sorry for the noob question but I did try to search... I just did a trend report for my site at urltrends.com. It says I have no incoming google links. It does report incoming yahoo and msn links. I didn't know incoming links are specific to search engines. Can somebody explain this to me. I have been working with a links manager software lately, so am slowly working on building links. I just didn't know that incoming links are SE specific?? Please shed some light! Thanks. josh
I was kinda wondering this myself. I have hundreds more links on other search engines compared to Google. Is it because the big G has such complex and more strict algos and requirements than other SEs?
This is true, and to what sample that is, many will speculate. It is important to note that G will see the links even though they aren't displayed. There is thought that this done as to not allow competitive review of site optimization.
It would be better if they gave you a total number then, but just gave a sampling of the sites that back link.
Yes, just as there is the phantom sandbox, there is also a sandbagging of links by Google as ServerUnion states. Google just went through a BL update too, so it may be a few months before you notice any significant changes in their datacenters, but that doesn't mean they're not aware of them .... slow and steady wins the race
To add to what has been said above, Google still has, AFAIK, the largest index. If you can find a backlink on Yahoo or MSN, it's probably safe to say that Google knows about it too. They are a little better, I think, at discerning "quality"and "relevance" of backlinks, however (not to mention whether those links are bought and sold - see other thread in Google on this issue), so it may be the case that Google knows about it and has decided to devalue it.
Google never shows all your links if at all it shows links. Also google does sandbagging D funnyl uh!) of links and are shows as back links only after they mature.
To see all your links in google use @www.domain.com instead of link:www.domain.com my tip of the week
@www.domain.com or "www.domain.com" seems to simply return pages where that text string is contained - actually @:www.domain.com or %:www.domain.com or $:www.domain.com or even just :www.domain.com do the same thing.
What Google reports, in terms of links, is not related to how old the links are. I have sites where "mature" links are not shown as links, but newer crap links are. IMO what Google shows webmasters in terms of links is nothing more than a random sample.