What causes a backlink to now show up?

On Google.

[HughMungus]

Have a website that I know should have two backlinks. But I have only one backlink.

What would cause a backlink to now show up? The site I'm linking from has PR so I don't think it's being penalized or anything.

[trillianjedi]

It may be too new, or have a PR of less than 4.

[HughMungus]

Oops. One thing I forgot to mention -- it *had* been showing up and now it's not showing up (but the other one is). Both sites use the same Adsense account, if that's any indication of anything.

[DJRyan]

the PR of the other site may have decreased

[HughMungus]

the PR of the other site may have decreased

The one that's showing up is from a PR3. The one that's not showing up is a PR4. I'm wondering if there's a (new) blog penalty (the main part of the PR4 site uses Blogger).

[Teknorat]

Well backlinks are random at best.

[HughMungus]

Meaning what, exactly? Why would it appear then disappear?

[goodroi]

Google has always withheld some backlinks to make it harder for us to reverse engineer. I've seen PR3 links show up and PR6 not show up. As a rule I would not work on links from Blogger since it is too easy for Google to devalue it.

[phpdude]

Googles definition:

[google.com...]

They have been this way for quite some time now. Just because it's not showing don't mean it's not there.

Where you show in the SERPS is more important these days than what backlinks show up.

[Teknorat]

I mean that despite having spent days studying with each update I can see no logic to why some are listed and some aren't.

[phpdude]

"I mean that despite having spent days studying with each update I can see no logic to why some are listed and some aren't."

See prior post definition of random, If there were some logic to it, it wouldn't be random ;)

[HughMungus]

Where you show in the SERPS is more important these days than what backlinks show up.

Oh, I know. Thanks. Just wondering if something had happened. I've also noticed that all the links from blogs have disappeared...

[kvalentine]

I have read a lot on this topic from people who go into such details on the pagerank formula that it makes my eyes cross!

Here are some other factors that effect your backlink status.

- A site that is determined to be a link farm can be banned from having their links counting. So, for example, they may have a page rank themselves of a 5 but because google has flagged them as a link farm the backlink for your site does not count even though your link is placed on their page and they have page rank.

- When determining how much benefit is passed to your site from a backlink the number of other backlinks on that site will effect how much is passed to you. If you have a link on a page with a page rank of 6 and you are the only link listed verses a backlink to your site on a page with a pagerank of 7 with 15 other links you may actually get more benefit from the page with a pagerank of 6.

Kimberly

[HughMungus]

I don't think the site linking to me is being counted as a link farm (although I would love to know how Google would determine what is a link farm; I hope they're not basing it on theming or a lack, thereof).

[thevoodoo]

At best I would say that Google can not decide on your PR and positioning from only 2 backlinks. You need to have enough backlinks for Google to be able to generalize the links and use it in ranking you appropriately. I am not suggesting that you need thousands of links, but definitely more than two to even start worrying about them showing up or not.

And ofcourse it could be that it is taking longer for one link to be indexed and connected to your website than the other.

[cbpayne]

>At best I would say that Google can not decide on your PR and positioning from only 2 backlinks.

Not true. I have two sites that only have one link to them (they are still being developed) - they have PR and a ranking from that one link

[SlyOldDog]

I had a site a number one for a mildly competitive phrase with a single backlink.

I can also testify the backlink did not show ;)

[MHes]

See Googleguy's post at [webmasterworld.com...]

Fog, Fog and more Fog..... they don't want to make it easy anymore :)

[rfgdxm1]

>At best I would say that Google can not decide on your PR and positioning from only 2 backlinks.

Sure they can. PR is a simple mathematical construct, and I know of many cases where a site has got good PR from just one backlink. While only 2 backlinks may make it hard to rank well on very competitive SERPs, this can be more than enough to get page 1 on less competitive ones.

[HughMungus]

And ofcourse it could be that it is taking longer for one link to be indexed and connected to your website than the other.

But it used to appear and now it does not...not since the recent PR changes...