In order to determine a quantity of inbound links seo-people can use link: operator in the search field. Google has always been a search engine that updated this quantity (or better say made them visible) one time in three-four months and nowadays just quarterly. To define the real number of links that “recommend” you web-site you are probably using the same operator but in Yahoo! or MSN as these search engines update incoming links more often and accurate. Google even “defines” what links are strong and what is scam.

Nowadays, official Google has declared that link: operator is not the best way to determine the number of backlinks and claimed that webmasters should use their account in Webmaster Tools section that provides this service instead of a common link: operator:

“You asked, and we listened: We’ve extended our support for querying links to your site to much beyond the link: operator you might have used in the past. Now you can use webmaster tools to view a much larger sample of links to pages on your site that we found on the web. Unlike the link: operator, this data is much more comprehensive and can be classified, filtered, and downloaded. All you need to do is verify site ownership to see this information.”

Heh, Google is trying to promote its webmaster tools? Anyway, good job! Another great step to help webmasters and se-optimizers! It’s high time for you to test this feature!

Technorati Tags: google, inbound links, incoming links, google webmaster tools, link: operator, backlinks