One of my websites right now is showing 0 internal/external backlinks in Google Webmaster Tools. However, when I do a "link:" search in Google, I still get about 1000 results. Yahoo is showing 55,000 links for the entire domain. Our PR has dropped from 6 to 3 (probably permanently, since we are showing 3s across all datacenters). Our referral traffic from Google decreased a bit (dropped about 15%) but that could just be a daily fluctuation. What does a 0 in webmaster tools mean?
How were you building your backlinks? If yahoo is showing the backlinks, then google needs to update.
All our links are organic. We never purchased links. The last time I checked Webmaster Tools (a few days ago), Google was showing 70,000 external links and 80,000 internal links.
All of my sites are the same. I have hundreds showing in Yahoo...but none showing for Google. I don't know how Google views backlinks, but it must be different from all the other SE's.
I am seeing the same thing for my sites that have been hit hard in PR drop - 0 backlinks in webmaster tools!!! - Geezz - I never sell links on any of my sites also.
I am seeing in other sites in Web master tools, that they have 1000s of links still showing - Geezz - I hope it doesnt mean that our sites are headed for a big boot out Im scared!
Just prior to this last PR update, I got the same thing. I think they must be working on your site's rank/backlinks. Give it a day or two.
Thanks for the advice and moral support guys. I hope this means Google isn't done with my site's PR update. In the last couple of days my PR has been jumping between 3-4-5 throughout all datacenters. Now it is just a 3 and 0 backlinks. Is it possible that my PR will change yet again, or is the fact that all datacenters are showing 3s mean we are stuck with 3s.
Weird you have 0 internal/external links but has 1000 links when typing "link:domain.com" in google. When did you create the account in webmaster tool and when did you put the code?
I've verified my website with Webmaster Tools 3-4 months ago. Usually the link numbers have been steadily going up, not down.
There is currently an update is going on by Google. So may be after some time you will see things come back to normal and if not than may be your site experiencing a sweet penalty by Google. There are many penalties that Google apply for various reasons. You can see the list of those penalties here: http://seomization.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-penalties-and-filters.html
This happened to me a few days ago, but now everything is back to normal. I think Google is updating some of its databases and this causes temporary problems.
One of my sites now shows total number of links, but no actual link to display in webmaster tools. Just an update I think.
Whew, thanks guys, I feel much better. For the kind folks who went through the same update, did Google increase or decrease your number of links after the update? Did they raise your PR as well?