Checking Your Back Links

Google recently announced that the prviously available operator "link" will no longer work on their search. Here is what it is. You go to Google and in the search bar, type the following without any extra spaces:

link:www.yoursite.com

Here is what Google shows for the "link" operator for Joomla Bliss: 2 back links, as of today April 20, 2010

Many people have long before that noticed that this operator does not produce true results. But now, the results are truly "random", to quote Google.

Compare these results with Google Webmaster Central report, which shows 108 back links.

And now lets compare this with Yahoo Site Explorer which shows 631 back links

Now lets also check with Website Grader, another popular website diagnostics tool: 522 inbound links

Lets also run a quick check via http://www.backlinkcheck.com/ - and we get 680 back links.

Lessons Learned

1. The link operator on Google is, indeed, obsolete
2. Google does not tell you the truth about your back links, even if you use Google Webmaster Central
3. All link checker tools give you slightly different results
4. Yahoo Site Explorer seem to be showing the right number of links.

And we can also conclude (which was previously know to many SEOs) that links to your home page are of higher value than to all other pages.

The site analyzed is Joomla Bliss. It is devoted to website design Ottawa.

For SEO questions, contact me via my SEO Ottawa website.