Hi, I desperately need some help to understand how exactly the whole "link development" works. Here's the story: I started submitting my website to directories in December,and it got accepted to over 70 directories for sure.I also did some link exchanges with other websites(one of them is PR6). Now I did a link:www.mywebsite.com search in Google,but it returned only 4 links to my website!From what I've read,links help search engine rankings.. Could somebody post some step-by-step guide to successful link development?(And some methods to check that link development is working.) I don't mind spending time on link development,but I want to be sure that at least I'm doing it the right way. thanks a lot,and sorry for the long post! PS. I forgot to mention that when I do a link:www.mywebsite.com search in Yahoo,it returns over 300 links (results),and MSN returns about 15 links(results).
Google doesn't show many of the links like 1% Try MSN or Yahoo they show like 80% And yes links help rankings if you use corect anchor texts
So if Google returns only 4 results when I do a link:www.mywebsite.com search,does it mean that it hasn't indexed all the other links that Yahoo and MSN display when I perform the same kind of search for links? If this is happening,can someone explain me why Google is "ignoring" so many links?
Google doesn't show all the links pointing to your site...it's just they way they operate. There is tons of speculation as to why...but does it really matter? If you're curious about your Google links, sign up for a Google Webmaster Account (search for it on Google) and they will display all of your links. Otherwise, you can simply go by Yahoo's links.
Google knows about all those links, he just doesn't show them all. You can check your backlinks with Yahoo, MSN or a variety of backlinks checker tools like for example: http://www.domain-pop.com/backlink-check.php. Just Google for "Backlink Checker" and try some.
Actually google does show most of your links. Log into webmaster tools and add your site. They have a feature now that shows your links. Check it out here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
When using the link: command in google, it doesnt show all the links to your site. but you can use Google's Webmaster tool to see all your back links.