Backlinks coming and going?

[jdwanchalk]

I have a handful of backlinks on my site that are coming and going. There was one that was there, then disappeared, and then came back and stayed (for now). The others, however, showed up as legit backlinks and are now missing. Do they inevitably return? What would be the reason for this?

Thanks.

[Mike]

Are the backlinks disappearing off of the websites or are you talking about in the various search engines?

If it's the latter, then it is my understanding that these se's do not show you every backlink it finds.

[jdwanchalk]

Are the backlinks disappearing off of the websites or are you talking about in the various search engines?

If it's the latter, then it is my understanding that these se's do not show you every backlink it finds.

I am referencing where you can check them with Yahoo Link Checker...

[Michael Martinez]

How often do you check?

[jdwanchalk]

How often do you check?

Well I am on the site daily and I have the SEO Toolbar that automatically shows how many at the top of each page I am on, so yea daily.

Does it take awhile for them to stick?

[Michael Martinez]

The more frequently you check search results (even for backlink data), the more volatile they tend to be. To develop a more reliable trend line you have to take snapshots on no less than a weekly basis. Some people prefer bi-weekly and monthly snapshots.

I don't think you need to be concerned about the strobe effect in your data. It's very common and doesn't really signify anything with respect to your own site. It's just normal search churn in the index, which affects backlink reports along with everything else.

[jdwanchalk]

The more frequently you check search results (even for backlink data), the more volatile they tend to be. To develop a more reliable trend line you have to take snapshots on no less than a weekly basis. Some people prefer bi-weekly and monthly snapshots.

I don't think you need to be concerned about the strobe effect in your data. It's very common and doesn't really signify anything with respect to your own site. It's just normal search churn in the index, which affects backlink reports along with everything else.

So, if they were there once they will eventually come back?

[Michael Martinez]

Links really don't vanish. Search engines just show you slightly different data every now and then for a variety of reasons.

One thing that might be causing your strobe effect is you're looking at sites that are being recrawled and reindexed often. That's generally considered a good thing.

STRIKEOUT WHAT I JUST POSTED.

You were talking about Yahoo!. Let me just say that THEIR link data has always been....colorful.

[jdwanchalk]

Links really don't vanish. Search engines just show you slightly different data every now and then for a variety of reasons.

One thing that might be causing your strobe effect is you're looking at sites that are being recrawled and reindexed often. That's generally considered a good thing.

STRIKEOUT WHAT I JUST POSTED.

You were talking about Yahoo!. Let me just say that THEIR link data has always been....colorful.

Alright so basically you just have to "trust" that Google is finding the backlinks, even if there is no way to verify it. Is that about right?

[Michael Martinez]

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.