SEO Tycoon

**gh05** · 02-14-2010, 05:32 PM

Both in webmaster tools and if i just type link:mysite....the number is starting to reduce, even though I know some of these links still exist.

e.g. for one page I had about 50 backlinks showing in webmaster tools - that has now reduced to just 18 and it's decided not to include links which it was showing before and still exist on those sites. Does this mean that these links are not being taking into account when 'scoring' my site any more?

**chrishirst** · 02-14-2010, 05:48 PM

Because Counting Links is a pointless pastime.

**thefandango** · 02-15-2010, 09:44 AM

Crikey Chris, that's a hell of a derogatory answer for a forum mod to give. He asked a valid question, does he deserve to be shot down?

There is absolutely no harm in occasionally checking the links to your site, in fact it is healthy, as long as you are not agonising over it, it can be worthwhile and help to see where natural links are coming from for example.

Fair point?

As to the OP, perhaps they have been nofollowed, not sure if that would stop them appearing, but worth checking.

**edgray** · 02-15-2010, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefandango

Crikey Chris, that's a hell of a derogatory answer for a forum mod to give. He asked a valid question, does he deserve to be shot down?

for Chris, that was being incredibly friendly and helpful!

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefandango

There is absolutely no harm in occasionally checking the links to your site, in fact it is healthy, as long as you are not agonising over it, it can be worthwhile and help to see where natural links are coming from for example.

Fair point?

As to the OP, perhaps they have been nofollowed, not sure if that would stop them appearing, but worth checking.

You could check your links, but there isn't a way out there to see ALL of your links anyhow, so you're only ever getting a partial picture. You can also never really tell which links are counting or not.

The best way to check to see if what you're doing is working is by looking at your traffic stats. And if you're selling something, your conversion rate.

**chrishirst** · 02-15-2010, 02:56 PM

Quote:

There is absolutely no harm in occasionally checking the links to your site, in fact it is healthy, as long as you are not agonising over it, it can be worthwhile and help to see where natural links are coming from for example.

But you DON'T you see a random set that the Search Engine in question has deemed to show you.

MSN had the right idea when they killed off their link: search.

link: counting is of less use than rank checking AND it changes just as frequently, what you see right now will have changed in 10 minutes or in an hour.

READ YOUR LOGS, look at what links bring traffic THEY are the important ones, not some odd pages that the SEs choose to show you!

**Robertpatrick** · 02-15-2010, 05:23 PM

I think its only that Google displays the important ones when you check for site:url name, but if you are in your Google accounts then its like you will have the entire links. More over Yahoo Site explorer will also help you out in finding the back links which your site has.

**gh05** · 02-15-2010, 05:38 PM

ok, so even in webmaster tools I won't be shown a full list of links to my site?? I could understand if they were not in there in the first place but these links had been showing in webmaster tools->links to your site for the last couple of months and now most of them have disappeared. So I'm left wondering if I am doing something wrong or whether they still exist but are just not being shown for some reason.

Cheers.

btw I'm not really talking about link: anymore because that shows only one link to my site.

**gh05** · 02-15-2010, 05:39 PM

btw I will start reading my logs but I havent gotten around to stopping all those cr*p spam sites which say they've referred visitors to me. So at the moment I can't tell where the links to my site are.

**gh05** · 02-15-2010, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefandango

Crikey Chris, that's a hell of a derogatory answer for a forum mod to give. He asked a valid question, does he deserve to be shot down?

There is absolutely no harm in occasionally checking the links to your site, in fact it is healthy, as long as you are not agonising over it, it can be worthwhile and help to see where natural links are coming from for example.

Fair point?

As to the OP, perhaps they have been nofollowed, not sure if that would stop them appearing, but worth checking.

S'alright I'm used to Chris' style by now. Actually found some articles on his site useful.

I don't understand why so many links all from different sites would be 'nofollowed' all at the same time. It wasn't as though i'd just spammed loads of sites with my link at once.

**chrishirst** · 02-15-2010, 06:02 PM

Quote:

I think its only that Google displays the important ones when you check for site:url name,

Nope, they are definitely NOT important ones, unless Google has a different idea of "important" to the rest of us!

and of course you can do even more useless things in the name of link counting, such as:

@www.site.tld
+www.site.tld
#www.site.tld
~www.site.tld

Those "searches" will show you even more useless numbers to play with and ponder over.

**Robertpatrick** · 02-24-2010, 06:19 AM

Hi Chris,

So do you mean to say that the back links displayed by Google are not any worth? Is there any way where we can know that which kinds of back links are important for us.

**chrishirst** · 02-24-2010, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Is there any way where we can know that which kinds of back links are important for us.

Your site logs, they are the ones that send real, useful visitors.