How do I know who links to me?

[maxine]

Sorry if this has been asked before (I did do a search, I promise)

I have been searching to find out how I can tell who links to me but its a bit of a mind blowing exercise for my little head. There are bits of code to add onto sites that when you click on them can see who links, but if I do that they surely my competitors can click on it too.

Whats the best and easiest way to see who links to me?

Also, how can I tell if something is an inbound link or a backlink (presume that is where I have linked to them and they have linked back)

Thank you :)

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=www.maxxy.co.uk&fr=sfp&bwm=i

:)

Obviously, if you want to check the inbound links for another site, just put the URL in the 'Explore URL' textbox, and then make sure the 'inlinks' button is selected.

You can also do this with the Google webmaster tools, but that tends to show up fewer links and doesn't show no follow links.
(https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=www.maxxy.co.uk&fr=sfp&bwm=i)

[fisicx]

Put quote round the search otherwise you get all sorts of weird results. Even so it reports all occurences of maxxy.co.uk - not just links.

Have a play with linkdiagnosis.com with the firefox plugin.

[Ali-v-8]

on alltheweb.com
link:www.website.com
remember that when doing this on google it will only show links it accepts.

[AngelSEO]

Yahoo site explorer is the best way to find out the amount.

Use link: (your website url) in Google to find out the quality links you have pointing back to your website.