Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo

December 30, 2005 by Liz

I’m not actually sure how I got there. That happens to me in real life too–more than I’d like to admit.

Somehow I ended up on a forum called SEO Guy on a thread about backlinks. The discussion was about that age old question

Why don’t my backlinks show up in Google?

It’s accepted knowledge that Google only reports about 5% of the backlinks it knows about. This practice frustrates folks attempting to see where they stand.

Embedded in the discussion thread that I found was a way to uncover what backlinks Google has by asking Yahoo. The technique set forth below by forum member Brandon is complete with the compelling argument for why you would trust that Google has these same links.

This is an image of Brandon’s post at the SEO Guy Forum.

This is an image of the search text in action. It took a few tries to get it right using a blog with a subdomain. Note the space before the hyphen.

Not only did I find out what links Google has, I found out that Yahoo doesn’t show me all of its links when I do a simple link:mydomain.com search either. The link count for both my personal blog and for Successful Blog were both almost 40% higher through this command.

Believe me the entire thread at SEO Guy Forum is worth reading. I just found this particular bit worth highlighting for your attention.

I’m heading back that way. I’ve bookmarked both the SEO Guy Forum and the SEO Guy Blog. This SEO Guy makes SEO interesting. What a concept!

–ME “Liz” Strauss