|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finding Backward Links
Chris Jaeger
You can use link:www.yoursite.com For more reliable results, type the following command into the Google search box. I recommend not using the Google Toolbar search box, if you have Google Toolbar installed: www.yoursite.com -site:www.yoursite.com (Remember to type in your actual site, not "yoursite.com".) Doing this shows you pages that link to your site, minus the links on pages on your own site. You'll also see sites that just mention your site but don't actually link to it. Be aware that the information Google shows you is not 100% accurate. Based on actual testing and feedback from others knowledgeable in this area, it appearrs Google does NOT show ALL of the back links htat it knows about. Some speculate it only reports pages with a certain Page Rank. This is pretty cool tool to
help you with Google "backward links". Yahoo link:http://www.yoursite.com -site:www.yoursite.com This search excludes internal links. Here's a refinement. For more extensive results, try this search: linkdomain:www.yoursite.com -site:www.yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com The above search includes links to ALL pages on your site, not just the main page. MSN MSN use this search: link:www.yoursite.com OR link:www.yoursite.com -site:www.yoursite.com All The Web At All The Web (http://www.alltheweb.com) use: link:www.yoursite.com (You MUST include the "www".) Hotbot At Hotbot, type this into the search box: linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com How to find backward links to an individual page at Yahoo!, MSN, and Google This is particularly helpful to determine if a page is indexed and who might be linking to it. I use it to find out if Yahoo! has picked up pages at my site that are linking to other pages at my site. You can also use this to determine if links you are buying at other sites are creating any "backward" link value for you (i.e. advertising). Keep in mind that 99% of the time a backward link has to be a direct link to your website. It can not be passed as through a counter, a script, or "database". Direct links are used at my popular wedding planning links directory http://www.weddingplanninglinks.com. Yahoo! link:http://www.example.com/page MSN link:example.com/page Google, it's not as easy easy. Use this search: example.com/page.html -site:example.com Google doesn't actually give you "links". It gives you mentions or "occurances". Most mentions will probably be links and you may find this more accurate than Google's "link:" command. Yet Another Way: Link Popularity Check You can also check for backward links by using link popularity sites such as www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm Why Backward Links Are Important Think of backward links as "votes" for your website. When search engine "ranking sites" look at and see the number of quality sites that link to your site - and QUALITY is key here, not QUANTITY, you'll fall into the good graces of Google, MSN, and Yahoo!. The best backward links are always links from websites relevant to your page (for example, in your general industry or niche). Ideally, these sites have good backward links to them, also. Think of it as "riding the coattails" of other popular sites. How To Get Backward Links A common way to get backward links is to exchanging links with other sites (reciprocal links). This is getting more and more difficult and so less and less effective. You'll also have to buy links, but in most cases buying links is a win-win - you get traffic AND the backward link value. Again, be sure the link you get is a direct link, and not passed with a script, counter, or other automated type program. I know this is all a bit confusing. Trust me, it confuses me. Drop me a line or subscribe to my newsletter, where I discuss this and other online marketing topics and techniques each week.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
* __ *
|
Chris
Jaeger has helped thousands of wedding professionals nationwide get better results from
their websites.