Donny, how many backlinks do I have?
During the past couple of days a lot of people have approached me asking which is the best way to check how many backlinks they have. Although I believe in quality over quantity, it can still be important to check how many links you do have, so in this article I will explain the different ways you can check.
Checking how many links you have on Google is pretty simple, simply type this into the search box:
link:http://domain.com
Replacing ‘http://domain.com’ with your domain.
Unfortunatly Google only shows a small sample of your backlinks, and a delayed one at that, to be blunt Google is completely useless in checking your backlinks.
Yahoo! Site Explorer
The site explorer tool is a much better resource for checking your backlinks, although it does also have its downfalls, this is how to check your links on the site explorer:
The main downfall of Yahoo! Site Explorer, is that it shows EVERY link, yes, nofollow included. This can obviously be quite misleading as nofollow links pass no value.
It is rumoured that Yahoo places the links of highest value at the top, but this is debatable. On LinkersBlog it shows a sitewide link on TylerCruz above a homepage link on Shoemoney, so it is hard to say how accurate the rumour is.
Both at Once
As with everything on the internet, there is a faster way to check your links. Submit Edge’s tool allows you to check several metrics for a single site at once. These are: Alexa rank, PageRank, Listed in DMOZ and how many backlinks the site has in 4 search engines.
This tool is perfect for quickly checking a site out, but unlike the prior methods it gives no indepth information on the links such as where they are from.
A More In-Depth Look
Sometimes there are times when you really need to get as much information as you can about each and every link pointing to your site. Luckily there is a tool which does this. Obviously this information can take some time to generate, but it can definetly be worth it. If you are willing to wait a couple of minutes here is the perfect tool.
SEOPro’s link checker tool really is the ultimate tool in terms of checking links. It has many options which allow you to choose what is/is not shown.
Home Page PR – By default the tool shows the PageRank of the page your link is on, an additional option is to show the PageRank of the homepage, this can be pretty useful too.
Links Count – This is how many other links are on the page, obviously the lower the better as that means yours will get more link juice.
Nofollow – Unlike Yahoo, this tool gives us the critical information as to whether a link is dofollow or nofollow.
Anchor – Anchor text plays an extremely important role in link building, so I’m glad the tool gives us access to this data where possible.
Conclusion
All the above tools are pretty good at what they do (minus Google), if you are looking for a quick run down then use Submit Edge’s whereas if you need really deep analysis then SEOPro’s will probably be a lot more useful.
Your thoughts?
There are probably tools out there which I haven’t discovered or used, which you may think are a lot better in some way or another, I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section!
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November 10th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Those are some good tools Danny. I’m really feelin the last two! I may be checking them out, will have to bookmark those man. Thanks.
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November 10th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
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November 10th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Danny,
I started to say I like the third tool, but it says I have 33 links in google and 0 in yahoo. How is this checking because it doesn’t seem to be to accurate?
Adam
Adam – Creadiv.coms last blog post..There is No Such Thing As A Bad Visitor
November 10th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
You probably did something wrong, because you’re a noob.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
The last one is awsome! I havent come across this one yet, so thanks for sharing. I’ve been looking for a good tool like this for a while. I usually use Yahoo Explorer or Google Webmaster Tools (external link checker page).
November 10th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Danny
So cool tools you have found here. I normaly don’t lok at my backlinks and stuff, but recently I have been checking them out. I really like the 3rd tool there a lot.
Bruno Augers last blog post..Ten Tips to Help You Build Links
November 11th, 2008 at 4:23 am
I personally like using Yahoo for checking links.
Susans last blog post..It’s a Boy
November 11th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I check my blog (a new personal blog) with Yahoo Site Explorer, and the result is very confusing me. There is a big question; Is it CommentLuv (in blogger it must use with js-kit.com commenting) really gives you a linkback? For example, by writing this comment here on your site, i suppose you give me a linkback, is it?
Refering to Yahoo Site Explorer result: I doubt it.
Please give me some advice. Thanks
dedens last blog post..CommentLuv untuk Blogger
November 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Damn that last one is really good, never seen it before, thanks! I’ve never really checked the back-links to my blog…albeit on checking it now I can see I have some work to do, lol!
Dans last blog post..Make Money From Blogs With No Readers
November 11th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Better a noob than a boob like you are.
Adam – Creadiv.coms last blog post..There is No Such Thing As A Bad Visitor
November 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I have to admit I got tired of all the conflicting reports on how many links I had coming in and stopped worrying about it. Instead of taking the time to figure out how many I have I focus that time on getting more links that will improve my site PR and those coming in who will be well targeted.
Tracy – Massage Chairs last blog post..Getting A Masseuse Quality Massage At Home Daily
November 11th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Good stuff, Danny….another lesson learned.
On another note, I used the “Listen Now” button under the title. That was pretty cool as I was able to finish something up on another page and still get the article in with solid understanding I might add. At a few points in the article, I had to flip back to take a look at what you were talking about, but that was a nice feature.
Debating if I should use that on my site or not.
Either way, thanks for the info!
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November 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I use SEOPro most of the time. Everytime, I look at positive stats about my blog, I get inspired to do better. Like looking at the percentage of site traffic growth on Analytics gives you the inspiration to try and achieve more traffic. Don’t you agree?
Ganeshs last blog post..Blogs that I Read and Enjoy – Part 2
November 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hey Danny.
Nice post here and you have shown some amazing link building techniques over the course of two months.
Take a look at iwebtool, analyzebacklinks and seochat -all dot com!
Nota Bene Consultings last blog post..Make $400k In Four Months
November 11th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Does it check Google though?
November 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Totally agree with you. I mean who cares!
November 11th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Nice tools Danny,
i checked my blog with Submit Edge and result is:
“Backlinks from Google 0
Backlinks from Yahoo 1,250″
Why is such difference between google and yahoo?
Shoto Azikuris last blog post..5 Blogs Worthy To Read
November 11th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Firstly Google only shows a portion of your links, even if they are aware of more. Secondly Yahoo! shows nofollow links as well as dofollow ones.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
That’s definitely a great technique, and I’m sure if you work at it you will achieve your aims and goals!
November 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I use the SeoQuake plugin on my FireFox 3, which has the above tools available in it’s toolbar, which makes it much easier for me to check for such information.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Just install the SeoQuake add-on if you’re using FireFox, it has all the above tools available on it’s toolbar. Makes it much easier.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I use SeoQuake also, pretty cool. I’ll check out yopurs too.
Can someone explain to me how Technorati measures links…they say I have 152 incoming.
Yea, that’s only a few thousand off. LOL
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November 13th, 2008 at 3:13 am
[...] by Mitch on Nov 12, 2008 I was reading a post on the Linkers Blog titled Danny, How Many Backlinks Do I Have, and decided it was time to check my own blog just to see how many links I [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I now find out that I have been wasting my time with SiteExplorer. What is the point of them showing “NoFollow” links?
Thanks so much Danny for wising me up. This is my first visit to your blog and you now have a loyal reader.
Thanks again,
Dave
November 13th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Good stuff, thanks. This newbie was wondering what the deal was with google and their painful delays in updating their linsk.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:59 am
I usually use Seocentro or Yahoo site explorer. I’ll check out the links you provided…thanks. I think as long as you measure your stats using the same tool all the time, you can see if you are making steady progress or not. And thats what really matters.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
A very interesting article!
I liked!
I would be here now go more often!
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February 24th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I use mostly site explorer to see links. Google never seems to show the correct amount of links.