I just get shocked while checking my back-links in Google Webmaster Tool. Previously it was showing in thousands, now it is in lacks. Just wanted to know is same thing happening with other webmasters too? Or is it a Google's bug/error? My point of concerns are: Will it affect my ranking negatively? Will it help in boost my SERP? Is it a temporary error /bug and will be sorted out soon by Google? Any feedback would be highly appreciated. Kind Regards, Indiglo
Here's the myth, getting more links to your site will boost your rankings. This is not entirely true because it's only links which google counts which will help you move up the SERPs. Now Google Webmaster Tools shows the links which google is aware of and those links are giving you credit. Any other links that you may have are not counting towards your ranking. To answer your concerns: 1. If all other factors remain constant but you're losing backlinks, then obviously your ranking will fall. 2. It's not likely to boost your SERP if you're losing backlinks. 3. It's not a bug, google caffeine is very fussy about which pages it indexes and which backlinks count. Mind you that google usually update the GWT backlinks just before a PR update.
I disagree with soopoot Google only shows a snippet of backlinks you have (I think Matt Cutts said this in one of his videos). You can use the Yahoo site explorer to get a more accurate view of actual links you have to your site
Matt Cutts said Google shows only a sample of links for the link operator (eg link:mywebsite.com). I'm talking about Google Webmaster Tools backlinks here
Yes, you cant rely on that figure yet it is much better to look on the figures shown by Google webmaster tools.
I think Google webmaster tools can shows your backlinks correct. And if you doubt it, you can check your backlinks on Yahoo explorer too.