Advanced Link Popularity Analysis Tool - RustyBrick

[rustybrick]

I wanted a tool to analyze my links and the value of those links to a specific page. So I built one. I named it the Google Link Popularity Analysis Tool (http://www.rustybrick.com/link_analysis.php). This tool basically looks at all your links for a specific page (the links are determined based on the link command in Google) and analyzes them for anchor text, pagerank and more. Why Google? Well, they are the only one that offers a free API to "ethically" obtain the data. Of course that limits you to 1,000 queries per day (or 10,000 backlinks) but we are going to make a paid version that allows you to run a single report over multiple days.

The free reports show PageRank data, internal and external link counts, anchor text weights, class C IP reporting and much more.

Check out the Google Link Popularity Analysis Tool (http://www.rustybrick.com/link_analysis.php) today, please leave your comments below on the tool. Thank you.

Oh, if you have a lot of backlinks, the analysis can take a while to run. Takes about one minute per 100 links because it needs to crawl the pages you are linked on and analyze them.

[Nick W]

looks like fun, now if you could make that downloadable.... ;-)

Nick

[rustybrick]

Why downloadable?

We are all Web guys here. :)

There will be a login version added shortly, where you can store reports, and graph them over time. Very cool stuff will be added based on this thread.

[AussieWebmaster]

Cool little widget.... what is C Class? other sites you own?

[rustybrick]

Other sites that are on the same IP block (or server), i.e. 192.168.1.x

[seobook]

when i tried it the #s were all out of wack

for example, one run gave me these #s

Your PR MEAN: 8.0000
Your PR MIN: 8
Your PR MAX: 8
Your PR MEDIAN: 8.00
Your PR STDDEV: 0.0000
Your PR MODE: 5

In # / Out #
186000000 / 0

Link Anchor Text
Phrase #

it still needs a bit of work

also if you are going to check c block IP addresses you might as well give the # of unique c block IP addresses instead of just saying that these ones are on your c block. I am not sure if it does because my stuff was kinda messed up.

once you get it all up and dandy and full featured with login and stuff I will link to it as it sounds like it has some good potential.

[rustybrick]

when i tried it the #s were all out of wack
I test this is dozens of domain names, your the only one who reported numbers being wrong. Please tell me the url you are using so I can figure it out.

for example, one run gave me these #s

Your PR MEAN: 8.0000
Your PR MIN: 8
Your PR MAX: 8
Your PR MEDIAN: 8.00
Your PR STDDEV: 0.0000
Your PR MODE: 5

These numbers are the averages of the pagerank values of the pages linking to you. Again, they seem to be wrong, please send me the URL.



also if you are going to check c block IP addresses you might as well give the # of unique c block IP addresses instead of just saying that these ones are on your c block. I am not sure if it does because my stuff was kinda messed up.
We do give this number on the summary screen.

once you get it all up and dandy and full featured with login and stuff I will link to it as it sounds like it has some good potential.

Something seems weird and I appreciate you helping me test this. Please post or PM me the URL you tested.

Thanks.

[VIZ]

Nice tool Rustybrick - looks like you have a viable alternative to OptiLink.

[Nick W]

It does,

the only thing that worried me (and inspired me to write my first comment) is the issue of security.

Rusty seems like a good bloke, but I've never met him. He's an SEO! LoL....... do I want my urls being given over to someone that makes a living from the www?

It's an issue that would stop me using/renting this service unless properly, and satisfactorily addressed.

Plans to document your privacy policy for this tool rusty?

Cheers...

Nick

[rustybrick]

It does,

the only thing that worried me (and inspired me to write my first comment) is the issue of security.

Rusty seems like a good bloke, but I've never met him. He's an SEO! LoL....... do I want my urls being given over to someone that makes a living from the www?

It's an issue that would stop me using/renting this service unless properly, and satisfactorily addressed.

Plans to document your privacy policy for this tool rusty?

Cheers...

Nick

First thing is, I am not an SEO. I just like the industry. I do not really offer SEO services. I build Web sites from scratch that are search engine friendly. I will rarely ever take on a new project that is just for the purposes of SEO.

We have a privacy policy that was not updated since who knows when at http://www.rustybrick.com/company_policies.php#privacy

I'll review it an have my lawyers update it.

