Backlinks according to Google Link: - I dont get it.

[Cindy522]

When I do that for my site, it shows 4 (3 of which are actually the same link).

I see more in Google WEbmaster tools, but still not many of what I know is actually out there.

What does that mean?
Thanks,
Cindy

[juliensimon]

the command link: has been broken for years. It only shows you a sample of the website linking to your site.
The webmaster tool should be more up to date but might not have been updated or picked up all the links.

It's not because you build a link that it will count right away. It has to get spidered, then Google has to decide that it is worth to count it etc...

[w3bmaster]

Try in yahoo ... they show like 90% of the back links

Google updates backlinks once 3-5 months and shows few of them % so don't worry ...

[sfod_d223]

Yea, I can attest to the google tool being a laggard. a site with well over 65,000 backlinks in the other 3 engines should definitely b getting more love from the google-bot. But I dont market towards google like most others.

[AirForce1]

Right, neither link: search nor Google webmaster tool would display all the backlinks for your sites. Use yahoo siteexplorer or backlinkhunter instead.

[Alexs]

Using Google webmaster tools will show more of your backlinks instead of using link:yoursite.com and you have to be patient, it takes time for Google to show all your backlinks in webmaster tools.

If you want to know your current backlinks, use yahoo, they show your backlinks almost instantly as soon as those links have been crawled.

If your not familiar with yahoo use this "linkdomain:http://yoursite.com."

[bobchrist]

Try to use Yahoo site explorer, it will shows 1000 backlinks, I think that should be enough.

[Jeff Collision]

Google Webmaster account showing more number of backlinks than Google for me too.

But i prefer to see backlinks in Yahoo site explorer; i suggest you to use this..