MSN Backlink stability

[dburdon]

Yesterday morning one of my websites recorded 193 backlinks on MSN. This morning 53. Later the same day 222. Why the wide variation? This doesn't happen with Google and Yahoo backlinks.

[wrmineo]

A few "guesses":

First and foremost, I think the varying results is not different than other engines in that MSN uses several indicies from which they pull and pool their results - could be a matter of which one you're hitting at that particular time.

Second, and somewhat related, MSN maybe "switching up" more often than others in their data centers as they are still "under developement" and applying changes on the fly, so to speak.

[ambassador]

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Jul 15, 2005

Question 1:

Just exactly how do you check for backlinks in the various search engines? Do you simply enter "backlink www.yourdomain.com" in the search box associated with each search engine?

Question 2:

Just exactly how do you check the level of competition associated with a specific key word or key phrase? Do you simply enter the key word or key phrase in the search box associated with each search engine, and then observe the number of listings returned in the search results?

Ambassador
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[dburdon]

Ambassador,

in reply to your questions:

1. I use the SEOpen tool that I've added to my Firefox browser. The tool works in Google, Yahoo and MSN. The tool putes the term "link:http://www.yourdomain" in the search box. It works extremely well with Firefox's tabbed browsing. The tools can be downloaded from the Firefox site.
If you're using Internet ExplorerI'm not sure if there is an equivalent tool.

2. There are some proprietary tools out there. Web CEO has a tool to estimate competition. But for key terms I tend to use Digital Point's webmaster tools. They show both Wordtracker and Overture figures. I then check specific competition by the manual method you outline.