Win a free ticket to Thinkvisibility THIS Saturday

We are sponsoring Thinkvisibility in Leeds THIS Saturday and it seems that Alex will be too busy in the data center to come along. So we have a spare ticket. We aren’t sure if Dom will let us change the name on the badge – so without any guarantees that we’ll be actually objective in our judging… or that we’ll manage to announce a winner at all – how about an Alex Lookalike competition? Anyone linking below to a picture of themselves (or an avatar or anything entertaining really) will be in the race for a ticket. The more like Alex it is, the better your chances.

founder_and_the_greys2

Majestic 12 founder with Grey Squirrels

Good luck. “Entries” really need to be with us be with us by end of play tomorrow.

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Majestic SEO API Explained

We have some very powerful APIs and this post is designed to help you make the most out of our API solutions. I do want to start by making two things very clear.

1. Our Platinum subscription offers users the full API for INTERNAL (Non-reseller) use only. Under that license you would not be able to build competing products to Majestic SEO.
2. The best way to build web applications that list any back-link data DETAIL  is to become one of our premier partners, which involve a significant investment. I hope this post explains why.

Does Majestic have a free API?

We do have a Light API. This API gives the number of back-links that we have found in our database for any given URL. It also returns other counts, such as the number that are no-followed, re-crawled but not present, framed, in images etc. If you are on our Platinum level, then you have the right to use the light API in third party applications without giving us any web based credit. Alternatively, if you are able to link to us or otherwise help to publicize us, then we will consider giving you access to the light API for less or without charge.

Can I use the full Enterprise API for web based applications?

You need the correct license for the correct use. With our Platinum subscription (£250 a month, APPROX 300 Euros/350 US dollars), you can use the full API, but you should only be using if for your team to provide reporting (ratherthan tools) for retained clients. Companies can also use the API to build their own applications, but they are must not be for public use. Web based clients should not be able to log in and use any tool applications themselves. If you want this, then you will need a full reseller license to use the API.

What does a reseller license cost and why is that pricing not on the website?

Reseller license are generally quite complicated deals. They cost several thousands of pounds each month and each contract is individually negotiated. No two deals are exactly the same. Clients on this kind of license have considerable sway on how we might license the data in future, because they ultimately help us fund the crawl and the not inconsiderable development and ongoing costs of the engine and crawlers.

What data can I get back from the full API?

Our web based application uses the full API. You get large amounts of information about any URL’s backlinks. You also get API access to many other commands, like the ones that feed our bulk back-link checker and our standard reports. We basically leave it all out on the field in our full API and we are constantly developing it in line with our reseller customer demands. Here is a list of just some of the things things you can get from the full API:

  • The date we first found a link (even if it is dead) which helps us build our history graph
  • The date we last crawled the link
  • The anchor text if present
  • Whether it redirects
  • Whether the link is in an image
  • Whether the anchor text is in an ALT field
  • Whether the link was still live last time we crawled (we keep the old data to check paid link campaigns)
  • Whether the link is a real LINK or just a mention
  • Whether the link is marked nofollow

In addition, you can use parameters to return just the results you want. For example:

  • Return all the Affiliate links of a given site.
  • Return the top 6000 links by ACRank that were found in 2010
  • Return all links that are nofollowed and mention a given anchor text
  • tell me how many links exist that fit any given criteria.

Can I see the documentation for the APIs or get a trial?

Please contact us, giving us a clear idea of who you are and what your expectations will be.

Can I see examples of the Light API integration?

Sure – check out the SEOBOOK Toolbar; The Linkjuice iPhone app; Namecatch.com and Cemper.com to name a few.

Can I see examples of the FULL API on a platinum package integration?

As we say – if we COULD link you to such an integration, then the user is probably using it against our terms of service.

Can I see examples of the Full Enterprise API integration?

Sure – but they’ll probably need to charge you. Influencefinder.com; Wordtracker’s Linkbuilder and Raventools are all currently using our full API.

I hope this helps.

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Excelling Globally, Active Locally

That may be the cheesiest subject line I have ever started with on a blog post – but wanted to say that the Birmingham Post have shortlisted our business in their inaugural business awards and also that we have taken the late decision to sponsor one of the Midland’s most exciting internet marketing conferences – Thinkvisibility – which takes place down the road in Leeds in just over a week.

