The way major search engines index websites has changed drastically, especially in the past one year. If you have persisted in using the same old techniques to view and use linking data then this would be a costly waste of effort in coming days. Since backlink data was an important consideration in determining search results in the past, most webmasters focused on pleasing search engines by hiring third party link providers to get the best possible links. It quickly became an intense competition as web-owners looked at backlinks employed by their competitors and tried their best to outdo them.
The fact that search engines did not provide precise information on how they reviewed backlinks or the importance provided to linking data ensured that web owners spent a lot of time and money to build up extensive backlink data. If you too have compared your website with those of your competitors by using metrics such as anchor text then you need to understand the way you use linking data once again.
If you have spent all your time and energy to build precise keyword anchor text links in the recent past then you should know that most search engines have devalued the importance of linking data to a large extent. You would have wondered why your rankings have hit bottom even though you have engaged in linking data through anchor text links in the past months or year.
Other metrics such as deep link ratio, TLD distribution, follow and nofollow could have encouraged you to follow the same path of linking data with disappointing results. It is basically not how you collect data, but instead how you view it and use it that will convince search engines such as Google to boost your rankings in coming times.
Rather than blindly follow the same techniques to link data through tools such as Blekko, Majestic, or any other, you need to keep an eye on how major search engines have modified their algorithms to index websites and provide rankings. Your strategy should be to adapt your strategy to the needs of these search engines, however vague they might be and continuously analyze metrics to understand if you are getting the required results.
At present, changing the way you view and use linking data could help improve rankings while you try to locate experts that have managed to decipher changes made to the search algorithms of most search engines including Google.