Secrets of Google Backlinks Revealed!

Posted by Laura Bergells

February 7, 2007

Google has always been shy about showing webmasters exactly how many backlinks they really have. If you use the “link” operator at Google, you will only see a fraction of the total number of sites that link into your site. But as of this week, all that has changed….

Today, Google lets webmasters see much more than “Ye Olde Link Operator” reveals. Curious webmasters can claim their website at Google Webmaster Tools, log in, and see a more complete picture of total inbound links.

Here’s the skinny:

First, let’s back up a second and take a look at the old school way of discovering backlinks — the link operator. What’s a link operator? Well, if you go to Google and enter link:www.yoursite.com, this command will reveal a handful of sites that link into your site. Try using this “link” operator at Google with your own site. Next, try it at MSN or Yahoo, as well. Chances are, you’ll see tons more links at other search engines that you will at big G.

But today, there’s a much better way to get to this information at Google…here’s how.

If you haven’t already, get your free account at Google Webmaster Tools. Next, claim your website by adding a snippet of code to the index page or uploading a file.

At this point, you can click on “Links” within your Webmaster console and see a much more complete inbound link picture. You will see:

All of the pages in your site that have IBLs (in bound links)
Which links are internal (from within your site and its subdomains) and which links are external (from other sites)
The addresses of the pages that contain your IBLs
The date that Google last crawled the linked-in page

…and a ton more.

A word of caution: while this is a wealth of information and a ton more than Google reveals about your site publicly, it is still not a complete picture of the totality of what Google sees as IBLs for your site.

Over at Matt Cutt’s Blog, this respected Google employee notes that the new tool does not show 100% of the total backlinks from Google…yet. He also notes that just because Google “sees” an IBL, it does not mean that it necessarily gives you any Page Rank value.

So what’s the point?

This information gives you a much better picture of who is linking to which of your pages. You will want to use this information to evaluate the value of developing stronger relationships with fans of your pages, or mend relationships with site owners who are less than complimentary of your work. You may wish to use it to improve underperforming, under-attracting content….or boost and test highly attractive content.

Information is power, and Google gives webmasters information that can improve the content and popularity of their sites.

If you have an online business, you should go to Google Webmaster Tools and check it out. Free information that is extremely valuable to your business: why wouldn’t you want to check this out right away?