Moz Link Explorer

Overview

Moz Link Explorer is the backlink analysis component of the Moz SEO platform and the home of Domain Authority (DA), arguably the most widely cited third-party SEO metric in the industry. While Ahrefs and Majestic compete on raw index size and data granularity, Moz competes on accessibility and the strength of its proprietary metrics. Domain Authority and Page Authority provide quick, understandable authority scores that are used across the SEO industry for link evaluation, competitive benchmarking, and client reporting.

Link Explorer is available as a free tool with limited queries and as part of Moz Pro, which bundles it with keyword research, rank tracking, site crawling, and on-page optimization. The tool is positioned as a practical, accessible choice for teams that value usability over raw data volume.

Key Features

Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are machine learning-based scores from 1 to 100 predicting how well a domain or page will rank in search results. While not a Google metric, DA has become the de facto standard for communicating link authority in the SEO industry. Clients understand it, agencies report on it, and link builders use it to evaluate opportunities.

Spam Score analyzes patterns associated with penalized or banned sites and assigns a risk score to domains and links. This helps quickly identify potentially toxic backlinks that could harm a site’s link profile.

The link analysis interface shows linking domains, inbound links, anchor text distribution, and link growth over time. Competitive comparison allows benchmarking your link profile against multiple competitors simultaneously.

Free access provides limited queries per month for basic link research, making it accessible for occasional use without a subscription.

From Open Site Explorer to Link Explorer

If you are searching for “Moz Site Explorer” or “Open Site Explorer”, you are looking for a tool that no longer exists under that name. Moz retired Open Site Explorer in 2018 and replaced it with Link Explorer, which runs on a rebuilt, much larger link index. The metrics people remember from OSE, Domain Authority and Page Authority, carried over and are still the headline numbers in Link Explorer.

A Practical Workflow With the Moz Link Tool

The free tier is limited, so spend queries deliberately:

1. Start with your own domain. Note linking root domains, DA and the Spam Score distribution of your links.
2. Check one or two direct competitors, not ten. Compare linking domains, not total links, because sitewide links inflate totals.
3. Use the “Top Pages” view to see which competitor URLs attract links. Those formats are what is worth replicating.
4. Export and review high Spam Score links manually before deciding anything. A high score is a pattern match, not proof of a penalty risk; see our backlink auditing guide for how to judge them.

Our take: DA is useful for quickly sorting a list of prospects, and harmful when used as a goal. Nobody at Google looks at it, and chasing DA tends to push teams toward low-relevance links that move the metric but not rankings.

Pricing

Moz Link Explorer is available for free with 10 queries per month and limited data. Full access requires a Moz Pro subscription starting at $49 per month (Standard plan) with one user, which includes the entire Moz Pro toolset. The Medium plan at $79 per month, Large at $179 per month, and Premium at $249 per month add more users, campaigns, and data capacity.

Ideal Use Cases

Moz Link Explorer is best for teams that already use Moz Pro and want integrated backlink data within their existing workflow. Agencies that report Domain Authority to clients benefit from staying within the Moz ecosystem. Beginners find the interface more approachable than Ahrefs or Majestic. The Spam Score feature is particularly useful for link audits where identifying toxic links is the primary goal.

Limitations

Moz’s backlink index is smaller and updated less frequently than Ahrefs, which means some links may appear in Ahrefs days or weeks before they show in Moz. Power users who need the most complete link data will find Moz insufficient as their primary tool. The tool’s value is heavily tied to the Moz Pro ecosystem — as a standalone backlink tool, competitors offer more depth. Domain Authority, while widely used, is a proprietary metric that does not directly correspond to Google’s ranking factors.