cuzzles.com google links

[Tony_V]

I find this quite odd.
I thought you could find how many sites link to your site with this search term in google. link:www.yourdomain.com
when I do this for link:www.cuzzles.com it brings nothing back. and I have tried several variations with the same results. The only thing that works is to just type in;
cuzzles.com and it brings back 74 link backs. Why is that?
All this time I have been testing link backs to a site with this method only now to see it may not be working right at all.
your thoughts?
thanks.

[imsickofwebpro]

I hear ya...

Google only shows Google-Preferred websites with the 'link:' function.

Use Yahoo to get an accurate linkback assessment and use google as a milestone.

That's what we do...

[WDC]

Yed you can use yahoo site explorer

[mwall]

In Google Webmaster tools once you've added a site and verified it you can go to the 'Links' > 'Pages with external Links' and check out your link profile.
I'm not sure if this will show all your backlinks though.

[martty]

Google only shows Google-Preferred websites with the 'link:' function.

Rubbish! Google only ever show a small random sample of the links they know about and use. It has nothing to do with being 'Google-preferred' - its just a random sample.

[mjtaylor]

It's true that Google only shows a sample, random as it were, of your actual backlinks. There is no particular value to what they show. A more accurate view of your Google backlinks can be seen when you login to your Google Webmaster Tools. The "why" of this anomaly is presumed to have to do with Google not wanting link traders to see what links their competitors have. Yahoo's site explorer will show a more complete view of the backlinks to your site, including links with nofollow attributes that contribute no "link love" to your site.

Cheers, MJ

[Tony_V]

mwall, mjtaylor - I get pretty much the same results even in google webmaster tools. From non existant to only some of the back links. I have tried this on several different domains. Same results on all.

but it does appear the best way around this in google anyway is to just type in the domain name like so. domain.com and it seems to bring back every link. Atleast I would think this since the numbers seem to be much higher then any other way I have tried.

I see the link back feature works well in yahoo, but wouldn't that just be yahoo's count and not realy a reflection of googles?

[martty]

Google's is a meaningless random sample ...thats it. Its sample of all the links they know about and use, so you can draw no conclusions from it.

[wige]

MSN, for pretty much the same reason, completely disabled their link: function after determining it was being abused for spam purposes. Yahoo had disabled the feature entirely for a while, but brought it back in the site explorer.

[incrediblehelp]

Righto Marty