I am an honest guy, but I understand your concerns.

[rustybrick]

Actually, if you have specific items you want to be included in this tools privacy policy, please let me know and I will have them added.

[Nick W]

>>I build Web sites from scratch that are search engine friendly

Well, that makes 2 of us ;-)

I'd sooner see it downloadable Rusty, then I know what data it is sending out to whom. It looks like a fine alternative to Optilink, but the fact that you run that app yourself (and can monitor what it's doing) would sway me in that direction.

You cant please everybody though mate, so the best of luck with it...

Nick

[rustybrick]

Right now I have no plans to make this tool downloadable.

Those who trust me and my privacy policy can use it. :)

[Nacho]

Great tool Barry! I made my first test and looks great. I will follow up with some recommendations soon.

The first thing that crosses my mind is that I would like to know more about my true Link Popularity (for example, in my case it was "81 of those backlinks are external"). It would be ideal if there was a way to divide the analysis to: View All; Internal; External. Where you can then go deep into understanding what authorities link to you under what anchor text in a summary format. Maybe this is something you can add to the "Domain Summary" section with a couple more colums that sumarizes consistency in anchor text (if multiple links from same domain) and website general keyword theme measured.

I've got to get my thoughts better organized and look forward to share them with you.

[rustybrick]

Thansk for the useful feedback.

The sorting and filtering options will be in the login version.

Here is my list of login (paid) features:

- report filtering by any metric
- report sorting by any column
- email, print, pdf, export reports
- stall reports and run the next day (if you have over 10k links, your Google API will be used up, so its a necessity in some cases to stall reports and run them the next day)
- schedule reports to run automatically (weekly, monthly, after a backlink update)
- graph reports over time to see progress
- more detailed metrics
- computer based recommendations (that will be fun)

Let's add to this list. :)

Thanks.

[rcjordan]

As Nick points out, an app pretty much has to be on the desktop or server and verified not to phone home before it can be trusted on one's own site(s). They are useful for checking other people's sites though, Nick.

[seobook]

I tried it again and it totally worked. Other than the time delay (which is necissary because of Google API stuff & needing to crawl the pages) I think it works pretty darn good.

[rustybrick]

Ok made some updates to the free version the list can be found here (http://www.rustybrick.com/link-analysis-updates.php) or below. Also added a FAQs (http://www.rustybrick.com/link-analysis-faqs.php) section. Now time to get to work on the paid version. :)

Version 0.6b

Added support to analyze anchor text in JavaScripts
Added access code requirement to improve performance and prevent unauthorized scripts
Fixed bug in IE where progress pop up did not close
Fixed bug where some anchor text was not being displayed
Fixed bug where 1 result found shows as 0 results found

[Bernard]

I just found your tool Barry and was going to post the same concerns about data security that Nick mentioned already. You should consider putting a link to your privacy policy prominently on the tool page & FAQ page. I didn't see any links to it at all.

Additionally your privacy policy does not address the handling of data from non-customers. AFAICT, if I use your free tool, you are free to use the results of any analysis I conduct for any purpose you wish.

[rustybrick]

Bernard, thanks for the privacy policy feedback. I will see what I can add to cover that.

any other points in regards to the privacy issues?

[nuttakorn]

Hi,
It is a good tool. I have used that one but I have some problem on when I search the site which has a lot of backward links like more than thousand links. It take time to load in once. I am using Mac Os X. Sometimes It hasn't shown, just shown on menu bar.

[rustybrick]

I am using Mac OS X as well, Apple's Safari browser has a built in 30 second time out. So any Web site that runs operations like this link tool do not work well. If you have a 1,000 backlinks it should take about 15 - 20 minutes on IE for Mac.

[nuttakorn]

I have used SafariNoTimeOut.img for expanding timeout time for safari but I will try to use Internet Explorer for Mac. Thank you.

[nuttakorn]

Hi RustyBrick ,
In my opinion to the viewing of result on backward link,
If possible, Can you limit number of result in page? Because if the huge site which have a lot of backward links, It will take longer.

[rustybrick]

The paid version will have a scheduling feature, so you don't have to wait.

