Backlink Checker?

[olimits7]

Hi,

I'm trying to see the referring domains to different websites, and from looking online I've seen that I can use "link:domain.com" on Google to see a list of referring domains to the website.

I've also checked the same domain on www.ahrefs.com and would look at the "referring domains" tab that they show.

However, there is such a discrepancy between the 2 types of searches. On Ahrefs it would show a bunch of different referring domains, and on Google it would just say 12 results.

Why does Google show less backlinks than Ahrefs?

I would think using Google "link:domain.com" would be the best source to check backlinks but it doesn't really show that many results.

Thank you,

olimits7

[buckworks]

For years now, Google's link: command has shown only a limited sample of a site's backlinks instead of showing all. I think it's an anti-SEO measure.

Google Webmaster Tools provides a lot more information, but even that's not complete.

It will take more than one research tool if you want extensive information about a site's backlinks.

[olimits7]

I've seen better results using "link:domain.com -site:domain.com"

[martinibuster]

As buckworks said, it's long shown only a sampling. For the past couple years Google has gone beyond just a sampling and have completely crippled the backlink search. Yahoo used to show great backlinks but that party ended after bing took over. There are other ways around it. I might have tweeted about it or posted it on the link dev forum.

[olimits7]

Ok, thank you...can you send me the link where you posted this discussion on?