Majestic SEO Blog

What’s New at Majestic

Majestic SEO is about to get a new makeover and I think you will find the changes stunning. Last week at Pubcon Vegas I had the opportunity to show delegates some of the developments at Majestic over 2012 and the show used the new look website. Just flick through the presentation below to get a sneak peak at the site.

The presentation also covers some of the recent developments at Majestic SEO – including the announcement that we are opening up our system through the launch of “Majestic OpenApps“.

We’ll tell you more about the philosophy behind the new site designs after launch.

How Majestic SEO Builds Links

At Pubcon, my presentation revealed much of Majestic SEO’s own link strategy. This post covers that presentation.

If you were one of the many hundreds of people that gave us your card for a free Majestic trial, I am afraid you will need to wait until at least Tuesday, when I get back to the UK, before I can get someone to sift through them all. We have a SLIGHT suspicion that some of you may have been more interested in the T-Shirts and the Majestic Girls than the actual trials! Not that we didn’t want our stand swamped! We are all really grateful for everyone’s kind words throughout the presentations and in the bars.

Here is the presentation – with the salient points beneath.

Real World, Low risk High Reward Link Building. (This text follows the “slides”)

Here are my details.

Risk: Here follows a strategy with many links but not much ongoing traffic…

Some site can create many links from HUGE websites but the longevity or quality of traffic is short-lived.

The REAL secret for Link building is Re(a)lationships. I suggested ten link building ideas in last year’s presentation and this year wanted to show how I personally have applied have a do zone of these ideas in Majestic SEO’s own marketing strategy.

1. Last year I suggested offering testimonials. That very strategy generated a great marketing boost through our partnership with Raventools.
2. I suggested arranging or getting involved in meet-ups. This years Majestic has sponsored events all over the world and often enjoyed links as a result. Our next two events are in Manchester and Israel by the way.
3. Last year I recommended sending samples out for reviews. In Majestic’s world, this translates really to being able to give out free trials – although as a principal we have only given trials out to people attending conferences, although route would be by joining SEMPO.
4. Last year I talked about going to conferences and speaking in your niche. The best example I can show here of why this works is the relationship I personally have with Rand Fishkin as why both try to tame this untameable industry. This means at times even competitors need to work together.
5. Even tactics like running a good cause website are being used in a way at Majestic.

I then went on to talk about how we went about launching our Majestic Millions and Badge widget earlier in the year, which is demonstrated in the slides by the timeline of events.

So that’s a narrative of the slides – ending on the reaffirmation that Majestic’s entire strategy depends on developing relationships – with our customers, with our suppliers, and aiming to turn them all into our advocates. We constantly look out for mentions of Majestic SEO online – whether in a good or bad context and try to react as best as we can as fast as we can. Even two of our booth staff were unpaid! In fact they are our clients!

I do admit, though, that the models weren’t free.

Majestic OpenApps – Now every SEO Tool can Request Majestic Link Data (Conditions Apply!)

Today we announce the launch of a new way to access Majestic SEO Data – via Majestic OpenApps – An easy way to integrate Majestic Data with your application, and a great way of extending the power available to Majestic SEO subscribers. This will enable tool managers the world over to build our data into their applications without having to bear the costs of their users’ usage limits.

What is an “OpenApp”?

A “Majestic OpenApp”, as its name suggests, is an application open to all Majestic SEO subscribers on all plans. At its heart is the new ability to allow a third party (any developer’s App) to execute commands on behalf of a Majestic SEO subscriber. Majestic SEO subscribers are in control of the process – and can authorise individual apps for access to their account resources. This means that developers can now build their own applications using our data through APIs.

How does this differ from the Commercial Reseller API?

As you can imagine, whilst you have considerable API functionality, there are SIGNIFICANT differences between this and the full reseller license

• Full reseller licensees own their clients, whilst in OpenApp MajesticSEO has a direct financial relationship with all clients using the data.
• In this model you are not reselling our data – Authors are lending (presumably for a fee) their Apps to Majestic Clients
• OpenApp comes with no service level commitment from us – acceptance is at our discretion and we have the right to shut off any Open App for whatever reason at any time
• OpenApp does not come with support over and above the support offered by a Platinum tarriff. You are on your own and must support Majestic Users that use your App.
• Authors cannot negotiate or agree separate terms with us to use OpenApp. We can change our terms at any time.

