What is Open Site Explorer?
Open Site Explorer (OSE) is a free SEO tool offered by Moz that enables users to research the backlink profile and analyze competitors' links for any website. It serves as an alternative to Mozscape, Moz's paid backlink analysis tool.
Key features of Open Site Explorer include:
- Backlink data for any website - OSE provides metrics on the number of backlinks pointing to a site, including data on the linking root domains, Page Authority, spam score, etc.
- Competitor link analysis - The tool allows you to compare the backlinks of up to 5 competitor sites side-by-side and identify link building opportunities.
- Link intersect - You can easily find sites that link to both your site and a competitor's site.
- Top pages analysis - OSE reports on the top pages on a site ranked by URL rating, allowing you to optimize and improve the pages accruing the most links.
- Free to use - As opposed to Mozscape which requires a paid subscription, Open Site Explorer is completely free to use with no login required.
The main limitations of OSE compared to Mozscape is that it only provides data on the top 50 linking domains and 100 most recently discovered links. There are also search limits applied if not logged in. Still, it's an invaluable free resource for basic backlink analysis and SEO research.
Semrush, Majestic SEO, GuinRank, SEO Tools Centre, Surfer SEO, Screpy, Advanced Web Ranking, SEO Explorer, Monsido, LinkDiagnosis, Nightwatch, SiteGuru are some alternatives to Open Site Explorer.