So What's The Difference?

[BluegrassGardener]

I use google mainly for making sure our pages stay close to the front page of SR. The other SEs just seem to always rank us better than google anyway. Now when I look at backlinks from other websites through google I get a HUGE difference between link:www.my-site.com and +www.my-site.com . Which of these does google actually "read" as far as backlinks? And if they only use link:www.my-site.com as an indicator of backlinks, then what is the use of +www.my-site.com. What do the two tell me about backlinks to my site?

[BluegrassGardener]

.... Rock Sign .....Seems no one knows the answer to this one...Can't even find it on the seo forums anywhere. Saw on a post that it had something to do with PR for inbound links to the site, though can't say I agree with that one. Maybe a GENIUS will figure it out for us. I will have to confirm the results though.... Naughty

[TCH-Thomas]

I know there is atleast one person who might know this but he is a little busy this week, but someone will know the answer.

[BluegrassGardener]

I'll be here waiting patiently for an answer....tapping my foot...biting my nails...gritting my teeth....

[TCH-Dick]

+www.my-site.com returns sites that contain the term "www.my-site.com". It doesn't have to be a link just the term.

[DWD]

I didn't know about the + technique...but I get the same result searching for the domain in quotes: "www.my-site.com"

[BluegrassGardener]

So google does or doesn't see - +www.my-site.com - links as incoming links even though technically they are? Some of those links are internal structure links in the website itself leading to the home page right? What about the other incoming links? Why don't they come up when using link:www.my-site.com? Some of our links were once on the link: list and are now only on the + list of links. What's up with that? Google makes me crazy sometimes

[TCH-Dick]

I didn't know about the + technique...but I get the same result searching for the domain in quotes: "www.my-site.com"

Both of those methods are used phrase searches, so all words are included in the search.

 

So google does or doesn't see - +www.my-site.com - links as incoming links even though technically they are?

Google doesn't see it as a link when using +www.my-site.com it sees it as a phrase or keyword search.

Another way to look at would be as +www.+my-site.+com. This will yeild the same results as +www.my-site.com or "www.my-site.com".

 

Why don't they come up when using link:www.my-site.com?

If I knew that I would start my own SEO business. Ok seriously, link:www.my-site.com is what Google use to check for backlinks. Why Google doesn't show certain links I couldn't tell you.

[Deverill]

Hey BG!

 

The common consensus among SEO experts (of which I do not count myself) is that google's link: command is either broken or purposefully evasive to keep SEOs from seeing too much of Google's way of thinking.

 

Do not count on the link: command for anything other than sheer amusement. If there is a site out there and it is indexed in Google and it has a link to yours, it does count as a backlink in Google's weighting algorithm. There was conversations for months about how anything less than a PR4 doesn't count, but that's been shown not to be true either.

 

Hope it helps - sorry my reply is slow in coming but I've been moving all week and not had access.

[TCH-Dick]

Hope it helps - sorry my reply is slow in coming but I've been moving all week and not had access.

It's about time, Jim. I was running out of "facts" to make up.