Confused as to links Google lists

[Simon Young]

Hi everyone,

Been using the 'Backwards Links' tool on Google and confused to say the least, perhaps there is someone on this great forum that can educate me!

Here is an example -

One of my pages that ranks well is - http://www.dvd-and-media.com/dvd%20cases.htm

Now if I use the backwards link tool on the google toolbar (as part of the pagerank tool) it says there are 26 links to that page in google.

The first backward link that is displayed is one of my own pages - Inkjet cartridges | Brother Mfc-4820c compatible ink and printer supplies

But as far as I am aware EVERY page on my site that lists ink cartridges has a link on it to my DVD CASES page as they are all built off a php template so they all contain the same info appart obvioulsy from the information relating to the individual ink cartridge.

So my question is - why is the page Inkjet cartridges | Brother Mfc-4820c compatible ink and printer supplies special and listed as a backlink to the DVD cases page where there are thousands of other pages on my site which are also linking to that page and not listed as backlinks ... an example of one of the other pages that is NOT listed as having a backlink but off the same template is - Inkjet cartridges | Hp Deskjet 9800 compatible ink and printer supplies

Help please - very confused!!!

[earnest]

The thing is that Google simply does not want you to know very much about your links, save which of them are the better ones.

[innominds]

If you are checking through link command, Google will display only a few links.
You need to check it from your webmaster tools.

[Doc]

If you are checking through link command, Google will display only a few links.
You need to check it from your webmaster tools.

True, and even then, don't expect to find a complete list. Better, perhaps, but NOT complete.

[morestar]

I must say I've wondered about this quite a few times in my day...my only un-official answer is that google has found that that page has a little more relevance the other pages on your site to the page it is linking to.

The other idea I get is that google is simply telling us that (in this case) all pages are linking to that page but they're only going to display one...in essence saying, we found links to the page but to save space we'll display one of them...so yes, your pages are counted as 1 of the backlinks to that page.

[cg0404]

You can start by using the Webmaster Tools as mentioned because the link operation check really does not give you a true picture. Google has helped us out with that, check their info here:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Discover your links

You can also do a search on Search Engine Optimization Software, some of these tools can be expensive and they vary in quality and what they offer so check them out before you buy anything. I use Web CEO, it does have a tool for seeing your back links.

[SemAdvance]

As noted Google will only show what it feels you can know without exposing themselves to reverse engineering.

This is what makes SEO so hard is you report one thing to a client and they see something different and interpret to mean that you have not done the work reported.

Hopefully through continued webmaster education clients will become further enlightened.

[Clint1]

If you are checking through link command, Google will display only a few links.
You need to check it from your webmaster tools.

GWMT doesn't even show all of them. If you simply want to see how my IBL's you have, you have to use Y. But if you want to see how many IBL's G is counting, that's a different thing, anyone's guess, and WMT obviously isn't showing all of them.

[claybutler]

Yep, that's correct. Just as everyone pointed out, Google only gives you a glimpse of what's going on with your links. I think Yahoo's Site Explorer is much more detailed and accurate tool. (Site Explorer - Yahoo! Site Explorer). Just activate your website by uploading a confirmation file to your root directory. It's free. Pretty great tool.

[subsystems]

I would strongly guess that SEs use some sort of relational database to store what the spiders find. Then to display results they run an SQL type command. Part of that command may be to limit the results to X number of records. So whatever weighing system they use to select and order the results will determine what you see in the tools you use. I doubt (for efficiency sake) they would even try to return ALL records for a given query, it would slow down the servers quite a lot. There is a real cost to them for a performance hit in the sense that it would take more servers to handle complete lists of Backlinks or SERPs or whatever. Not surprising or unexpected to me. Heck, they might even limit the list based on how busy the servers are. Not busy, return longer lists, busy, return shorter lists. It would explain the varying results.