The Google Forum

**artcoder** · 05-22-2008, 10:39 PM

How can I see what other sites are linking to my site? I thought there used to be a way to determine that using just google.com. But I can figure it out now.

**shabbirbhimani** · 05-23-2008, 05:34 AM

Use Google Webmaster Tools

**chrishirst** · 05-23-2008, 05:42 AM

Read your site logs. The ones that send traffic are the useful ones.

**Niche** · 05-23-2008, 06:52 PM

Spend a little money and get SEO elite
It tells you who is linking to your site, if it is a no follow link, what the anchor terms are etc

**artcoder** · 05-24-2008, 05:31 PM

Okay, what I really meant to say was "how can I see who is linking to my competitor's site?".

Google Webmaster Tools and Server logs only works in regards to my own site.

I want to compare whether my competitor has more incoming links than my site, and whether that is the reason why they rank higher in search engine results page.

**chrishirst** · 05-24-2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

I want to compare whether my competitor has more incoming links than my site, and whether that is the reason why they rank higher in search engine results page.

So, why do you think the Google "link counting" search modifier is deliberately broken??

Knowing how many links competing pages have won't tell you anything about how or why they rank higher.
It simply because those pages have more ranking factors right.
It might be the title, it might be the links, it might be the anchor text, it might be the content, bolding, headings, it was raining the last time the page was indexed or any of the other 100+ factors that make up the ranking algo.

Playing catch up with what you think the competition is doing will only mean you'll never ever be in front of them!

**rirara** · 05-25-2008, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by artcoder

How can I see what other sites are linking to my site? I thought there used to be a way to determine that using just google.com. But I can figure it out now.

Use search.yahoo.com and ask link:sitename

**Chappi** · 05-27-2008, 01:16 PM

I use this: http://www.backlinkwatch.com/

Sadly: Out of Yahoo quota for today. Total 10,000 queries executed already.

**Dan Schulz** · 05-27-2008, 07:43 PM

You can also use www.analyzebacklinks.com though it does appear to pull its results from Yahoo. However, this - and all such external third party tools - tend to be rather limited in the data they present and should not be considered as accurate sources of information. As Chris and Shabbir said, check your server logs and sign up for a Google Webmasters' account if you want to get an accurate picture of what's going on.