Moz Open Site Explorer: what replaced it and how to run the same checks today
Open Site Explorer was retired in 2018 in favour of Link Explorer, and every job it did has a current home.
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 13 October 2026
Open Site Explorer, often shortened to OSE, was the free link analysis tool from Moz. It showed the links pointing at a page or a site, along with Domain Authority and Page Authority scores. Moz retired it in 2018 and replaced it with a new tool called Link Explorer, which uses a different link index and recalculated the authority scores. If you are looking for Open Site Explorer today, open Moz Link Explorer, which is where the same questions are now answered.
This page maps each job people used OSE for to the tool that does it now, explains why old OSE numbers will not match new ones, and gives a ten minute link check you can run on any site.
What Open Site Explorer did
OSE answered a small set of questions that every link audit still starts with.
- How many other sites link to this domain, and which ones?
- Which pages on the site attract the most links?
- What words do people use in the link text?
- How strong is this site compared with a rival, as scored by Domain Authority?
- Which sites link to a competitor but not to me?
Its data came from Mozscape, the link index Moz built from its own crawl. Moz has said the replacement was built on a much larger and fresher index, and that is the main reason you should not compare numbers from the two tools.
Why old and new numbers differ
Every link tool crawls the web by itself, so every tool sees a different slice of the links that exist. A tool with a bigger or fresher crawl will list more linking sites for the same domain. Domain Authority is a score on a scale of 1 to 100 that Moz calculates from its own data, and when the index changed, the scores were recalculated against it. A site that held a given score in OSE could move up or down when Link Explorer launched, with no change at all in its real links.
Two practical rules follow. First, never put a score from an old report beside a score from a new report as if they measured the same thing. Second, compare sites only within one tool at one point in time. The score is useful as a relative guide, and it is not a number Google uses. Our page on what Domain Authority is and is not covers that point fully.
Where each OSE job lives now
| The old job | Where to do it today | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Links to my site | Moz Link Explorer, or Google Search Console's Links report for your own site | Search Console shows what Google itself has recorded about your site, at no cost |
| Top linked pages | Link Explorer, or the Top linked pages table in Search Console | Check which pages earn links, then link to them from your own pages |
| Anchor text | Link Explorer, or the Ahrefs free backlink checker for the free Ahrefs view | Look for unnatural, repeated commercial phrases |
| Rival comparison | Link Explorer, Majestic, or Semrush Backlink Analytics | Run two tools and trust the overlap |
| Link gap | The gap reports in the paid suites | Sites that link to three rivals and not to you are your shortlist |
A ten minute link check
- Start with your own data. Open Search Console, go to Links, and note the number of linking sites and the top linked pages. This is Google's view, so it carries weight no third party tool can match.
- Add a second view. Put your domain into Link Explorer. Compare the lists. Sites that appear in both are confirmed links.
- Read the top ten linking sites. Ask of each one: would a real person follow this link? If you see a news article, a supplier page or a local directory, good. If you see a page of hundreds of unrelated outbound links, note it.
- Read the anchor text. Most of it should be your brand name, your web address, or plain words like "this guide". A column dominated by one commercial phrase is a pattern Google's spam policies describe as manipulation.
- Repeat for one rival. List the five best sites that link to them and not to you. Those are your outreach targets.
If your check turns up links you did not ask for, do not rush to disavow them. Google has said it handles most spammy links by ignoring them. Our page on what is being sold when you buy backlinks explains where Google's line sits between earned and bought links, and it is worth reading before you act on a report.
Turning the findings into work
A link report is a to do list. Sort what you find into three piles. Pages that earn links deserve more attention: update them, add a clear next step, and link to them from your navigation. Rivals' best links show you what kinds of source are open in your market, such as industry bodies, local press, or supplier pages. Gaps on your own site, such as a broken page that has links pointing at it, are the quickest win: redirect the old address to the closest live page and the links work for you again.
For a wider introduction to the subject, start with what a backlink is, then return to the check above with a clearer idea of what you are looking at.
Questions about Open Site Explorer
Is Moz Open Site Explorer still available?
No. Moz retired it in 2018 and replaced it with Link Explorer, at moz.com/link-explorer. Old OSE links usually lead there.
What is the difference between Open Site Explorer and Link Explorer?
Link Explorer runs on a new, larger link index and uses recalculated Domain Authority and Page Authority scores.
Is there a free alternative to Open Site Explorer?
Google Search Console's Links report is free for sites you own. Ahrefs offers a free backlink checker for any domain, and Moz lists Link Explorer among its free SEO tools as of 13 October 2026. Allowances change, so check each page for the current limit.
Why is my Domain Authority different from what I remember?
The score was recalculated when Moz changed its index, and it moves whenever the underlying link data changes. Use it to compare sites inside one tool on one day.
Does Google use Moz's Domain Authority?
No. It is Moz's own score. Google has its own signals and does not publish a single authority number.
What links look like to an assistant
Link tools count the sites that point at a domain, and that count was the standard measure of a site's standing for years. An assistant answering "which agency should I hire" does not report a link count. It names businesses it has read about on other sites, and a link from a trade body, a review site or a news article matters partly because it puts your name in text the assistant can read. AI Knows Us works in that gap. It asks the assistants your buyers' questions, records which businesses they name and which sources they cite, and shows you whether the sites in your link report are the ones the answers actually draw on.