Hi I checked my back links with MSN and it lists 345 to my site. I checked them on Google also but it shows only three. What could be the reason for that? And I checked it on Alexa but I haven't seen more than 40 backlinks at there either. I listed my site at yahoo directory about a month and a half ago but I don't see the back link on any of the serps. Does anyone knows why? How much time does it need to pass in order to google and the others discover a link at yahoo directory? Thanks Laszlo.
You will not see backlinks show on google but about once every three months. As for the other search engines they will show them once they have crawled and cached the page that your site is listed on.
Hi Lazlo, No one really knows anything - we are blind, blathering sheep stumbling in the darkness of uncertainty. The time required for search engines to index your site's inbound links can range anywhere from 24 hours to "never." Whereas Yahoo and MSN appear to give a more accurate number, Google rarely indicates she has indexed all of them. While you're waiting, seek ways to improve the quality of your website's content, its conversion rate, as well as exploring other promotion channels in addition to search engines. Point being, you shouldn't have to rely entirely upon search engine traffic; you can avoid such a dependency through diversification, branding, customer loyalty, etc.
Google updates its backlinks probably once in 3 months. Google gives more importance to what kind of site is linking to your site & doesnt display all the backlinks to your site in rankings. While yahoo & msn dont bother much about the quality of incoming link. They show most of the backlinks. They regualrly update their backlinks.