In the OpenApp model, application authors are invited to enhance their software for Majestic Subscribers, creating an “opt-in” open community where application author, end user, and Majestic benefit from the relationship.

Until now, with the general exception of GetIndexItemInfo, Majestic API access was only available for resale or redistribution on high end reseller contracts. With a reseller licence, the reseller acquires the customer forming a “closed loop” between the reseller and their clients.

How do I use it?

As a Majestic-SEO subscriber, you have the ability to opt in and out of OpenApps at any time. Open App authors will advertise authorisation URLs for their applications.

Should you wish to develop open-apps, please respect that Majestic recognises the value which our customers have invested in the Majestic API systems. We have therefore limited public applications to gain OpenAPP access rights to Majestic Platinum subscribers. There is an application process to follow, and OpenApp API access is not an automatic right of subscription.

Can I try this now?

If you have a Majestic Subscription then you’ll be happy to know we have a small example at http://openapp-example.majesticseo.com – visit this page to try out Majestic OpenApps for yourself!

What responsibilities do OpenApp authors have?

As an application author, you remain responsible for all support issues arising from the use of your application, and any additional queries potentially due to the integration of Majestic OpenApps. Majestic SEO may also investigate complaints against specific applications and reserve the right to withdraw access for a given OpenApp at any time.

1. You need to apply to access OpenApp from within a Platinum account. Majestic-12 Ltd is not bound in any way to supporting your application.
2. You accept that Majestic-12 Ltd may revoke access or change the terms of registration at any time and for any reason.
3. Any party who seeks to use Majestic SEO data via your application, must first have formed a contract with Majestic SEO for the provision of subscription services. No attempt may be made to conceal or bypass this direct relationship between the end user with Majestic SEO.
4. Data retrieved via the API is to be treated as confidential between Majestic-12 Ltd and the end user of your application.
5. These terms are in addition to our general terms and conditions, which you accept as part of this agreement.

Is there documentation for the API used by OpenApps?

There certainly is! OpenApps re-use a large part of the existing Majestic API, full documentation and code examples for which are available on our Developer Support Pages.

Can I apply as a developer now? RIGHT now?

If you are on a Platinum subscription, log in and go to the API page.

I am not a developer. Do I need to be on platinum to use someone’s OpenApp?

No! The OpenApp developer will end up simply giving you a link to their OpenApp so that you can authorise it. You can do this on ANY subscription level.

Please enquire via support if you require more details or if you think you have a tool so popular that you deserve special status.

Fresh Index hits 100 Billion URLs

Screenshot taken on 6th November 2011

I noticed this little milestone just now. It’s a Sunday, so I really should not be looking at the business too closely, but it was a busy week last week winning the best SEO Technology at the Search Awards and we are gearing up for what we hope will be a massive week for Majestic as we go to Pubcon in Las Vegas.

In preparation for that, the Historic index was updated yesterday – but the Fresh Index now updates so often automatically that we forget to look at the numbers, even though they are listed on the home page.

Today, theough, the number stood out for me, at 100,272,695,204 URLs seen by our crawlers within a 30 day period. This does not mean NEW URLs, it means that the links were string enough to get re-crawled or re-seen in the last 30 days by our crawlers. This is why it makes sense to use the FRESH index for normal day-to-day analysis of link data. Frankly, a blog post that deprecates off the home page of a blog without itself getting any external links becomes largely lost on the Internet. We’ll still have the URL in our historic index, but neither ourselves nor the maim search engines will pay much attention to it – because other websites and therefore, presumably, people pay limited attention to it.

We continue onwards and upwards.

Historic Backlinks Index Update

Today we’ve updated our Historic backlinks index, stats are as follows: 355,472,718,166 unique pages crawled 3,588,647,290,128 unique URLs in total. All fresh data crawled in period up to 20 October 2011 was added to this update.