. The rich link database provides users with access to a complete backlink portfolio for themselves and competitors.
And unlike the competition, there’s a free version available.
While the free version is very limited, it does allow you to perform a very limited number of searches per day. You won’t see all of the backlinks available, and you’ll also be limited to the metrics that you’ll be able to view.
The idea is to give the tool a try for free to see if it’s for you.
Pros
- Anchor text is indexed
- Hundreds of billions of pages crawled
- Trillions of URLs in the index
- Data can be exported
Cons
- Lacks additional tools for the price
A lot of other tools are similar in price, but they also offer additional tools. Majestic may provide a better overview of a backlink portfolio, but if a budget is limited, there are other tools that provide similar function.
But the strong point of Majestic, and why so many people opt to subscribe, is that the company’s crawlers have allowed it to amass a huge index of sites.
Getting Started with the Planet’s Largest Index Database
If you’ve signed up for a free account, you’ll want to go to the main page and start entering in your domain or search phrase. There are two main options to pick from here:
- Fresh Index. The fresh index is the most up-to-date index. This index provides you with the most current list of backlinks. You’ll want to use the fresh index to find new backlinks to your site or to a competitor’s site.
- Historic Index. The historic index provides information on all links that have pointed to a website. Some of these links may no longer exist, but it’s a great way to see the evolution of a backlink portfolio over time.
You also have access to compare your website to a competitor. This is a great way to find out how the competition is ranking above you.
When performing a domain search, you’ll be presented with a bunch of information:
- Trust flow
- Citation flow
- Fresh and historic backlink numbers
- Referring domains
- Referring IPs
- Referring subnets
And when you scroll down, you’ll find a lot of information that goes more in detail, such as trust and citation flow over time.
When considering backlinks, you can also go to the backlink breakdown section which provides you with a wealth of information about the backlinks found, such as:
- Total external backlinks
- Supplemental links
- Total inbound links
You’ll also find how many links are live, how many links are deep links, how many links are direct and follow / no follow. It’s easy to view how many links are from home pages, too. Graphs are provided with information on what types of links have been secured:
- Redirects
- Text links
- Images
- Frames
Anchor text breakdowns are also available, allowing you to easily view and make changes to your link diversity. The anchor text section allows you to see how many backlinks your site receives for every anchor as well as the total number of backlinks per anchor, deleted links and no-follow link amounts.
Majestic has two main plans:
- Lite: $49.99
- Pro: $99.99
Each plan is billed monthly, and you can bill quarterly. There’s an API plan, but this is meant for developers and large agencies that have their own backend.
Under the lite plan, you’re limited to 1 million analysis units. The Pro version offers 20 million analysis units. When you sign up for the Lite plan, you’ll receive a broad range of data:
- Fresh index
- Trust flow
- Topical trust flow
- Referring IPs, subnets and domains
Plans also include the functionality to use OpenApps, a bulk backlink checker and create campaigns. You’ll also be able to use site explorer.
Pro users will gain additional features, including everything in the Lite plan as well as access to:
- Historic indexes
- Sharing campaigns
- Full business profiles
- Experimental rank tracker
- Keyword checker
- Flow metrics history
- Raw data experts
- Email alerts
Smaller site owners often choose to go with the Lite plan and then progress to the Pro plan if they like the tool.
Backlink tracking and crawling is what Majestic focuses on, but there are a few tools worth noting, such as:
- Site Explorer
- Backlink Checker
- Compare Tool
- Search Explorer
- Reports
- Clique Hunter
When you view your backlinks, you’ll find that the interface is somewhat cluttered, but there’s a main dashboard that allows you to quickly switch between tools and sites. You’ll also be able to compare sites so that you can view your competitors’ backlink portfolios.
How you use this tool is very important.
If you just want to view your backlink portfolio, you’ll often find that Majestic offers the most robust listing, but then you’ll also find that it lacks other powerful tools that others offer. But, when you start looking at backlink portfolios, you’ll want to use this information to help:
- Reverse engineer a competitor’s backlink portfolio. You can compare sites or view an entire site’s backlink portfolio in seconds. You’ll then try to use this information to secure additional link opportunities. You can also view historical data to see when a site was performing an SEO campaign.
- Portfolio strength is very important, but there are several toxic links that may harm the strength of the portfolio. You’ll want to take this time to find potentially harmful links and bring them into Google’s disavow tool. The goal is to clean up your backlink portfolio.
Majestic does have its own set of custom metrics that help you better understand the strength of a link. Trust and Citation Flow allow for monitoring up to 18 months prior, so you’ll be able to see your site’s trust grow or weaken over time.
Neighbourhood Checked is another nice tool to use if you’re comparing a competitor’s link. The tool finds links from the same IP address. You can use this tool to find sites that have been hosted on the same IP address and may be part of a link farm or private blog network.
For pure backlink monitoring and portfolio analysis, Majestic is a great choice. The Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics are unique, too, but every expert has their opinion on whether they’re accurate or not.
If you’re looking for an SEO tool that is laser focused on backlinks, this is it.
