Google/Yahoo/MSN Reported Links to My Site - Why so different?

[Chris Caputo]

NOTE: THIS TOPIC COMES UP VERY FREQUENTLY, SO MODS WILL NOW TRY TO LINK NEW THREADS TO THIS ONE


Why do link counts on Google seem so low compared to Yahoo and MSN. Our sites have thousands of links on MSN but less than 10% of that total on Google.

1) Are they not reporting them the same?

2) Does Google only acknowledge links from certain sites?

3) Most Important: How do I get my links counted by Google?

Thanks,

Chris

[MarkEllison]

1) No, many different sources will give you different results

2) Google will "count" all backlinks, but will only show in the results, backlinks with a PR of at least 4 (usually)

3) They all "count", but for how much is suspect. Links from more popular/relevant pages obviously will count for the most, AND will also show up on the various link counts.

[evilgreenmonkey]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Chris Caputo

1) Are they not reporting them the same?

Google, Yahoo and MSN all supply estimates on inbound links and then try to find as many as they can in response to the query. They do not guarantee or even try to return every link they have found back to a specific page. MSN does seem to offer a greater link: sample 99% of the time though.

Originally Posted by MarkEllison

2) Google will "count" all backlinks, but will only show in the results, backlinks with a PR of at least 4 (usually)

Not sure where you heard that one, a quick check on half a dozen random web pages show PR2-PR8 all getting returned. From spammy directories which I've seen showing up in some link: queries, PR0 most likely get returned as well. As stated above, it's simply a data sample which the engines don't want to spend too much time processing (as they do not earn visitor loyalty or ad revenue from the queries).

Originally Posted by Chris Caputo

3) Most Important: How do I get my links counted by Google?

It's up to Google to decide which links are important/trustworthy and which are spammy or artificial. The key is to aim high, rather then getting links in from everyone under the sun.

Why would people want to visit your site?

What do you offer, which no other site can/does?

Is your website so good that I'd want to link across to it from my blog, forum, personal homepage or respected/trusted information website?



Rob

[MarkEllison]

I didn't "hear it" from anywhere... Looking at a dozen or so of my sites, only the most important pages are shown by Google, usually a 4 or better...

"Google doesn't return all backlinks in response to a link: command. In the ancient days, it was because there was a finite amount of storage space on the machines that served link: requests. So we only kept the backlinks for the top N pages. Later as we moved to a different indexing system, we kept backlinks for the top M% of pages. This was helpful for important pages, but it meant that Mom and Pop sites with lower PageRank wouldn't have as good a chance to see their backlinks."
-Google

...like I said..

hope this helps chris..

[martinibuster]

Google will "count" all backlinks, but will only show in the results, backlinks with a PR of at least 4 (usually)

Ouch. You're about two years behind on that one. DaveN approached Matt Cutts and told him we all knew they're only showing a "representative sample" of backlinks. But the rule for showing backlinks from PR 4 and above gave the impression that only those links were counted by Google. DaveN suggested that it would be better to randomize the results and show a representative sample of links from all PR levels.

A few weeks later the Google backlink check started showing randomized backlinks from the entire spectrum.

Related side note:
The old way of showing links from PR 4 and up led to the mistaken notion by most webmasters that links under PR 4 didn't count, which is why many webmasters to this very day request PR 4+ backlinks. Silly, isn't it?

Additional Note
1: The Google backlink check is not an SEO tool.

2: The backlink search does not represent the sum total of all links that Google knows about your site.

3: The backlinks shown do not represent links that are counting as part of your backlinks.

4: Just because it shows up in the backlink search does not mean Google is using it for your ranking.

5: Just because a backlink is missing does not mean Google is unaware of it

6: Just because a backlink is missing does not mean Google is not counting it for ranking purposes.

[martinibuster]

Hey Mark, I just looked up the quote you posted, and you accidentally omitted the part of the quote that contradicted your opinion...

At SES London, DaveN had a suggestion. He said: why don't you give all pages an equal chance of seeing backlinks? That's good for users, who will have a greater chance of seeing backlinks for a given page, and it's especially good for smaller websites--they'd have a chance to see backlinks. It seemed like a good idea, so we implemented it. In fact, in order to give each page a better chance of seeing backlinks (instead of just the top M% of pages), we doubled the amount of backlinks that Google exports to the outside world. So users now have access to twice as much link: data as before; it's just not all the top PageRank pages.

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/...3003#post23003

[MarkEllison]

Usually my backlink checks show only higher ranked pages.. Simple point.. Thanks for your research though and further clarifying that the proper changes are being made at Google.. : )

[Kostis Panayotakis]

I do not have the higher PR links in the link command. Some important, trusted (I guess) and very relevant IBLs, are left out.

However I do not understand the purpose of this command, if it omits many links which participate in the PR ranking. Do these 'link-command' links have some special property ?
I can search directly sites which link back.

On the other hand, I would like to have a tool which provides a report on both direct and indirect links which affect my site's PR. A full link analysis report (maybe that's a good idea for a new web service- or does something like that exist ?)

K

[raviverma]

ususally Google will show in not less than 6 months..

[padhamanabhasharma]

Originally Posted by martinibuster

Additional Note
1: The Google backlink check is not an SEO tool.

2: The backlink search does not represent the sum total of all links that Google knows about your site.

3: The backlinks shown do not represent links that are counting as part of your backlinks.

4: Just because it shows up in the backlink search does not mean Google is using it for your ranking.

5: Just because a backlink is missing does not mean Google is unaware of it

6: Just because a backlink is missing does not mean Google is not counting it for ranking purposes.

Google knows that SEO people are smart to crack their algorithm If they will show all the backlinks so they try to give SEO people wrong Idea. I does not believe in google link: command at all. It's not really a SEO tool.

[MattSaunders]

I actually participated in a discussion today on a similar topic. I too was wondering why the "link:" command in Google was showing so few links to the site when compared to Site Explorer and the like.

I was informed that if you use Google webmaster tools you have the ability to see a much more realistic view of your inbound links as seen by Google.

As padhama... indicated, this is most likely Google's attempt to protect your site from competitors hoping to piggyback your links.

Hope that helps...