[VIZ]

any other points in regards to the privacy issues?
I can't see what the concerns are about privacy with this tool - everything it reveals is public domain information that can be accessed using manual searches on Google. The only private information users reveal to RustyBrick is their Google API key.

[JohnW]

I downloaded the dev kit from Google and built a down and dirty interface. First thing I discovered was there is a filter option that’s not available through the public web search. It lets you visualize how SERPs are manipulated by filters and seems that when you turn off filters it turns off more than just the 2 filters they tell you about. I tried term searching for some of my money words with the filter on/off and was quite surprised at what I found although I’m not sure what it means.

Rusty, anybody – are you seeing what I see with these new filters?

[rustybrick]

Right, well we use the API for several programs.

With this link tool, we shut off the filter in order to obtain every single link Google returns.

With a keyword ranking program we built, we leave the filter on, in order to provide a true representation of ones rankings in the US centric market.

One can also turn off the filter in Google.com.

[JohnW]

Google describes the filter behavior as follows:

>Activates or deactivates automatic results filtering, which hides very similar results and results that all come from the same Web host.

After playing around with it, seems like there are other filters besides the ones they tell us about, and, that are being turned on and off by this switch as well.

For example, when I run a search on a set of kwps with filter on and then again with it off and compare the results, the differential is sometimes obviously other than the factors (similar results or all from the same host) stated by Google.

[rustybrick]

I'll have to take a look, I never looked at the difference between the filter on or off in the API that closely.

[JohnW]

Unless I am hallucinating (heh, could be) there are filters at play beyond what are disclosed, and, the filter on/off affects at least one additional filter that they don't disclose.

[JohnW]

please excuse the serial posting, but I don't understand

>One can also turn off the filter in Google.com.

Outside of the safe-search filter, where can one turn on/off filters at google.com? Maybe I need to take a nap/

[rustybrick]

Just add &filter=0 to the end of the search query like http://www.google.com/search?q=rustybrick&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=0

[ZanderXML]

Your Tool dies by timeout!

[rustybrick]

It takes about 1 minute per 100 backlinks. Give it some time. Otherwise, you can use a paid version that allows you to schedule when to run it.

[Nacho]

At first it was testing, now it's my preferred link analysis tool as I find myself using less and less Optilink.

There are a few little things that could make it even better, but then again look at AOL version X.0 . . . there is always room for improvement.

Great job for your team Barry!!!

[rustybrick]

Thanks!

We actually have a paid version that is much more powerful.

But, I appreciate the feedback from everyone!

[ihelpyou]

Why Google? Well, they are the only one that offers a free API to "ethically" obtain the data. Of course that limits you to 1,000 queries per day (or 10,000 backlinks) but we are going to make a paid version that allows you to run a single report over multiple days.
Hi Barry, I guess you actually got permission from Google to charge a fee using their API?

http://www.google.com/apis/api_terms.html

I don't know of anyone who has been granted the okay to use the API for "commercial" purposes. If you did, then kudos to you!! :)

[rustybrick]

I rather not get into this again. The results from the API are free. You can get them for free by either using the RustyBrick version or the "free results" version. All SEO Count is charging for is the storage and advanced reporting of the data. The actual results and data is free.

I can not comment on Google's acknowledgment of the tool, for many reasons. Let's leave this like that please.

[I, Brian]

Google describes the filter behavior as follows:

>Activates or deactivates automatic results filtering, which hides very similar results and results that all come from the same Web host.
.
Ahh...so is this a bold omission by Google that it does routinely use devaluation by C class? :)

[StephenOrr]

I have just tried your tool but am not certain iti is giving me accurate results. It seems not to include many links to my site. Could this be because I have a UK site and you are not accessing the Google UK database? Would this afect all international links? (though some are included)

[rustybrick]

This is because Google does not provide ALL of your links to your site, it just provides a random sample.

[StephenOrr]

You say:
This is because Google does not provide ALL of your links to your site, it just provides a random sample.

Doesn't that severely limit the value of your information? For example, is there no way to measure an increase in total links and their value over time?

[rustybrick]

Yea, it does. But it used to work better when Google showed a larger sample.

Its a free tool.

Try Optilink.com for a tool that covers all search engines, it doesn't use the API though.