Once in a former life, I was an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) developer. I helped companies move from the nether regions of Google to the top rank in their selected keywords, so I generally like to think that I know what I'm doing when it comes to SEO best practices and where to go to find the best SEO information on the web.

When I was an SEO, SEO Moz was basically my blog Bible. I'll admit, my site right now does not have the greatest SEO score — though I am on page one for my top keyword &mdash but since my fiance recently was hired at SEO Moz as a developer, I've taken more interest in it again.

(Disclaimer: I have not been in any way asked to write this or compensated for this blog post. These are my personal opinions.)

Enter Open Site Explorer, a new free tool from the SEO Moz crew to browse external links pointing at your site (or shop, in this case). For the next 48 hours, the pro version is free to evaluate, which is why I'm posting for the second time today. (I know, that's unusual.)

What's it good for, you ask? Well, it's good to find new sources of links for your brand, and good for finding out who's already talking about your brand. It is replacing the Yahoo! version of this tool, which Micrahoo (Microsoft merged with Yahoo!) will be doing away with sometime in the coming months.

Read on to see some screenshots and learn how to evaluate your Etsy shop using Open Site Explorer.

Finding out who's talking about your shop

While there is always a lot of hooplah on the forums and in the Storque about using Google Analytics, it isn't always the most user friendly of the SEO beasts on the internets. And, since it only tracks visitng sessions and not necessarily links, it's hard to discern if the content in question was actually based on you or someone else. The problem inherently in determining your Etsy link metrics is that Analytics tracks a visitor upon first visitation to Etsy.com. If they happened, byway of organic browsing and before they closed their window, to then stumble upon your shop, it shows up in Analytics. So you might see Design Sponge listed in your Analytics, but no record of your Etsy shop exists on Design Sponge.

Real data for sweetanthem.etsy.com in Open SIte Explorer.

As you can see above, it's an easy, clean interface that allows you to see exactly where your links are being generated. Since I have an Etsy button in my navigation that links directly to my shop, my own site generates a whole heck of a lot of links for me. (My site gets a lot more attention most of the time than my Etsy shop, but that's another post.)

Finding out who's talking about your competition

Ever wanted to know where you stand against your competition? Well, now you can in one easy step. Visit Open Site Explorer, type in your URL into the first field and then click "Add a URL to compare" below. A new field will appear, and you can type in the second shop you want to compare yours to. I've chosen my friend Britton's shop to see how we compare. You can view this comparison yourself if you want to follow along.

The first five URL results for Sweet Anthem vs. Haus of Gloi. Click to view larger.

See? Easy peasy. No browsing extensive search directories. No opening multiple windows or tabs. No mining through Analytics data. Just clear, presented metrics for you to munch on.

What do I do next?

OK, so now you've looked at your competing shops, you might be wondering what this information is good for. Do they have links from blogs you wish you had press mentions on? Are they listed in a handmade directory that you didn't know about? Get the word out. Go participate in the blog's comments, forums, or better yet: send them your press information and a sample of your goods. I promise you that 9 times out of 10, bloggers want your content. They want something interesting, pretty, and handmade to post about: so find your niche.

Compare your fellow crafters' links and analyze where you fit in, then get out there and walk around the blogosphere. The beauty behind the OSE tool is that it can give you the road map.