Did a search to see if webmaster tools questions belong in this part of the forum. Sorry if this is in the wrong place. Does anyone know if the "Links to your site" section is actually a complete listing, I know it can be as much as 3 weeks old. But despite the delay in the update, is it a complete list of what Google Serps uses? Thanks .
I doubt that it will be a FULL list as that would help spammers know what sites spam. I also know it does not include all .edu , .gov.uk , .police.uk sites that link to one of my sites but i am sure google will know about them as they are cached and have pagerank.
Noone really knows what google use for SERP but Links section doesn't list all known links... there's a few weeks delay. To prove the point I got google alert about a page with a link to my website but after a week the link is still not shown in google webmaster tools.
It does not show all the links pointing towards your site. The number is lower than the actual amount of backlinks.
As Lex350 said, try Yahoo! Site Explorer to get a more complete tally of links to your site. Google Webmaster Tools only lists a portion of them.
Thanks guys, my question was a silly one now that I think about it (and as vagrant said), as I was thinking if Google Webmaster Tools was showing all the LInks then I would know what ones were good for teh site and what ones were being ignored! But Google is never that clear when it comes to link building
I don't know if its a complete list. But I often see yahoo.answers listed yet, the links from Yahoo Answers are no follow.
Those links aren't really accurate. If you want to check your backlinks, go to http://backlinkwatch.com yugo,