Tracking your link building is a vital part of SEO and is often overlooked or confused.
The majority of people currently track inbound links using the “link:” function in Google or Yahoo. This is actually a terrible representation. I’m not completely sure why (it hasn’t always been) but I think its to protect how many links a site really has to try and kill off SEO’s link buying activities.
The most accurate place to check is in the Google Webmasters Tools, the same place you submit your site map. To view the link data you will need to verify, preventing SEO’s from gathering inbound link data. However you don’t need to verify to submit a site map anymore.
This is really useful to know for many reasons. It highlights the most interesting parts of your site. Which probably are also your highest ranking. It also highlights weak areas, allowing you to check for errors or other problems that could cause this.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
doesn’t this web site has other languages support??
September 15th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I’m afraid not sorry.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Doesn’t the Google webmaster tool lag as much as link: does? Why would the data in the webmaster tool be any more up to date in relation to in bound links than anywhere else? I like the idea – but not sure if you are correct.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The “link:” search query doesn’t show as much data as your Google Webmaster Tools does. If it did then it would be easy to find how many links are required to beat your competitors
If your researching a client I would recommend looking at Yahoo Site Explorer, rather than Google.