Link Tracking Lists

In this guide you’ll learn how to create and work within Link Tracking Lists in the Link Explorer tool.

Quick Links

• Save & Organize Link Prospects with Link Tracking Lists (Video Available)
• How to Create a Link Tracking List
• Working With Your Lists
• Adding Links to Your List
• Adding Notes to Your List
• Export Your Data
• Understanding Link Explorer Terminology

In the Link Tracking Lists section of the Link Explorer tool, you can create lists of links and linking domains to help set goals, track, and analyze your link building progress.

Link Tracking Lists can be especially useful for things like:

• Targeting a specific type of link or links from a specific domain
• Tracking progress for links to a specific page or section of your site
• Keeping notes about links you’re attempting to regain from your lost links
• Keeping track of possible spammy links you’re working to review
• And so much more!

There are a few ways you can create a list for link tracking. The first would be to create a new list in the Link Tracking Lists section itself. You can get started by clicking the Create new list link on the top right.

You can then choose a Name for your link list (required) and Associate a target URL (optional) with the list. For the associated target URL you can choose to enter a root domain, subdomain, subfolder, or exact page, depending on what your link building efforts are for this particular list. You can also leave this field blank if you’d like to choose the target later.

You will also have the opportunity to Add URLs to your list to track. You have the same options here to enter a root domain, subdomain, subfolder, or exact page. You can also opt to leave this blank for now and add in URLs later by manually entering them or by using other sections of the tool to add links to your list. We’ll go over that more later!

Once your list is created, you’ll have a lot of information to work with all populated in one place! For example, at the top of the list you’ll see the Average Domain Authority and the Average Page Authority for the links on your list. We’ll also note the Total URLs in list and how many URLs Linking to Target there are on this list.

When diving into your list, you’ll have the option to filter your list by links which link to the exact page specified, link to the root domain, or don’t link to the target at all using the drop-down.

Next to each link in your list we’ll show you the Page Authority (PA) and the Domain Authority (DA) for that link as well as the number of Linking Domains pointing to that link. We’ll also indicate if the link Links to the target URL.

Green circle - A green circle indicates that the link links to the list target.

Blue circle - A blue circle indicates that the link links to the root domain of the list target but not the exact link.

Red circle - A red circle indicates that link does not link to the list target at all.

If you’re seeing that a link on your list isn’t marked as linking to the target which you believe should be, be sure to check out our guide regarding how to troubleshoot when Moz isn’t finding your links.

As you’re doing research in the Link Explorer tool, you can add links and linking domains to track in your Link Tracking Lists from the Inbound Links, Linking Domains, Discovered and Lost, and Spam Score sections of the tool.

To add a link or linking domain to a list, just look for the check boxes to the far left. For example, in the Inbound Links section, first check the box to the left.

Once you’ve selected the links you’d like to add and click Add to Link Tracking Lists, you’ll be given the opportunity to select an existing list or to create a new list.

Now that you’ve added all these great link opportunities to lists and you're ready to get started, how do you keep track of what you and your team are working on and what needs to be done? We have a solution for that! You can now add notes to the links in your list!

To add a note to a link in your link, click the arrow in the Notes column. This will expand a box in which you can type your note and click Save.

If a link already has a note associated with it, this will be indicated with a plus (+). Click the + to expand and view the note. You can then click Edit to update your notes.

Your notes will be available to view and edit at any time. This can be great for helping to keep track of your link building efforts and for letting your teammates know what you’re working on or what still needs to be done.

You can export your data to CSV. If you have filters applied, the tool will export the filtered results.

You can pick up your CSV from Export Notifications flag on the top right.

More definitions are available in our Glossary.

Domain Authority (DA) - Domain Authority is a Moz proprietary metric from 1-100 which predicts how well a domain will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

Page Authority (PA) - Page Authority is a Moz proprietary metric from 1-100 which predicts how well a page will rank in Google based on a machine learning algorithm of link metrics.

Linking Domains (Total Linking Root Domains) - Number of unique root domains linking to a target. Two links from the same website will only be counted as one linking root domain.