In an announcement on their blog, Yahoo! have stated that they will shut down the Site Explorer tool “later this year”.
The End of an SEO Era?
Site Explorer is one of the oldest and best SEO tools for gathering website information such as back-links and its API is used by almost all third party SEO tools.
It was launched in September 2005 and became an immediate hit with webmasters who were trying to optimise their sites.
The shut down is part of the transition both Yahoo! and Microsoft are going through as a result of their search alliance.
What SEO tool to use now?
Yahoo! have recommended that you switch to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Currently Bing Webmaster Tools does not provide the wealth of information that Site Explorer does which is a little worrying for SEOs, however, they have been adding new features to the tool set recently which is a good sign.
Will this affect my third-party SEO tool?
Probably, yes. Yahoo! have said they will close down the Site Explorer API on September 15, 2011.
This gives SEO tool developers time to change the way their programs gather metrics and issue an update.
Will you miss the Yahoo! Site Explorer? Let us know your thoughts.
