I've always used Google Webmaster Tools to count the number of backlinks, however recently there have been several changes and I'm finding them a bit unreliable to use because the changes make it difficult to benchmark and compare the number of backlinks from week to week. Last week they changed again and instead of showing the total number of incoming backlinks that your site received, they showed which sites link to your website the most. They now only show the top 1000 sites that you get links from, and because I get links from more than 1000 sites I could no longer see the TOTAL number of incoming backlinks. I then found out that you can still check the total number of backlinks here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/external-links-page?hl=en&siteUrl=http://www.yoursite.com/ Code (markup): But this showed an increase of 16,000 links in less than 2 weeks. This seems weird (sounds good, but seems misleading) I was also advised to use Yahoo Site Explorer. This was ok because it was easy to find the total number of incoming backlinks ("inlinks" as Yahoo calls them), but the number was ONLY 10% of what Google says there is. Back to Google, at the end of June this year Google Webmaster Tools made another change which suddenly increased my links by 1000%!! For example, one week I had 6,000 backlinks and then the next week I had 60,000 links due to that change. So I'd like to ask everyone: What tool do you use on a regular basis to count the number of backlinks that your website is receiving? I'm looking for a tool that will show me the TOTAL number of incoming backlinks that your site receives, so I can compare this number each week to see if our links are increasing. If it included an overview of the quality of links, as well as total quantity, that would also be very helpful
Yes. Google webmaster tools and Yahoo explorer give the number of backlinks for every website and both of them show some of those backlinks for public. And you can follow the changes of your backlinks in both of them. For example you can save the number of your backlinks you get from Google and Yahoo in a text file and save this text file for next times you are updating it. This way is totally free
I use webmaster tool, nothing else. Reason being is that no one can guarantee you the exact number of links your website has, not even Google webmaster tool, but I picked this one because the reason is that this tool belongs to google and i do optimize my sites in google search engine. Thats it.
This is also the reason why I choose to use Webmaster tools. I'm more focused on my results in terms of Google compared to other search engines. So I'm therefore more focused on the figures that Google is keeping in terms of my website. If I see my backlinks go up in Webmaster tools, then I assume that this is good in the eyes of Google, and they are the ones that I'm trying to look good for Thanks to everyone for your replies. I hadn't heard of backlinkwatch.com so I checked that one out too. I like it, because it works quickly but again it shows the top 1000 domains which could limit the results of some websites. Thanks again
I use Yahoo Site Explorer. It shows you the links (exact page) and a few specs. I find it to be very accurate. I actually have the Mozilla Firefox add-on Search Status that allows me to easily see backlinks for sites. Very fast & handy!