The Birmingham Post recognized us and shortlisted us in two categories:

Creative Industries Award: We are up against the Birmingham Hippodrome, and Birmingham One Creative Environments Ltd, Worcester

Export & International Trade Award: where we are competing against Cubewano Ltd in Sutton Coldfield; Eg Solutions in Stafford and Strip Tinning Ltd in Frankley.

We won’t find out if we have won until Monday 20th September, when we will attend the Gala dinner at the International Conference Center at the ICC. (I hope it’s a side room… that place can get draughty!)

In the meantime, The Birmingham Post are coming into the offices next week for some filming (Second film crew in a month) so they can have an Oscar ceremony style multimedia thing going on during the awards. Alex – trim up that Moustache!

Our other local event is the sponsorship of ThinkVisibility, which is a really great event that has been taking place in Leeds now for a few years. Run by Dom Hodgeson, I’m expecting a couple of hundred people to turn up on a Saturday. We won’t be overhyping ourselves at the event, but I thought I would set up my Laptop in a corner and give some free demonstrations of the tool to anyone that wants it and also some training for anyone using the tool that is getting swamped by the data. The advantage of it all being so local is that Alex might even make the journey. 

The thing that has always fascinated me about Thinkvisibility is that the people that I know attend and advocate it are extremely independently minded – and some of the thought leaders of our industry. Dave Naylor’s company is also sponsoring the event and my friend Mel Carson from Microsoft is on the speaker list.

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MajesticSEO Wordpress Plugin

Dan Taylor of Just Search has developed a Wordpress plugin of our back-link checker.

wppluginThe plugin sits in your Wordpress dashboard, showing by default the back-links discovery in cumulative view, giving Wordpress users a warm, fuzzy feeling every time they log in to their Wordpress back end.

It’s a great idea and thank to Dan for developing it. By default, the charts bring up your own blog’s back-links, but clicking on the screen sends you to the main back-link checker, where you can compare and contrast and generally play around with the settings as usual.

I just uploaded this initial version to grab a screenshot for you. At the moment, since I use two columns on my dashboard by default and my eyes are so poor that the resolution on the screen means the chart overlaps into the next column slightly. this is fixable by setting your dashboard settings to single column or (presumably) by altering your screen resolution, but I would guess that this will be a bug fix at some point if the tool gets any take up.

The tool also shows back-links discovery, rather than my preferred graph of referring domains discovery. Perhaps in a future version, Dan, you could add this as an optional setting? I guess at the same time you could also add competitor domains into the mix, so that users can see how their blog is progressing against others in the same vein?

All in all, a great idea and I hope that many will look to add it to their dashboards. You can download the plugin from Wordpress here.

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Majestic-12 gets onto the BBC

ADDED on 16TH: We have a much more significant article today after the news came to our offices and did a article. Have a look from 7 mins 15 seconds at THIS LINK over the next seven days.

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We were delighted to hear ourselves mentioned on the BBC on one of their news programmes.

We were described as “an amazing success story to rival Google”. We wouldn’t exactly describe ourselves as rivals to Google, but we do have an awful lot of data… it;s just rather different to theirs! We are indeed pretty pleased with the progress to date and are happy to be called “an amazing success story” though. Matthew highlighted us when the presenter asked what the very best example of a start-up was in the science park. The park in itself a center for technology incubation excellence, so being the best of the best is high praise indeed.

I don’t know if we are allowed to embed BBC video, so here’s a link to it. We get mentioned in the article that starts at 13 minutes 53 seconds in, by Matthew Hidderley, who manges the science park here in Birmingham.

Link to the BBC video

Hey – no link from them to us… but that just goes to show that a link is not always about the blue underlined anchor texts. We’ll happily take that as an endorsement for now.

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New Index and a New Way to Track Them (23rd July 2010)

Majestic SEO’s index has just updated again. It is now 2.2 Trillion URLs, and the really observant amongst you may spot that we are accelerating speed of updates (last month we had updated it twice). We are quite pleased about that, after upgrading our index processing servers to super computer standards.

