Link: example.com - what is the correct syntax?

[member22]

Hi,

I tried to see how many links my website had but I am not sure exactly what to type in google ?

is it

link:www.example.com
link: www.example.com
links:example.com

I am lost as I get different results for the number of links and webpages everytime... sometimes it shows me pages where my domain name is written as text but no links, sometimes links etc...

which one is the right one to use and with spaces or no spaces ?

and by the way isn't there something more accurate to check my links out than this command because I don't find it very accurate ?

Thank you,
Mike

[edited by: tedster at 5:59 pm (utc) on Nov. 19, 2008]
[edit reason] switch to example.com - it can never be owned [/edit]

[Receptional Andy]

The correct syntax is:

link:example.com

If you include spaces, use links or even have a different letter case then you are searching for the words, rather than triggering the link operator.

[member22]

Thank you andy,

But I still got a question when I do link:example.com let's say I have real links on 20 websites throughout the internet, I only see 5 of those website / webpages where I have links appear when I search with the link:example.com ?

why is that ? why don't all the websites where I have real links appear ?

are the sites where I created links not good websites ?

I am asking that because I read that if you have a link on a website that already has hundreds of links google doesn't count it has important as a link on a website that only has 5 links ? is that true and would that be why some of the pages where I have links it don't appear when I type the link command ?

Thank you,

[Receptional Andy]

If you take a look at the Google Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com] and the forum library [webmasterworld.com] there are quite a few discussions on the subject. See for instance Google link: operator FAQ [webmasterworld.com]

Essentially, it's just a "sample" of links and is not indicative of links that Google actually value.