Best Backlink Research Tool?

[DrJacoby]

In the context of finding domains to park, what is the best tool for researching backlinks?

Moz, Ahrefs, Majestic, or SEMrush?

 

[bhartzer]

100 percent Majestic by far.
Majestic has 15 years of historic backlinks.
Majestic has Link Graph (no other tools have link graph).

The 2nd would be Ahrefs, but they do NOT have link graph, so a big minus there.

 

[namegulf]

Thought SEMrush has a network graph, is that different from link graph?

 

[DrJacoby]

@bhartzer Are you using Majestic Lite or Pro? Do you think Lite would get the job done for domain parking purposes?

 

[alcy]

I think all park pros use more than one tool. by necessity. they also all pay money... usually a lot.. in short u will never outrun or outsmart those who use many paid tools if we just use one or two free ones.. parking is very ccompetitive world.... right @Hypersot ?

 

[DrJacoby]

I think all park pros use more than one tool. by necessity. they also all pay money... usually a lot.. in short u will never outrun or outsmart those who use many paid tools if we just use one or two free ones.. parking is very ccompetitive world.... right @Hypersot ?

I'm not trying to outrun or outsmart anyone. My sales volume is increasing nicely, and so I thought I'd experiment with parking just for the fun of it.

 

[bhartzer]

@bhartzer Are you using Majestic Lite or Pro? Do you think Lite would get the job done for domain parking purposes?

I use the paid version.
If you can get TF, CF, and Topical Trust Flow (and topics) from the 'lite' version, then yes it should be good.
Even better if you can get the link graph data.

 

[bhartzer]

Thought SEMrush has a network graph, is that different from link graph?

At this point, the SEMrush "network graph" is pretty much unusable. It only shows tier 2 links, and the data there is so bad it's not accurate whatsoever.

SEMrush is great for a lot of things, and link data (and network graph) isn't one of them, unfortunately.

 

[DrJacoby]

I use the paid version.
If you can get TF, CF, and Topical Trust Flow (and topics) from the 'lite' version, then yes it should be good.
Even better if you can get the link graph data.

Both Lite and Pro are paid plans.

 

[alcy]

I'm not trying to outrun or outsmart anyone. My sales volume is increasing nicely, and so I thought I'd experiment with parking just for the fun of it.

outrun outsmart are just words that mean u need to find and bid and buy revenue names while you compete against people with several paid tools. without those names u will not be doing much experimenting.

 

[DrJacoby]

outrun outsmart are just words that mean u need to find and bid and buy revenue names while you compete against people with several paid tools. without those names u will not be doing much experimenting.

I could experiment without any tool if I wanted, but I'd prefer to use one.

Back on topic, which is the best tool of the four I mentioned in your opinion?

 

[twiki]

I also vote for Majestic. I use the Lite plan, it's enough for my needs.

Edit: Least preferred option would be Moz.

 

[Hypersot]

@DrJacoby ,
I will go off-topic here (and apologies for that) but, since I was tagged, I wanted to explain what @alcy mentioned earlier on.

If you go via the Backlinks route using one of the tools that everyone else uses, you *will* get into the competition list; there is just no way around that.
What that means is, you will either get lousy domains (those that everyone else rejects) or you will fight in the auctions and in the dropcatch arena. In short, you will get totally wrong impressions because you dived too deep imo.

Now, regarding to your question, the answer is: all of them.

You need to find a way to get trial versions and try them all to see what each is about and then choose the one you feel more comfortable with (yes, they are all about backlinks but each go from a different direction).
There is *no* one better than the other in general unless you know exactly what you are after.

One more thing,
backlinks is just one of the many metrics one needs to look to park domains successfully. I won't go into more details but, just looking into backlinks and nothing else will lead you nowhere imo.

Good luck

 

[DrJacoby]

@DrJacoby ,
I will go off-topic here (and apologies for that) but, since I was tagged, I wanted to explain what @alcy mentioned earlier on.

If you go via the Backlinks route using one of the tools that everyone else uses, you *will* get into the competition list; there is just no way around that.
What that means is, you will either get lousy domains (those that everyone else rejects) or you will fight in the auctions and in the dropcatch arena. In short, you will get totally wrong impressions because you dived too deep imo.

Now, regarding to your question, the answer is: all of them.

You need to find a way to get trial versions and try them all to see what each is about and then choose the one you feel more comfortable with (yes, they are all about backlinks but each go from a different direction).
There is *no* one better than the other in general unless you know exactly what you are after.

One more thing,
backlinks is just one of the many metrics one needs to look to park domains successfully. I won't go into more details but, just looking into backlinks and nothing else will lead you nowhere imo.

Good luck

Thank you, I appreciate your detailed answer!

I know that it's a long and hard road to become profitable in parking, and I know I probably won't succeed, but for me it would just be a fun experiment to see if I can "crack the code".

I have one more question if you don't mind. If getting a link research tool and participating in the aftermarket auctions is diving too deep, what would you instead recommend as a starting point for someone like me?