We know that for some of our customers, knowing when we update our index is a critical part of their own work cycle, so we have set up a specific blog category for updates, with its own RSS feed at http://blog.majesticseo.com/category/index-updates/ so that you can use this to easily see when the last update was recorded on the blog. Please note that I do not blog in line with the development team, so if it is critical to your processes, you may be better off investigating the full API – which includes a way to poll when a site’s data has been updated. For us mere mortals, though, this feed should help us communicate the updates in a reasonably timely manner.

Posted in Updates | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Free Training at Pubcon

For every person on one of our paid subscription models, we have 10  who only use the free services at Majestifc SEO right now. That means 9 out of 10 (OK, 10 out of 11) users are currently using Majestic SEO with one arm tied behing their back. US$16 for a BRONZE subscription would open up quite a few eyes, so we’ve decided to try and do something about that. block-see-us-vegas

MajesticSEO will be at two conferences in the autumn. In the UK we will be at the International Search Summit and then in November we will be pushing the boat out a little further in Las Vegas at Pubcon by running session during the conference to help people get the most out of Majestic.

The session will be entitled “Link Building: Using MajesticSEO to the Max” and will include some great speakers who will show you the ways in which they have delved into the data to create value for their clients. Speakers confirmed include Jon Henshaw, from Raventools, who will be talking about how they are using the API in their own tool and of course myself, looking to demonstrate many of the subtlke and not so subtle ways in which you can go beyond the backlink history widget and rapidly generate link candidates, identify affiliates, define vertical landscapes, overlay our data with third party data to find something new and maybe track down people using advertising platforms.

I promise that the session won’t be more anbout providing training and less about sales. Indeed, I want it to be allabout Link building secrets. I am lucky enough to get to speak on many panels every year, but I always have to hold my tongue and show due defference to other technologies when I am on another panel. By having a session entirely on Majestic SEO, I’m free to spill all and tell all. You won’t be disappointed and I guarantee that whatever level you currently use MajesticSEO’s data and tools, you will leave knowing new ways to advance your link building, your affiliate management, your advertsing strategy or your reputation management.

Pubcon is not the only place you’ll find us. If you are in the UK at the end of October, we will also be at the International Search Summit once again, at the British Library iss-button-london. This will be on the 28th of October. as a one day conference, we won’t take over a session, but we will be on hand in the foyer to demonstrate the system and answer any questions you may have.

In addition to these training sessions, we are also putting together some free training webinars. These Will initially be for our Gold and Platinum subscribers – who can ask me now and I will aim  to set up a call for them to get the most out of their subscription. I will then open the offer to other subscriptions as time permits. If you are not opted in to our irregular newsletter, you may wish to update your settings in your account if you want notification – or subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed of course.

I hope to see you at one of these conferences or online soon.

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Majestic can now help Domainers

Do you buy and sell domains?

Now MajesticSEO has teamed up with namecatch a Domain Name monitoring business. Now – instantly – you can see which domains have link history, direct from Namecatch’s sophisticated looking interface.

Namecatch collects domain lists from all the major expired domain auction sites . It then adds various data, search and sorting options and then links back to the auction site where you can buy those expired domains or join the auction. They claim to have about 90% of all expired domains in the world.

That’s over 1 million expired domain listed on our website at any given time!

What I like with the Majestic SEO integration is that you get get a feel for the value of the domain straight from the domain list. If you have 50 potential domains that you might like to buy up, then you can’t spend too long settling on your choice. Namecatch brings the referring domain and referring link counts straight into that list, so you can see at a glance which of those 50 domains has link history. One click links you into our free information about that domain, showing the strongest URLs on the page and paying customers could go much further by analyzing the anchor text and inbound link strength for those referring domains.

We caught up with the Namecatch founder, Erdinc Arguz. He gave us this feedback. “Namecatch.com started a couple of months ago as a dictionary domain sorting tool that helps finding expired dictionary domains. But now with the addition of Majestic data our site has become much more powerful. Thank you”

We liked that he said that, so we thought we’d share his tool with you too. As far as I know, this is the first domainer website using our API in this way. I expect it won’t be the last.

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MajesticSEO is Two Years Old Today

It would seem that our web interface is two years old today.

It’s not a cause for dancing on the ceilings or trying to go hot on Sphinn, but probably worth just noting in a blog post.

