Google Sitemaps and Backlinks

Hi Everybody, I'm looking for some advice.

When I check the backlinks for our site google.co.uk says it only has 18 backlinks, but our google sitemaps account says it has 612 links to our site.

Are these the same thing? If so, why haven't we got 612 backlinks on Google?

Thanks in advance.

 

maybe some it's nofollow

 

Google doesn't show all of your backlinks in public. Your competitor might check all the links and get the backlinks from the places where you have got the links. So, in a way its good that its not showing all the links.

I hope this makes sense.

 

Thanks for the responses guys.

Most of the links to our site are from our clients which means the links are not set to nofollow and competitors wouldn't be able to submit their links to them.

Kash does this mean that I should ignore what all the google backlink checkers say and just take google sitemaps word that I've actually got 612 backlinks?

Thanks

 

Please note that your backlinks results from google.com and google.co.uk are completely different

 

yes, kash is absolutely correct - Google doesn't show backlinks publicly as a matter of policy. The list of backlinks in your Google Webmaster Tools is more accurate, but not always up to date. Most people use Yahoo as an indication of what backlinks a site has - although Google may not always count exactly the same number of backlinks, it is reasonable to assume that they won't be very dissimilar

 

When using the "link:" search query, google deliberately filters out many of the results, and shows only these that are of significance. Additionally, links with "nofollow" are, as well, not shown.
There is reason in that, believe it or not.

 

that's great, thanks for the clarification guys.

 

Correct so don't fret over it...I'm pretty sure your site has all that 600 plus backlinks you mentioned.

 

Did you mean about link popularity via Google Webmaster Tools? If yes, it is a common for the numbers showing via GWT is much more than the one showing via link: search operator. GWT does always show the real number and you would see the link popularity will be updated every could of days. You cannot see any links update activity via link: search operator since Google does export to public only a few weeks period once.

 

There is always a difference in link popularity exposure via Google Webmaster Tools vs. Google site check --

you may also want to give Yahoo domain: a try to get realistic link figures.