Backlinks coming and going?

[jdwanchalk]

The only reliable way to verify that Google is finding backlinks is to use the info query operator on Google for each linking page (I would only do this for one page on a site with site-wide links).

Some people use the cache operator but that doesn't always work. The info operator strikes me as being the most reliable and useful of Google's advanced query operators.

If the info query offers you a cache link, click on it. If you see the cached page and don't find your link there, that may mean Google has not found your link yet (but the cache may be an old copy so take this method with a grain of salt, too).

If the info query does not offer you a cache link, then the page may be only partially indexed.

If the info query doesn't offer you a cache link, then Google has not yet (apparently) begun indexing the content.

This is tedious but there is no tool I know of that will do this for you.

Thanks for all the info. I guess I will just check on a much less frequent basis.

[PokerDude]

I have ALWAYS found Google backlinks to be way, way off, and extremely volatile from user session to user session. I have found Yahoo's backlink tool to be a lot more stable (although still subject to short-term change) than Google's.

[pokerextras]

Can i suggest something that may or may not be relevant depending on how you're getting your links. If your links are coming from blog comments there will be variance due to the most recent comments section at the bottom of blogs. For example, if you comment on a blog with 200 pages with a link attached to your name, it will appear at the bottom of everypage in the most recent comments section so yahoo will show 200 links. Once others have commented and pushed your comment from the most recent section, you'll loose 199 links which will reflect on your yahoo figure.

[jdwanchalk]

Can i suggest something that may or may not be relevant depending on how you're getting your links. If your links are coming from blog comments there will be variance due to the most recent comments section at the bottom of blogs. For example, if you comment on a blog with 200 pages with a link attached to your name, it will appear at the bottom of everypage in the most recent comments section so yahoo will show 200 links. Once others have commented and pushed your comment from the most recent section, you'll loose 199 links which will reflect on your yahoo figure.

I never post to blogs for links, fwiw.