Hi Aaron,

It seems you have a formatting issue...the right nav links are on top of the right side of some of those graphs.

I am using FF

Have fun fixing it :)

fixed it Evan :)

Nice find Aaron, that backlink history graph can be really useful. I've already started playing around with it!

Teach me how to play with the tool :(

I think these tools can definitely help us to more easily identify some of the tactics on which our competitors are focusing, in an effort to increase their own rankings.

However, these tools do not reveal which tactics contributed the most to one's ranking success or failure. We also do not know how many of these backlinks have been earned, purchased or are just plain spamulent.

I mention this for the benefit of those people newer to Internet Marketing, especially with regard to SEO/SEM strategy.

Aaron, are there any tools available or in-the-works, which attempt to reveal the nature of one's backlink profile (i.e. earned, purchased, spamulent)? I'm no programmer and although this seems like it'd be hard to decipher (many, many variables and considerations) it would be tremendously valuable information to know.

What about Trust/Trust Rank? Although we can identify some likely variables that contribute to Trust Rank, has anybody done a stellar job defining it thoroughly and enough to put it into a tool to help people gain a better insight into why one website may outrank another?

However, these tools do not reveal which tactics contributed the most to one's ranking success or failure. We also do not know how many of these backlinks have been earned, purchased or are just plain spamulent.

If you know their links came in spikes then you can try to see what they were doing around that timeframe...it takes digging through a lot of backlinks, but if you know the rough time estimate that a big spike happened you should be able to research it further. A couple tools which also help you track links proactively are Advanced Link Manager and Majestic SEO.

I wouldn't try to make a tool to guestimate the quality of a link profile...I generally just look at the search results and see that it is either effective or ineffective. ;)

This tool by MajesticSeo.com is useful and easy to comprehend even for newer practitioners of the SEO art. It is always good to check in on what the competition is doing well and where they have failed. Since SEO seems to be in a constant state of evolution, tools like these are valuable in discovering whether a client’s site is keeping with the times and producing content that is both popular and appropriate.