Confusion in GOOGLE...

[pinfo]

Guys,

Have some confusion regarding links, could you make the picture a bit clear.

When I search in Google for :

links: www.mydomain.com, then for my site I see 81 links, when I search for
link:www.mydomain.com. then I see just 15 links.

Though I have exchanged links with more than 15 sites ( many more).
what is the difference b/w both & which one is of more importance?

My site is completely crawled in Google, but it doesn't show in search results, is it because these backlinks are less, do I need to exchange links with more sites, or need to slog my ass more with some other technique?

-Pinfo

[Chris_D]

Hi Pinfo,

The correct use of the operator is for example link:www.searchenginewatch.com

Be aware that this operator used in Google doesn't actually return EVERY link Google factors - just a sample of 'webpages that have links to the specified page.

The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url.
http://www.google.com.au/help/operators.html

links:<space> url isn't a google operator. It appears to just list pages which have the url specified on the page - i.e. the URL where it isn't a link etc.

Try Yahoo. The syntax is the same as Google, but you have to include http://

i.e link:http://www.searchenginewatch.com

Good luck
:)

[pinfo]

Hi, Chris,


But when I search with link:www.mydomain.com,
I see many results from my own site. Why so??

For my site I have just 15 backlinks, I feel I need to work on these to get a proper ranking.

Is that right.

-pinfo

[Chris_D]

Hi Pinfo

The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage

Its not links to the DOMAIN that this operator shows in Google - it shows some of the links to the specified PAGE (ie THE URL) - in this case, it is effectively showing the links to the sites homepage.

Try link:http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=1216

That would show SOME of the pages which link to that thread.

Where as link:forums.searchenginewatch.com/ will show links to the root deafult page of these forums.
link:forums.searchenginewatch.com/index.php
would show some of the pages which link to this site's named default home page file.

i.e the links form your own domain are the pages in your site which have a link to the homepage of your site.

As I said - try Yahoo!

)

[pinfo]

Chris,

For my domain, When I search in Yahoo for Links I get 198 links, wheras in Google just 15.

Which one is correct Yahoo or Google and how do you think I can improve my ranking, as my links are just 15 in G.


-pinfo

[shor]

Which one is correct Yahoo or Google

Google:
Be aware that this operator used in Google doesn't actually return EVERY link Google factors - just a sample of 'webpages that have links to the specified page.
Yahoo:
Yahoo shows a more comprehensive set of links compared to Google.

Pinfo, it is possible that both search engines have fully catalogued every single backlink to your site but the point is they do not have to display all these links in their "link" operator search result.

and how do you think I can improve my ranking
Check out the SEW Search Optimisation (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40) or Link Building Forums (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44) (or try the search function for specific topics). There are also many (http://www.linkbuildingblog.com/) other (http://www.cre8asite.net/browseCats.asp?category=48) link-building (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/) resources (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13) filled with (mostly) useful strategies and advice.