Accurate Backlink Counter for Google and Yahoo
Counting Backlinks
Posted by Adam Hayes
Easy way to get accurate backlink counts from Google and Yahoo.
If you are a regular Google user and website owner, you know that the link: modifier doesn't give accurate results for the number of backlinks pointing at a site. In the good old days we'd go to alltheweb.com and do a search with link:www.ahfx.net to get an approximation of the number of backlinks because they didn't dummy down the number of backlinks like Google does. However, now we've got better tools. To get a more accurate backlink count you have a couple of options.
- Sign up for a Google account and go the the webmaster tools. You will first need to verify you own the account. Then you can access a number of important items like web crawl errors, statistics, and links. Just use the link tab to see a much more detailed view of backlinks.
- You can use Yahoo's Site Explorer. Yahoo's site explorer is a great little tool to figure out just who is linking to someone without going through the hoops of signing up with Google and verifying you own a domain.
- Use OpenSiteExplorer.org. OpenSiteExplorer powered by SEOmoz is an amazing tool. They have started crawling the web on a monthly basis and provide basic data for free and advanced information for a great price.
It seems that Google is a little nervous about letting "everyone" know how many backlinks their competitors have. However, since they've added "links" to the webmaster tools, maybe they'll start increasing the accuracy of the link: operator. After the great success of Yahoo's Site Explorer, maybe they'll have to. Only time will tell.
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