How do you measure backlinks to a site?

[thecrystalcove]

Hi all!

I was just wondering how you measure backlinks to your websites? So far i have been using yahoo by typing link: and then my website into the search box and it takes me to yahoo site explorer
the reason i ask is that i am not sure if this is the only/best way to measure backlinks as it appears that not all of the links show up all of the time and there are links that i know are out there to my site which dont seem to show up at all

I would appreciate your expertise as i am still fairly new to this!

sarah

 

[VinceSamios]

As well as yahoo, you can also use bing, google and majesticseo

The latter is possibly the most interesting after yahoo. (majesticseo.com)

 

[makeusvisible]

And don't forget, Yahoo site explorer will soon no longer be an option.

 

[LeanneMacco]

I second majesticseo.com, great service.

Also, you should consider adding something to your browser. I use Chrome and use an extension called 'SEO for Chrome'. In one click, for any site, I have a backlink count, Alexa rank, social media shares, indexed pages and more. Saves a lot of time.

 

[marketingquotes]

Hi Sarah,

Webmaster tools is something we have used, but also are now looking at a system called SEOmoz - which seems quite popular with SEO companies.

Regards,

Marketing Quotes Support

 

[thecrystalcove]

Thanks so much for the replies so far, i am checking out all the suggestions.
something i have found is that different methods show different number of backlinks, and one shows that i have none in google at all which i know isnt correct!
i certainly admire all you out there who understand the whole seo technical stuff!!!

 

[jimmyjimmerson]

I agree with everyone vouching for majesticseo. Great tool I think.

Opensite Explorer is good as well

 

[thecrystalcove]

does anyone else find a difference in their numbers of backlinks depending on which programe they use?

 

[jimmyjimmerson]

does anyone else find a difference in their numbers of backlinks depending on which programe they use?

All the time. That is why it is always best to use more than one so you get a better idea of how many links, where from, power of link etc.

 

[tonyrobbinssales]

you can use google search but be sure that you type in the search box is your targeted keyword, then if your link appears on the 1st page, the backlink you did is effective

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[Lynne Ivatt]

does anyone else find a difference in their numbers of backlinks depending on which programe they use?

Oh yes all of the time Even using the same tool at different times can give different results.

Backlings are only ever a very rough thing to go by. You will probably never see every link that there is pointing to a web page listed.

Better to just plough on building quality links and just monitor the rankings.
Make sure you are not logged into a Google account if you do that manually as you won't get the right ranking

Thanks
Lynne

 

[fisicx]

Any tool that simply reports the number of links is worthless.

You need to know the source url, anchor text, relevance of the source to target page, age of the source page, if the source page is in the main index and so on.

One really good link can carry more weight than 1000 low quality freebies.

 

[Lynne Ivatt]

Any tool that simply reports the number of links is worthless.

You need to know the source url, anchor text, relevance of the source to target page, age of the source page, if the source page is in the main index and so on.

One really good link can carry more weight than 1000 low quality freebies.

Absolutely it takes time to do the research properly but there are some good tools to help with that and it's worth the effort.

 

[VinceSamios]

I don't like the SEOMoz tools btw... for the record rubbish data in my experience.

 

[-Joe-]

Open site explorer.

 

[finejewellerys]

I think you can check the exact backlinks and the details by visit www.backlinkcheck.com.

 

[thecrystalcove]

Thanks everyone for your help!!!

 

[DesignerNick]

All about SEO Spyglass, it tells you a lot more info like anchor text and sorts by link value

 

[SalesSurgeon]

You can also use the free version of SEO Spyglass.

Edit: I missed Smarter Web Design's post.

 

[WebTrust]

Scrapbox, Is what I use.