Backlinks are the inbound links to your site, i.e., they refer to those web sites or pages that link to your site. It is a hot topic with the SEO (search engine optimization) enthusiasts since it is widely believed that backlinks constitute a major source for deciding how your site would be ranked by the search engines. There has always been a debate whether your site’s contents are more powerful or backlinks are more powerful for the purposes of ranking of your site by the search engines. There is no dearth of people who believe that backlinks can do more good to your site than the actual contents. While this debate continues unabated, there is no denying the fact that backlinks do play an important role in improving the worthiness of your site.
Some of the main advantages of backlinks to your site are as under:
Therefore, more number of backlinks will definitely prove to be more advantageous to your site, though I personally believe that it should not be at the cost of good contents and also that good contents on your site will ultimately lead to more backlinks over time.
OK. But, how to find out how many backlinks your site has? Well, there are many resources on the Internet to find out about your backlinks. The only problem is that some of these resources may not reflect the true position of your backlinks. There are two reasons for that: (1) they do not update the search results for backlinks regularly; (2) they may not like (perhaps) to disclose how many backlinks they are maintaining for your site. The second reason is more applicable to the search engines since it has been experienced that even an efficient search engine like Google is very inefficient in showing search results for your backlinks – and, (perhaps) it appears to be deliberate since Google would not like to show how it is ranking your site and moreover, it won’t like the backlinks to be manipulated so better keep it hidden or at least don’t update them regularly (for the public view)!
With this caveat in mind, the list of resources, that can be used to search the backlinks to your site, is as under:
(1) Google Search:
You can search backlinks to your site by searching the expression link: followed by your site’s URL at Google (no space in between the two). For example, if you want to search backlinks to New York Times website, search the following expression:
link:nytimes.com
See the results for this query:
Don’t feel disappointed if Google shows ZERO backlinks for your new site. As I mentioned earlier, Google search results for backlinks are awfully incomplete (perhaps deliberately) and would not show the correct results (in public). If you don’t believe in what I’m stating, then check the next resource for searching your backlinks, namely Google Webmaster Tools, which is also from Google, but that will show you better results since it is in private, i.e., you require to open a Google account for accessing this resource. But, let me caution you again, even Google Webmaster Tools may not provide the latest or updated search results for your backlinks, but it is definitely better than Google Search. That way, Yahoo! Site Explorer will perhaps give the best results for your backlinks; it will be discussed later in this article.
However, in so far as Google Search is concerned, I’ve learnt by experience that there is another (and much better) method to search for your backlinks at Google Search; and that is not to use the link: command, but to use the normal search. For example, for searching my site’s backlinks, I can search the expression
“techsuperb.com”
Remember to include the quote signs, otherwise the results will not be accurate. This will give you search results wherever “techsuperb.com” occurs and it will include even my internal links. If you want to find the backlinks only from other sites (this is what it means, actually) then you’ve to exclude the internal links from your own site. So, the best expression for searching for your backlinks from other sites is in the following form:
“techsuperb.com” –site:techsuperb.com
To remind you again, don’t forget the quote signs as well as the minus sign. There has to be a space before the minus sign; but there should be no space between site: and the site-name. Better option is to copy the aforesaid expression and that replace techsuperb.com with your site name.
(2) Google Webmaster Tools:
As mentioned above, you need a free Google Account for using Webmaster Tools for your website. Once it is done, visit Google Webmaster Tools site. Select the site for which you want to view the backlinks, if you’ve more than one sites. Now, on the Dashboard, select Your site on the web link, and then under it click on the Links to your site link (see the following image). This will display those web pages on your site in the right pane which have backlinks. Now click on any of your web pages’ links or on your home page link to view the backlinks or the inbound links to your site or to that web page.
As mentioned already, Google Webmaster Tools will also not give the latest or updated details of your backlinks; but it is definitely far better than the link: search on Google.
(3) Yahoo! Site Explorer:
Yahoo! Site Explorer is perhaps the best source to find out your backlinks. I’ve tried it for several sites, and it appears to be giving the best results. Have a look at its search box:
However, search here with the full URL of your domain (including “http://” string) otherwise you may not get complete results. For example, for searching backlinks for my site, I have to search the following string:
link:http://techsuperb.com/
or with the string:
link:http://www.techsuperb.com/
These strings may give you different results. Try both strings. Moreover, when you search at Yahoo! Search Explorer, you get many other features for link search. For example, you can search for backlinks only to your home page or to your entire site; see the following image:
Second feature is that you can search for all backlinks, or backlinks excluding your whole domain or excluding your current sub-domain; see the following image:
Therefore, if you want to find out the backlinks only from the outside sites (i.e., excluding your internal links), then you have choose the “Except for this domain” option from the “Show inlinks” drop-down list box (see image above). This will give you the correct number of your backlinks from other sites.
(4) Alexa.com:
You can check backlinks to your site from Alexa by using an expression of the following type:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nytimes.com
You’ll get the detailed information about the site, including the number of sites linking in (i.e., the backlinks) in which we are interested; see the following image:
If you want to see the details of all these sites which are linking in, then just click on the number showing the sites linking in.
(5) Backlink Watch:
Backlink Watch is another good resource. In addition, it will also show you the PageRank of the web pages linking to your site. It will also show the total number of Outbound Links (OBL) from the web pages linking to your site. Another useful information provided by it is whether the backlink is “nofollow” or a normal link, though I found that this particular piece of information may not always be correct.
There are many other sites on the Internet that can give you information about backlinks or the inbound links for your site. You can find out about these sites by searching expressions such as “backlinks” or “inbound links”, etc.
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I’m using yahoo also and it does the best job for me. Also its quite updated.