Google backlink numbers are changing

[myk02]

Google backlinks update has been started, I noticed some -ve change in the BL of my website. Does any else has noticed some thing +ve or -ve with their websites?

[tedster]

Before we go to the races here, let's note two things:

1. The update of either backlinks or PR is a reporting update ONLY. Neither update affects rankings, but they may disclose more information to you about ranking changes you've already seen.

2. PR updates are not the same as backlink updates. PR is update about 4 times a year, and backlinks a good bit more frequently.

Also, backlinks reported publicly via the link: operator will be significantly less complete than backlinks reported privately in your Google Webmaster Tools account. I assume this post is talking about the link: operator, correct?

[pontifex]

Confirmed, just saw backlinks to a quite new domain of mine.

[unofficialseoguy]

Yep, I can see it too.
We have some sites whose PR has went down and for some its same.

[Seochennai]

No.of Back links +ve increased for my site but no update in pr both toolbar and datacenters

[stevelibby]

my links also updated last night, but have gone back to normal.

[rustybrick]

Are you looking at the numbers of links reported in Google Webmaster Central Tools?

[stevelibby]

im looking at link:domain.com

[Bewenched]

It's so strange to see the difference it what google reports publically via
link:www.site.com
vs
what it shows in webmaster tools.

From what I see the link sthey show publically are the least valuable

[Rlilly]

>From what I see the link sthey show publically are the least valuable

I dont find that to be true, some of the best links to my site, for example: from Apple, Adobe and others are showing publically. I am convinced that Google just shows a bunch of random links from the operator.

[thecityofgold2005]

the visible data is largely irrelevant as it is months out of date and innacurate.

[edited by: tedster at 6:20 pm (utc) on Aug. 6, 2007]

[tedster]

Yes, Google shows a shifting "sample" of backlinks in the link: operator results, and there seems to be little pattern to how that sample is collected. On some sites with thousands of backlinks, it can show zero. Sometimes the most important backlinks are there and sometimes they are not.

You can't use this data for much more than sideshow entertainment. Possibly learning a few of the sites where your competition has backlinks might help, once in a while, but I'd rather go elsewhere for more complete link data.

[SEOold]

Google Webmaster tool reports backlinks to be down from previous month for my site.

[cabowabo]

Its been three months since the last Toolbar PR update, so if memory serves correct, the backlinks get updated first, then the Toolbar update comes. While it is purely a sideshow as Tedster pointed out, it is the most entertainment we get as SEOs, so we tend to go a little overboard watching the sideshow.

Anybody up for creating a 12-step program to combat "Green Bar Addiction"?

[tedster]

Backlinks get updated much more often than the Toolbar PR, cabowabo, sometimes as frequently as once a month. Sometimes the two "updates" coincide roughly in time, but more often they do not. I doubt very much that there's a technical connection.

[stevelibby]

i have noticed that a few of pages of my site that for some reason lost rank a while back have come back with this current g swing