mat t hewwo o dward.co .uk http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/backlink-checker-too ls/

Matthew Woodward

The Backlink Checker Tools 3 Million Domain Challenge

If you want to f ind backlinks you need a reliable backlink checker tool.

The problem with every link checker though is none of them give a complete view of a websites backlinks.

They each have their own database of links which vary in size. Then if it ’s a web based tool, you have to relyon how accurate and f resh that data is.

In the past I have tried to f ind out which is the best backlink checker and then f ollowed up by testing 1 milliondomains with Ahref s & Majestic SEO.

But that was 7 months ago and things have changed.

New Kid On The Block

Since I published those posts there is a new kid on the block!

WebMeUp have launched a f ree backlink checker that is without doubt, the best f ree backlink checker available!

What peaked my interest in it though was when the SEO Spyglass announced their integration with it.

Although SEO Spyglass is a desktop tool that provides f resh & accurate data, it perf ormed poorly in terms ofthe number of links it f ound.

But with the integration of WebMeUp this announcement really caught my eye-

To clarif y they are adding 15 billion links & 4million unique domains while crawling 1 billionlinks every day.

Sounds like a worthy competitor!

The King Of Crawling

If you visit the homepages of Ahref s, MajesticSEO or WebMeUP they publish some convenientstatistics.

The only one we can compare across the boardis the number of links crawled-

Ahrefs

Ahref s have crawled a total of 85,799,032,392links – 85.8 billion.

Majest ic SEO

Majestic SEO have crawled a total of185,806,146,989 links – 185.8 billion.

WebMeUp

WebMeUp have crawled a total of 157,466,548,231 links – 157.4 billion.

Are We Going To Crown A New King?

Interestingly Ahref s absolutely dominated the last test. But thistime round the number of links crawled looks worrying f or them!

Comparing them it ’s clear Majestic SEO are miles ahead andeven the new kid on the block WebMeUp have taken stride!

The 3 Million Domain Test

So with that in mind I wanted to repeat my 1 million domain showdown with the 3 backlink checker tools with thebiggest databases.

Test Details

I put the test together in exactly the same way as I did last t ime except with the introduction of WebMeUp tothe mix!

This is how I created the data-

1. Downloaded the Majestic Million

2. Extracted the subnet & IP counts f or Majestic

3. Looked up each domain with Ahref s & WebMeUp

Sounds simple right? Trust me that was much harder than it sounds!

This data along with a PDF is available to download at the end of the post.

Making The Comparison

You can also make your own comparisons to check your own sites out. All you need to do is visit each site andenter your domain.

If I do that f or this blog this is what I f ind-

So in this case, Ahref s f inds the most IP’s and the most subnets.

Now imagine doing that f or 1 million domains. That is exactly what I have done!

The Results Last Time

Bef ore I get into the new test, lets remind ourselves how Ahref s & Majestic SEO perf ormed last t ime.

Wins Ahrefs Majestic

IP Wins 709,673 291,250

Subnet Wins 642,737 358,186

In wee pretty graph f ormat-

Total WinsAhref sMajesticSEO100.000300.000500.000700.000900.000IP WinsSubnet Wins

As you can Ahref s dominated the results last t ime.

Looking at the number of links crawled now though, can Ahref s 85.8 billion hold of f Majestic SEO’s 185.8billion?

Ahrefs vs Majestic SEO vs WebMeUp Test Results

There is a huge amount of data here – it took nearly an hour to complete a single VLOOKUP in excel.

So to make it easier to understand I have broken the result down into groups of 100,000 like last t ime.

You can check this out f or yourself with the ByGroups.xlsx sheet in the data download.

Wins By IP Address

Ahref sMajesticS...WebMeUp020.00040.00060.00080.0001-100000100001-200000200001-300000300001-400000400001-500000500001-600000600001-700000700001-800000800001-900000900001-1000000Wins ByIP

Wins By Subnets

Ahref sMajesticS...WebMeUp020.00040.00060.00080.0001-100000100001-200000200001-300000300001-400000400001-500000500001-600000600001-700000700001-800000800001-900000900001-1000000Wins BySubnets

While WebMeUp have f ailed to make a blip on the radar really. Majestic SEO has improved an awf ul lot.

In the previous group results Majestic SEO could barely keep up with Ahref s, but now they are holding their ownand even win in 1 group.

Majestic SEO have certainly been hard at work improving their crawler & database!

Total Wins

With the group totals in mind, let’s take a look at the overall totals of how the backlink checker toolsperf ormed.

Wins Ahrefs Majestic WebMeUp

IP Wins 568,526 428,266 3,199

Subnet Wins 559,330 439,579 1,082

And if we drop that into a graph-

Ahref sMajesticSEOWebMeUP0150.000300.000450.000600.000IP WinsSubnet WinsTotal Wins

Ahrefs vs Majestic SEO vs WebMeUp Conclusion

Without doubt Ahref s are still the best backlink checker in terms of database size.

They f ind more links than both Majestic SEO & WebMeUp put together.

But Majestic SEO have made some serious improvements in the last f ew months. Last t ime they won 291,250IP totals & 358,186 subnet totals.

This t ime with a new kid on the block they have pushed those wins to 428,266 IP totals & 439,579 subnettotals. That’s a 22.8% increase in perf ormance since the last test.

While Ahref s have dropped f rom 709,673 IP wins & 642,737 Subnet wins to 568,526 IPs & 559,330 subnetsrespectively. A 16.5% drop in perf ormance!

WebMeUp looks promising as a f ree backlink checker and could challenge Ahref s & Majestic SEO in the f utureas it ’s database grows.

Previous Performance Chart

Total WinsAhref sMajesticSEO100.000300.000500.000700.000900.000IP WinsSubnet Wins

Current Performance Chart

Ahref sMajesticSEOWebMeUP0150.000300.000450.000600.000IP WinsSubnet WinsTotal Wins

How To Verify The Data For Yourself

If you want to heck the data yourself it is really easy to do!

Just download the source data and f ollow the steps below-

1. Download the source data

2. Open the MasterData.xlsx f ile

3. Select a line at random

4. Enter the domain f rom column A into the search box at Ahref s, Majestic SEO & WebMeUp.

5. For Ahref s look at Referring IPs and Referring subnets

6. For Majestic SEO look at Referring IPs and Referring subnets

7. For WebMeUp look at IPs and Subnets

You can manually spot check these at random!

You should also run your own domains through each of the tools to see what results you get f or yourself !

Creating a f ree account on Ahref s lets you run more reports while a f ree account at Majestic SEO let’s youview all the backlink data they have f or websites you own.

The WebMeUp backlink checker is 100% f ree to use f or anyone!

Signing Off

So there we have it, 1 million domains & 3 backlink checker tools compared!

Each of these tools have 1 f law in common though and that is the f reshness of the data.

It could be that links have been removed or pages deleted since they were last crawled.

The only true way to get an accurate look at a backlink prof ile is to combine reports f rom as many services aspossible and then use a tool like Inspyder Backlink Monitor or SEO Spyglass to f etch real t ime data.

My next test is going to f ocus on data f reshness – it ’s all well and good having the biggest database, but if it ’smostly out of date it is useless!

Got a f ew more technical problems to solve with that test, but watch this space