My first steps so far have been to park 250 of my lowest priced domains to see if I can learn something from them, and to read a lot here on Namepros. I'm at 2018 right now but will go as far back as possible.

 

[Hypersot]

@DrJacoby ,
How can someone new approach parking... that is a very good question and it requires a rather complicated answer because of one thing: bad traffic.

If traffic was 'clean' (ie. if every single visit was an actual human that seeks a product, etc.) things would be easy; you would choose 2-3 tools that would do the job and, by following the metrics, you would have found the gold.

Unfortunately, that is not the case and that is why it is hard to suggest any tool and/or approach to anyone. There is so much crappy traffic out there, with bad actors destroying perfectly healthy domains, that only experience can filter them out.

So, should I suggest something that will 'burn' you out or something that will give you the wrong impression on what metrics to look for and what not? I really don't know.

eg. I could suggest to pay for MajSEO and look for high number of backlinks with a min.TF of 20-25 and a CF that is close to the TF value...
You would then pay for the tool, find domains that satisfy the conditions only to realise that most of them bring zero traffic and others *with exactly the same MajSEO metrics* bring loads of traffic but no revenue while others bring traffic with low revenue...etc. (you get the idea)

Everytime someone asks me for help, I struggle to do so because it seems that the only way to learn is to burn first, ie. try many different tools, combine them, fail a lot, etc.

The only thing I can say of help is to try every way possible that you think a domain can receive traffic.

Regarding the approach you have already taken,

-250 domains is a solid amount and will give you good stats but they must have some history for the stats to have any meaning. If those domains were intended solely for sale without any actual website that was built for them in the past you'll get nothing unless you accidentally find a type-in domain (rare but it happens).

-2018: It is good to know the basics but there is no need to look too far back. Parking constantly changes and what worked in the past might not necessarily work now. eg. in the past, backlinks were very important in bringing traffic, not so much now.

-Cracking the code: don't spent too much time on that imo. There is way too much lack of transparency and way too many middlemen for any formula to work all the time. As I mentioned earlier, what works now might not work in 2 years in the future.

Just realised the length of this post so I will stop now

 

[DrJacoby]

Thanks again @Hypersot I couldn't have asked for a better answer.

 

[ontiscal]

I use only one tool to check backlinks and it's not so important for me which one, but how to interpret the results.

Some years ago there was openlinkprofiler.org that was perfect for me because fast, free and you could submit the domain also in the url ( GET method; AHREF for example works with POST + human verification ).
I searched a lot for a free alternative and the only option I found is https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker but it's not so comfortable the input and the free version is limited in the results.

I look mainly at the quality of the backlinks (all tools sort backlinks by their rank) and domain history.

One strategy to learn is to look at DropCatch Auction. Eliminating domains that are short or dictionary, try to understand why certain meaningless domain names go to auction at high prices, for example long 3 words domain names.

After you get your eye on DC, you might try buying few domains in the $59-$99 range that have more than one offer and you think are potentially valuable. I'm not saying that all domains that get multiple offers deserve that price, but many pro are on DC and auctions are public.

 

[alcy]

I use only one tool to check backlinks and it's not so important for me which one, but how to interpret the results.

Some years ago there was openlinkprofiler.org that was perfect for me because fast, free and you could submit the domain also in the url ( GET method; AHREF for example works with POST + human verification ).
I searched a lot for a free alternative and the only option I found is https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker but it's not so comfortable the input and the free version is limited in the results.

I look mainly at the quality of the backlinks (all tools sort backlinks by their rank) and domain history.

One strategy to learn is to look at DropCatch Auction. Eliminating domains that are short or dictionary, try to understand why certain meaningless domain names go to auction at high prices, for example long 3 words domain names.

After you get your eye on DC, you might try buying few domains in the $59-$99 range that have more than one offer and you think are potentially valuable. I'm not saying that all domains that get multiple offers deserve that price, but many pro are on DropCatch and auctions are public on DropCatch.

I heard dyna expired auctions also good for this stuff?

 

[ontiscal]

If an expired domain is on Dynadot usually means that no one backordered it on DC or Snapnames: not a good signal (speaking about com/net/org of course).

 

[alcy]

but

If an expired domain is on Dynadot usually means that no one backordered it on DC or Snapnames: not a good signal (speaking about com/net/org of course).

but there are always a few on dyna that fit whatu said..no apparent name value..longer... yet many bids..high price... and they do show some revenue numbers in info.. is that at least accurate?

 

[phaethon]

The basic problem now is that parking pays a fraction of what it used to pay during and a bit after lockdowns. I think it's just waste of time to experiment during this period. Even one good sale will be equal to 5-10 years of profit from domain parking. It's just ridiculous.
I have only parked 20 xxxxx priced domains that earn consistently some revenue EVERY MONTH. But those names are very very hard to find nowadays.
Still my revenue from parking is peanuts, 60% down in comparison to a year or two ago.

 

[DrJacoby]

I think it's just waste of time to experiment during this period. Even one good sale will be equal to 5-10 years of profit from domain parking. It's just ridiculous.

If I'm having fun, I don't consider it a waste of my time. But thank you for your input.