Exactly two weeks ago, SEOmoz launched Linkscape, their new link analysis tool. There has been much accusation, feedback and discussion over the inner workings of the product itself which this post does not cover. Instead I’d like to take a look at some ideas that I hope are in the development queue to improve Linkscape even further over the coming months.
Some tweaks in linkscape I’d like to see, in no particular order…
1) Export reports to PDF
In the “Advanced Link Intelligence Report” you can export raw data via CSV. That’s a great feature, but sometimes you need a document to download rather than a raw data export, particularly in a dashboard summary situation. White label the report template with uploadable logo functionality so you can make it look like your own, hard work for extra bonus points.
2) Report metrics over time
This is tough, but to see how the various metrics have developed over time (30 days, 3 months, 6 months) Would be an amazing tool to help us demonstrate how SEO efforts have added value to a client project. Obviously this would require a higher resolution of data (more frequent crawl). SEOmoz already keeps a record of your previous historic searches so perhaps this wouldn’t be *too difficult?
Reporting over time would make the last point particulary powerful, you could provide a quarterly or 6 monthly review very quickly.
*Assumption based on no inside knowledge of the SEOmoz development process!
A time graph would make even more sense in the competitor analysis as it would give you a good idea of how agressive other websites link building campaigns must be. Imagine being able to quickly and easily see the rate of aquisition of your top 5 competitors, down to a daily basis. I know this is beyond Linkscape’s crawl rate today. I suppose in the meantime we always have Google alerts!
3) Site submission (I never thought I’d say that word on my blog!)
As a paying user of linkscape I think a useful feature would be to allow requests for more detailed crawls of competitor (and your own) websites.
4) Sitemap.xml compatibility
If a sitemap is referenced in the robots.txt file then Linkscape could incorporate the urls into its database for future crawls. If you’re a subscriber, you could submit your own sitemap.
5) 8 Most common anchor text terms- exact match
When you click this link it would be handy to see a list of urls using that anchor text for link realignment purposes. Currently, clicking the text takes you back to the link intelligence report but the anchor texts don’t match exactly. For example, you might click a “car parts” anchor, but the report will include “carparts.co.uk” and so on.
6) Reformat the display of some reports
It would be nice to have a pie chart for the inbound anchor text distribution. This works very well for Advanced Link Manager.
7) All 301 and 302 inbound redirects
Urls that redirect (internally or externally) via 302 or 301 redirect to any url on my site. I would love to know how many redirects I have pointing to my site. even more so if some of them are 302′s from high authority domains!
8) Mouseovers in graphs give you the metric
If I mouse over a graph, it would be good to see the value for that measurement rather than just a visual representation.
9) Site architecture analysis
This was a brilliant idea from Joshua Sciarrino on the SEOmoz feedback forum (I’ve picked 2 great ideas to give my 8 ideas a nice round figure of 10). Basically Josh said:
Is there a way to have a graph of the site I’m getting intel from, to have their internal linking structure? that would be amazing.
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The mind boggles with this idea, a visual representation with a competitors site architecture, every inbound link and keyword they’re optimising for? That is a nice tool!
10) A guide!
Another brilliant idea from Globusinternet on the SEOmoz Linkscape feedback forum, someone needs to write a guide for Linkscape!
So hurry along and have a go if you haven’t already, Linkscape is here to stay and I’m looking forward to watching it develop as a powerful SEO tool in the months to come.
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