Checking Backlinks
Backlinks are an exciting part of watching your blog grow. Each link is a statement, a vote, that moves your blog a bit higher in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Here are some ways for finding out about your links.
Talk Digger
Duncan Riley introduced Fred Giasson’s Talk Digger in an article in the Blog Herald this summer and I’ve been using it since. It’s a quick way to check your links at Bloglines, Blog Pulse, Feedster, Technorati, Ice Rocket, BlogDigger, PubSub, MSN, and Google all at the same time. To quote Talk Digger: Talk Digger is a meta-search engine. It asks major search engines: “Who links that URL?” The results will then be processed and displayed on Talk Digger. This is a free web service developed by Frederick Giasson.
Who Links to Me
Another tool you may have seen around the web is WhoLinkstoMe. Paste the Who Links to Me linking code into your template. Click through the link to check your own or another site’s Google Page Rank, and links found by Who Links to Me, Blogrolling, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Technorati, and Icerocket.
Related Links
Nick Wilson at Performancing had this method to check what Google considers related links. Type in the Google search box: related: yourdomain.com . Then he suggests you review the links to see what kind of sites come up. You would want a strong theme to show through. Your goal would be to answer these questions with a “yes.”
- Are most of the sites on same theme or topic as your blog?
- Are there some authorities in your niche?
THIS JUST IN:
Mark Wade of Blog Marketing, Blog Promotion for Newbies offered this addition to our list.
Ara Pehlivanian of the site of the same name offers this:
You might also want to check out the Firefox extension SEO Links by WebmasterBrain.
These should give you something to do while that turkey’s in the oven.
Happy Holiday if you’re having one. If you’re not, declare one.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles:
Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo
SEOââ¬âPositioning Keywords for Readers and Search Engines
Donââ¬â¢t Buy that New Domain Name Yet
Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs
Hey!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Here’s another backlinks checker for ya’ [I find it in my stats daily :-)]
http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker
Enjoy Your Toikey,
Mark
Hi Mark,
Cool and other link checker for the collection. YEA!
Thanks for stopping by.
I was just working on the Fan Club News for your blog!
It’s all written in Crayon. 🙂
Happy T-day to you too
Liz
Hi Liz,
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours !
I’ve enjoyed these posts as well as the community that has evolved. Glad they were here to stand up for you while I was away on the road and computer-less.
I’m doing my part now, though, over at WorkBoxers.
Keep up the great work !
Happy Thanksgiving to all of your family too, Mike.
Yeah. I’m becoming very attached to everyone here and I’m thinking of all of you on this Thanksgiving.
Thank you, Mike. Thank you.
Liz
You might also want to check out the Firefox extension: SEO Links by WebmasterBrain. It allows you to hover over any link and it gives you instant feedback in the form of the link’s rank and backlinks.
Hi Ara,
Thanks That tool sounds like fun! There are lots of neat tools at WebmasterBrain.
Hope you’ll keep adding to the conversation. 😛
Liz
HI Liz-
I did a dig and wholinks and found 0 links from the Google search, but lots on yahoo and msn. What’s up with that?
G
Hi Garnet!
Good to see you over here. 🙂
First, don’t panic.
Google backlink numbers are often, if not always, low compared to MSN and Yahoo! I don’t know that anyone except the folks at Google can say definitely why. Yaro answers this question better than I ever could in his article, Search Engine Optimization: The Backlink FAQ.
Liz
Hey, thanks for letting us know about Talk Digger – now that’s one cool tool!
The related: thing at Google sounds like a good way to see what’s happening in your niche.
I learn something new everyday
Hi Martin,
Great to see you!
It’s fun to be able to give you guys something cool you’ve not yet seen. 🙂
Liz
Damn, this site looks so good now…I almost read it differently! I know, I know…stupid. Aesthetics do that to me.
Hi Chris,
You have this way of popping in when I least expect you!
This new design is quite something. I don’t blame you for your surprise–or are you just saying nice things to me? 🙂
Liz
Great links, Liz. Here’s another one I’ve found to add to your collection:
http://www.helpfulinformation.org/seo-tools/anchortext.pl
This one checks anchor text as well. Great for seeing what people are using to link to your site.
Hi Hock,
Funny you should come by with a link about anchor text. Are you reading my mind again? I’m just working on a post on how to think through the best words to put into anchor text. This link will be a perfect addition to that. Thank you. Thank you.
Liz
Thanks Sabine, for the connection. 🙂
You have made some very helpful points. Focus on quality, not quantity. One quality back-link is worth 50 not-so-good back-links.