Is open site explorer the best way to find backlinks?

[cceebar]

I know my websites have links from other sites, but I don't see it listed using the open explorer tool.

perhaps the reputation of the external link is a factor?

_Cindy

[cceebar]

Right so yes I can see both sides here, but too now and when I've used OSE I was a bit confused by the results -- and in part I know my experience using the tool.

Though I am wondering if it would be good to see back links even those without a lot of authority...

_Cindy

[ChrisAshton]

As much as I love Moz and what they have to offer, the answer here is no.

From what I've observed, they seem to offer the most helpful information on links in your backlink profile but have the smallest volume of links catalogued What this means is that for what does show up in your backlink profile in OSE, the info on these backlinks is fantastic but you'll only see a small portion of your true link profile.

That said, no tool (including Search Console) offers a complete list of links pointing to your site. The difference is that the two other major providers in this space (Ahrefs and Majestic) do offer a larger database and so a more accurate indication of link volume.

Having tested all three major tools for a few months, it was quite common to see a site's profile show 100 referring domains in Ahrefs, approximately the same in Majestic give or take a few and more like 5 - 20 in OSE.

Crawling such an insane volume of sites (billions? trillions?) on a regular basis takes a significant amount of resources so I don't blame Moz for having a less exhaustive offering... but in it's current state I also don't find it particularly useful I'm afraid. Time will tell if they dedicate more time/resources to changing this now that they've returned from broader digital marketing efforts to their original core of SEO.

[mcncl]

There are a number of tools out there and OSE is just one of them. Using GSC's "Links to Your Site" can provide good insights on both who links the most and your most recently attained links.

ahrefs shows additional data and, in my opinion, the more data you can gather the better informed you will be. What I'm saying is, don't rely too much on the accuracy of one individual tool, when there are plenty more out there which may have a more focused approach on a certain aspect of SEO than other, more general tools.