Backlink Update Underway August 30

[rustybrick]

It looks like there is a backlink update underway now.

Here is a good tool to check the changes at the different data centers.

http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php

Just enter in the link:www.domain.com command and make sure to select the horizontal view.

[Marcia]

To be honest RB, I don't even look at backlinks any more. It's nice to know they pick them up, but they eventually do and don't seem about to let us know the real story on them anyway. It's my feeling that they're good and tired of getting gamed - everyone including Great Aunt Martha got it figured out about backlinks and Google.

It's the position in the SERPs that counts in the final analysis, and that's more than likely reflected before they show any backlinks update.

[seobook]

Its cool to look at the # as a novelty, but the actual display backlinks are garbage...they mean nothing.

[bethabernathy]

Whether back links mean anything or not, I am not sure. But that PR #/ Green Bar sure seems to be a fake or at least broken for the last 6 weeks. Back to my client who's page rank dropped from a 6/10 to 0/10 on 7/12/04. The SERPs remained steady. Then today, the site is back to a 6/10 and showing back links. Point being, the site's rankings did not drop.

[SeoQuest]

I can certainly agree that backlinks are not working very well. I just sent an email to Google asking about their backlinks info for a client. This client shows over 30 incoming links in AllTheWeb and only 10 in Google, however, it used to have over 20 incoming links in Google a few months ago.

I don't really expect to hear an explanation from Google, but just let them know we are all watching...

[sugarrae]

2002 - PR rules, all important backlinks listed - from highest PR to lowest

2003 - they got the hell gamed out of them

2004 - PR means almost jack, only crap backlinks are listed in G, no order

Guess google figures if we are gonna manipulate the link pop factor of their algo, we're going to have to work for it. The neat little map is no longer available. Just because they aren't showing them in the link: search certainly doesn't mean they don't know about them or "count" them. Welcome to the future - different times .

[Marcia]

Just because they aren't showing them in the link: search certainly doesn't mean they don't know about them or "count" them. Welcome to the future - different times

Oh, they know about them and they're counting them alright. They just aren't tipping their hand anymore and they should have stopped a long time ago.

What I'm thinking about, since they're showing (on some sites) no decent backlinks even though there are some, but mostly scraped junk "directory" pages that were obviously thrown together under the assumption of garnering "authority" score, is how much that might have back-fired. It doesn't seem to be doing a lick of good for those spammy junk sites with the "directories" but it appears not to be doing any harm at all to the sites that are linked to.

So much for the people who wouldn't exchange links with low PR sites and only insisted on PR4 or better links or they wouldn't look twice. I don't believe PR will ever *not* have importance, whether we see it accurately or not, but in a lot of cases it's possible that the value of sheer numbers has been under-rated for value.

2003 - they got the hell gamed out of them

We know that'll never stop. And however much they try to cover their tracks, it's still possible to figure a good part of it out just by force of habit from constant watching for years.

[AussieWebmaster]

Last year I had 2500 links to one site and was always 3-5 for our main term... finally got it to number one this year and now the inbound links are down to 250!

[SeoQuest]

Thank you all for the comments.

I don't really worry too much about backlinks and when I need to check them I go allinanchor:www.domain.com. This way I can see all the links to my clients. I do like to email Google once in a while, just to check their customer service.

I really wish that this 'war' with SEOs would stop and search engines and SEOs could work together to improve listings...

Hopefully this will happen sooner than later...



I really wish that this 'war' with SEOs would stop and search engines and SEOs could work together to improve listings...

I don’t think this “war”(I think it is better described as an “adversarial relationship” ) will ever end.

The very nature of an SEO is to get pages to rank better than they “naturally” would have if SEO’s did not exist.

The very nature of the current search engines like google depend on the illusion that their results are not influenced by any human intervention.

Most Search Engines view SEO as the bane of their existence.

Most SEO’s view the search engines as their bread and butter.

I don’t think any of those things will change much in the near future.

[seobook]

allinanchor:www.domain.com
does not show all backlinks.

for my site
google link: = about 6,000 backlinks
google allinanchor: = about 3,000 backlinks
yahoo linkdomain: = over 100,000

[SeoQuest]

I believe as our industry grows and we have strong rules and guidelines, we will be seen as a part of search. Similar to what marketing companies do for their clients in newspapers and TV commercial, just in our own unique way.

Search engines will realize that SEOs [by then there will be only good SEOs ] work to help them to bring better search results and not to manipulate them.

It might take some time; however, it is a process that is meant to happen. SEOs are here to stay and so are search engines, we might as well respect each other and work towards the same goal - giving more relevant results to every search.

Thank you seobook for your comments, I will check my client's site in Yahoo!

[sugarrae]

"whether we see it accurately or not"

Yes, should have specified - I meant to imply that the PR we see means jack .

[4eyes]

Search engines will realize that SEOs [by then there will be only good SEOs ] work to help them to bring better search results

Well I don't.

I work to get qualified traffic for my clients - I couldn't care less about improving Google's results. If they offer me a salary, I 'll be glad to help them out, but until then I am happy for 'natural selection' to force them to improve their dodgy algos.



Originally Posted by ”seoquest“

I believe as our industry grows and we have strong rules and guidelines, we will be seen as a part of search. Similar to what marketing companies do for their clients in newspapers and TV commercial, just in our own unique way.

Search engines will realize that SEOs [by then there will be only good SEOs ] work to help them to bring better search results and not to manipulate them.

It might take some time; however, it is a process that is meant to happen. SEOs are here to stay and so are search engines, we might as well respect each other and work towards the same goal - giving more relevant results to every search.

seoquest, you and I live on different planets.
On my planet, SEOs work for their clients, not the search engines.

I am with 4eyes on this, let the search engines take care of their results, I will take care of my clients...

[SeoQuest]

This is how I see the SEO job and search engines...

If I post an ad on a newspaper for a client, I will be concerned if it has a good circulation, good printing, well establish facility and also be easy to read and easy to find the sections, because I want the readers to be able to find my client’s ad. I also expect the newspaper customer service to get back to me on questions and take my suggestions seriously.

If I can improve the newspaper circulation, layout or anything with my suggestions or comments, I will be very happy as it will mean more people will read it and see my client’s ad.

In my point of view it all comes down to my clients.

I apologize if I was not very clear before.

[seobook]

Originally Posted by SeoQuest

This is how I see the SEO job and search engines...

If I post an ad on a newspaper for a client, I will be concerned if it has a good circulation, good printing, well establish facility and also be easy to read and easy to find the sections, because I want the readers to be able to find my client�s ad. I also expect the newspaper customer service to get back to me on questions and take my suggestions seriously.

If I can improve the newspaper circulation, layout or anything with my suggestions or comments, I will be very happy as it will mean more people will read it and see my client�s ad.

In my point of view it all comes down to my clients.

I apologize if I was not very clear before.

if you view seo positioning as advertising then there are a few fundamentals you are missing (from the view of the search engine)

1.) we can degrade the newspaper / search engine with each ad we put in the editorial space
2.) search engines often do not get paid for us degrading their search results.
3.) advertising is easy. use AdWords or Overture.