This short video demonstrates how to determine what sites link to yours. This is really basic stuff, but I thought it was worth showing because the number of links varies so dramatically. There is currently no way of knowing for sure what backlinks Google is counting, but comparing Yahoo to Google demonstrates just how many of the links you may think you are getting are actually nofollow.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Shanavas 02.16.09 at 1:44 am
The number of links shown in yahoo and google very much vary for my blog. It shows just 1 in google.
Success with Todd 02.16.09 at 4:37 am
Hi Adam,
Google’s links are always a bit of a mystery. Obviously their algorithm is taking many more links into account than just those shown … for instance, I currently have almost 4K in yahoo, and 17 in google. And even more interesting, a few of those 17 links being counted by google actually have the nofollow tag on them.
The lesson I take from that is this … dofollow links are great, but all links are useful. And something that we sometimes forget (I know I have) is that sometimes the direct traffic you get from a link can be much more significant than the SEO value. In other words, if you had the choice between a nofollowed link in a visible place on a very high traffic site, or a dofollow link on a site with decent PR, but limited traffic, which would you prefer?
… I don’t know if there is necessarily a “right” answer to that question … but it’s something to ponder.
Todd
sriraj 02.17.09 at 12:54 am
When I view my backlinks using external links in webmaster tools I get nearly 40 times more backlinks then when I check using a link: operator search. All nofollow links are also displayed in webmaster tools.
adam 02.17.09 at 3:02 pm
Excellent tip sriraj, I haven’t checked Web master tools in a while – I thought they had removed their list of backlinks.
becky 02.18.09 at 12:27 am
It is true that Google will show fewer links than yahoo. That means Google doesn’t give priority to all the links. May be only links with good page rank will be counted. Since Google is the most popular search engine, it is better to monitor Google approved back links and work to get as many as you can. Check this one link:http://www.easyishop.co.uk/ in Google and then Yahoo Site Explorer. You will see the difference. Anyway, thanks for sharing great ideas.
webhost 02.20.09 at 12:42 am
Interesting. They ought to be different, right? The impact on page rank is only on Google, right? After all, it is their patent property from Stanford.
brain Tom 02.20.09 at 7:19 am
Yes, I agree with you the links in Yahoo are more than google. For my site in google there are only 6 links where as in Yahoo I ‘m having 2800 links, Thanks to yahoo.
Sebastien 02.23.09 at 5:34 pm
All links are important but some are more important than others. A no followed link which provides lots of referrals is better than a do follow link with no page rank. Depends what you want from your link building campaign. Thanks for the vid.
Income Ideas 03.05.09 at 4:16 am
A blog will have a high PR in Google if it can get backlinks from other blogs. Generally most blogs have nofollow tags. So any of our links from such sites are ignored by Google and which means less PR. So we need to know if a blog allows dofollow tag before building links on any site. Thanks for sharing this video.
Magnus Adventures 05.13.09 at 12:34 am
I have about 1000 backlinks and shows massive results in yahoo, msn, aol and ask. But remains a mystery in google serps. Any ideas and tips? Anyway, very excellent article. Keep em coming.