Links vs external links Question

In Google webmaster tools, if you check 'pages with external links' with respect to your home page, you get one list, if you check 'link:your home page' you get another.

When / what causes the 'pages with external links' links to migrate to 'link:' ??


Thanks in advance for any explanation on this.

Cheers

 

Google will not display the full list of sites linking to a domain to the public. So if you try to search for "link:your page" you may only see a couple of links. But if you are the verified owner of a domain in Google webmaster tools, they will show you all the links pointing to your site. This is for privacy purposes (kind of pointless, though, since yahoo will show just about all the backlinks to a site even if you don't own it)

 

Thanks for that

 

ye do yahoo show all the backlink exept the links that are dubbel

 

yahoo will show links even from own site, so annoying

 

Actually, you can filter them out very easily. Just select "Show Inlinks Except from this Domain" from the drop-down list in Yahoo. That way you'll only see real backlinks from other sites, without the links from your own site.

 

But still the links in link: fluctuates.....sometime it shows like 50 links and another time it can tell that u have just 35 backlinks

 

That's true - the link: directive for Google is pretty much useless; don't depend on it. You can get a more accurate count with Yahoo link:, or you can get the complete Google count with the Webmaster tools.