How to check back links

[Steven1976a]

Please can someone advise me how do I check my number of links that we have from other webpages in google.

Thanks

[greeneagle]

Steven1976a,

GOOGLE and MSN:
link:www.bodyjewelryshopping.com

YAHOO:
link:http://www.bodyjewelryshopping.com

Ken

[Steven1976a]

I thought that link:www.bodyjewelryshopping.com was the way to check on google but please could someone explain why it only shows 21 links?

If I do the following instruction it shows 716 links of which sounds more like it to me as we have been building our links for some time.

@www.bodyjewelryshopping.com

[cbp]

Google only shows a small random meaningless sample of links. What it shows has no relationship to what it knows about and what it uses in the rankings.

CBP

[kingman]

The only good way to do this is to invest in some software that does it for you. OptiLink and SEO Elite are great for this. They are not the most simple tools to use effectively but well worth the time to learn.

[Angelo Storm]

Originally Posted by kingman

The only good way to do this is to invest in some software that does it for you. OptiLink and SEO Elite are great for this. They are not the most simple tools to use effectively but well worth the time to learn.

You may take a look at LinkAssistant. It's NOT less powerful as OptiLink and SEO Elite and more comprehensive IMO. Try it - you gonna like it.

In addition, Arelis is another helpful tool. But it hasn't been updated for more than a year. From that point of view, LinkAssistant seems more preferable to me. Besides, Arelis can't get Google PR and other popularities and it doesn't allow to manage many web sites.

[wrmineo]

Also, keep in mind that you might get different results using different methods:

link:yourdomain.com
link:www.yourdomain.com
link:http://www.yourdomain.com

... not always, but sometimes; best to check all three sometimes to get a more rounded picture IMO.

[brian.mark]

I try the methods listed by wrmineo already, but add in the following (exact syntax):

"www.toolbarn.com" -site:www.toolbarn.com

That gives me exact matches on the domain not on our site. I usually do this with the Google API, then have the program spider those pages to look for links. I have a quick and dirty program set up here that does this... although I haven't updated the documentation yet. Just enter your domain name (toolbarn.com as an example) and it'll search all the pages that contain the domain according to Google and look for links. I'll create a downloadable complete report rather than just the summary at some point, but for now it's giving me most of the number I'm looking for.

Brian.

[webhost1]

Would WebPostionGold be such software? If so does anybody know how much this might cost?

[Steven1976a]

cbp wrote
"Google only shows a small random meaningless sample of links. What it shows has no relationship to what it knows about and what it uses in the rankings."

Why is this not consistent then? A couple of companies in teh same industry return as below

link:www.dhanish.com 189 results
link:www.shavonne.com 352 results

If they are only going to return a small random sample why does it vary from 21 returned samples on our site and then other sites up to 352 results. Two months ago it returned more for us.
How are other peoples return links showing? Does everyone else in the forum just show a small selection or are they still showing all links?
Steve

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by Steven1976a

Does everyone else in the forum just show a small selection or are they still showing all links?
Steve

I've never seen Google show ALL the links. They've only ever shown a sample of them.

If the other sites are showing more links than yours, then they have more links. That's pretty simple. Yahoo or MSN show a better percentage of the links they know about, but those aren't complete either.

Brian.

[Angelo Storm]

Originally Posted by webhost1

Would WebPostionGold be such software? If so does anybody know how much this might cost?

WebPosition 3.5 Standard Edition $149
WebPosition 3.5 Professional Edition $349 :)

You'd better take a look at Arelis Business ($299.95) or LinkAssistant ($79.95)

[Angelo Storm]

Originally Posted by webhost1

Would WebPostionGold be such software? If so does anybody know how much this might cost?

WebPosition 3.5 Standard Edition $149
WebPosition 3.5 Professional Edition $349 :)

You'd better take a look at Arelis Business ($299.95) or LinkAssistant ($79.95)

[dougadam]

You could try this free online tool http://marketleap.com/publinkpop/

[Chris]

or download aaron wall's...

[Ne0]

Originally Posted by CRich

or download aaron wall's...

Good call CRich ;) I'll have to go and check yours out now too Brian... Aaron walls is very comparable to SEO Elite and functions great! The price is also very reasonable... $0.00 All you have to do is sign up for a Google API and your on your way... you can export your results to a spreadsheet. Your Google account and license key entitle you to 1,000 automated queries per day. This proggy is in beta right now and Aaron is offering it for free because he needs feedback for the program to make it better. The only thing that this program is lacking IMO is the MSN search (which Aaron said will be in the next version)

I have been playing with this tool all day long and am loving it so far... it's worth a try ;)

L8 M8's

NeO1

[LizB]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this free tool for checking back links. It works very well. http://www.freeresourcesonline.com/incoming_links.php


Incidentally when I checked my sites all the engines had back links for them of up to 500 but Google always showed from 0 to 20

I have heard that Google doen't show back links but does credit them.

[randfish]

No one has mentioned how link vs. linkdomain works either.

At Yahoo! and MSN:

Linkdomain:url.com -site:url.com - I use this to find ALL the external lniks to a particular site.

Link:url.com/page.html -site:url.com - I use this to find all the links to a specific page on a TLD.

With modifiers and other search tactics, you can find all sorts of good info - deep link %, internal link %, blog or forum link %, .edu links, etc.