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Interview with Ken McGaffin of WordTracker

Ken McGaffin is the co-author of the Link Building Masterclass ebook and one of the world’s most resepcted thought leaders on the subject of link building and online PR and is also heavily involved in that well known SEO tool… Wordtracker, who have recently launced their new linkbuilder tool. He’s also a very nice guy in person. I have had the opportunity to meet Ken on many occassions and have always been incredibly impressed with his insight, so I decided to put on my “reporter” hat and ask him for an interview. I caught him JUST before he went on holiday – so I thought I would publish it whilst he wasn’t looking.

I am certainly proud of the campaigns we’ve done with Wordtracker, and I’m proud of the teaching that I’ve done. But I don’t spend much time thinking about that. I like to focus on the future so the thing that I’m really proud of is my ‘next big idea’.

Hi Ken – Thanks for agreeing to talk. Tell those few that don’t know – what’s Wordtracker and why are you interested in Links?

Wordtracker provides a keyword research service for SEOs throughout the world. We’ve been around for over 12 years and are used by many thousands of professional individuals and agencies.

In the early days, we concentrated on just the research service but over the last few years we’ve developed education material and new tools that help people use keywords effectively. We want to help people to really put keywords to work in generating profits for their business.

Earlier this year, we launched Strategizer which helps users build on the keywords that are already working for them and fully exploit keyword niches that are bringing them revenue. Now we’re excited to be launching Link Builder.

Of course links are essential if you really want to rank well in search engines and keywords play a vital role in link building. First in identifying highly relevant link prospects, and second in determining what anchor text to focus on to give the best search engine boost.

Now – Wordtracker recently started to use MajesticSEO’s API at the very highest level. Tell us what you are doing with that API?

We’d been using the Majestic database in our own link building and promotion and was very aware of the value of the data and the insight it could provide. We were sure that could offer value to our customers.

However, we didn’t want to just provide a link analysis service, we wanted to help people embrace the whole concept of building links. So we’ve taken the Majestic API to provide us with a very sound foundation, and we want to concentrate of adding value by helping people find link prospects, evaluate them and build carefully targeted link campaigns.

Have you got any enhancements planned that you can tell us about?

We’ve been delighted with the reaction to Link Builder and of course we have a lots of plans on how we can build on that. Here are some of the things that we have in the pipeline:

  • I think good link builders are always looking for link opportunities and their link building is both systematic and serendipitous. Most of the time they’ll be focused on the task of link building but there’ll be times as they surf the web doing other stuff, that link opportunities will suddenly appear. So we’ll shortly be launching an extension that will help them capture those opportunities and save them to a campaign without having to open the tool.
  • We also looking at the useful insights users can get from analyzing anchor text and how that can relate to their keyword marketing. Used together keywords and link building provide powerful marketing muscle. We’ll be introducing our early ideas on anchor text shortly.
  • Helping people identify top-notch link prospects in any market is also crucially important and again we’ll be introducing some ideas on this.
  • And a top priority is helping people manage and monitor link building campaigns so there’ll be some creative improvements there.

You’ve literally written the book on link building. Tell me what made you write it and what are you most proud about in your Internet career to date?

Well, over the years I’ve developed a lot of ideas and techniques and writing the book was a great way to pull it all together. Plus, I got to work very closely in writing the material with Mark Nunney who I really respect as an SEO.

The objective is of course to help educate people in link building. Many people’s approach to link building is about “that site links to my competitor so I’ll ask him to link to me”. That’s just a tiny part of it.

Real link building is about understanding the online community around a particular market and then establishing your place within it. I’ve tried to explain that in the book.

At a webinar last night a member of the audience asked me, “Link building is so boring, how can you enjoy it so much?” I tried to explain that sending out hundreds of link requests is boring but that researching the key influencers, building a relationship with them and creating content that they just love is really exciting.

I think the best links are the ones you get without asking, it’s the quality of what you produce that really gets people to link.

What am I most proud of? Wow, that’s a good question. I am certainly proud of the campaigns we’ve done with Wordtracker, and I’m proud of the teaching that I’ve done. But I don’t spend much time thinking about that. I like to focus on the future so the thing that I’m really proud of is my ‘next big idea’. I just love the enthusiasm and the challenge of turning ideas into something practical that really helps people.

Thanks for your time Ken – that’s really great.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak Dixon. It’s been fun.

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