Why does google say i have 0 backlinks when i have tons!????

check out http://www.google.com/search?q=link:theguitarresource.com&hl=en
it does not show any backlinks...but i have many sites linking to my homepage. i have sig links on many forums and many other guitar blogs link to me. please help!!

 

If it's a very new site it's possible that the backlinks haven't been included on Google yet. By that I mean they only update their backlink count (visible on the search engine) every so often, so if the site has come into existence since the last backlink update then nothing will show. Don't worry because G will probably know about your links.

 

Google only shows some, on purpose.

 

cool. i was about to freak out. as long as it counts them when it does the PR update i'll be happy. thanks!!

 

Yup I have the same problem when doing that link: command in Google.
I see lots of backlinks when using iwebtool or backlinkwatch.
Then someone said it was because Google take a while to include the links

 

but i do have a lot of links in the "external links" section of my google webmaster tools. why does google pick them up there but not when i search link:theguitarresource.com is there a deifference between the two?

 

google doesn't update back links all the time like other search engines
google only counts quality back links, the external options in webmaster tools will show you most of your back links, including crap ones

 

Interesting questions,

I have the same doubts, why do I have a few thousand older real backlinks than google webmaster tools shows and why do I only find 8 backlinks through the search link:mysite.com?

My site is over 4 years old and many backlinks exist for quite some time now, at least since more than a couple of pr updates ago.

Excuse me for joining your thread.

Greetings.

 

You can also look in the google webmaster tool to check your backlinks.

 

As Loco.M pointed out, the Google link: operator only shows the number of high quality links that point to the URL in question. Historically, this has been links from pages that have a PageRank score of 4 or higher, but this standard may have been lowered as Google has adjusted the PageRank scale over time. The pages displayed in the results are not likely to be the sources of these high quality links. This was changed 2 or 3 years ago to prevent people from poaching competitors' links. The only true metric provided by the link: operator is the count.

 

The link: operator only shows 9 results for my domain, 7 of those are pages from my own site and two are from signatures in some boards I post at.

Webmaster tools also doesn´t show all of my backlinks.

But well, I guess this will all have it´s googlogic explanation.

 

I have to disagree with that and what Loco.M said. When I use Yahoo Site Explorer, all my backlinks are properly shown, which include VERY high quality backlinks, like Engadget, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, and hundreds of others. When I use Google, not only are none of them shown, but there's only a few backlinks among the most unimportant ones that appear, so in my particular case, it's the total contrary.

 

Since it is a fact that the Link: operator only displays a subset of backlinks that Google knows about, and there is no indication of which ones getting picked, why still allow it? What is the use of the link: operator at all?

 

It took several months for some of my sites to show links in Google. Be patient. If your backlinks are being counted by yahoo and msn, most likely google got them too.

 

looks like i sparked some interesting discussion here....

 

google does not shows all of the backlinks.

how many backlinks is your webmaster tools panel showing?

 

Even some of my sites are having the same problem.Backlinks from google seems to be 0 but yahoo! and others have XXXX.
I think google goes for quality.

 

do you think those sample backlinks showed by google are quality backlinks of your site?

 

As I said, Google's link: operator only shows the *NUMBER* of high quality links that point to the URL you enter, and the pages shown in the results *ARE NOT LIKELY TO BE THE SOURCES OF THOSE LINKS*.

High quality links come from pages with a substantial PageRank score, historically PR4 or higher. Links from typical link exchange pages and directories rarely have the PageRank score to qualify - if they're indexed by Google at all. Google has raised their standards for deciding how deep to crawl a site within the past year, so many pages where such easily-obtained links reside are no longer seen by Google at all or are relegated to the Supplimental Index where they are re-crawled infrequently.

 

I have read this many times, but how often do they update them? Every few weeks? every few months? Is it about the same increment as the PR bar updates?