Forum Moderators: martinibuster
All the backlinks I am *expecting* to find credited to my site are *not* using rel="nofollow" - they should be good, juicy links.
Yet Google isn't acknowledging any of those links.
To wit: NO links are found when I search for my domain (example.com) using Google's link option... "link:www.example.com"
What are some possible reasons for this?
But I've also used a 3rd party backlink analyzer which gives a more comprehensive return and it also shows that although my site is indexed, Google isn't acknowledging any quality links to it.
I'm *positive* the pages that have the backlinks are cached by Google. And *positive* the links aren't using rel="nofollow". Other sites with backlinks from the same site / page seem to get the Google nod. But not my site.
Any suggestions for what could be happening, or what can I do to get those backlinks acknowledged? Is it just... wait and see?
All the backlinks I am *expecting* to find credited to my site are *not* using rel="nofollow"
Now some 'webmasters' are starting to get tricky and showing rel="nofollow" to SE's but not to human traffic. (cloaking)
But I guess if they are cached as nofollow you should be ok on that angle.
I've just used Google's webmaster tools as well as the analogous service on Yahoo, and I now see all the backlinks I expected to see. But I'm still wondering if I'm actually getting any link juice from those backlinks.
The cause of my doubt: I'm using a 3rd party backlink analyzer. One of the result categories is "Links to Website in Google". While both Google and Yahoo show several backlinks, the results here say "Although the website is in Google's index, they aren't acknowledging any quality links to it." I'd chalk that up to the tool just not being 100% accurate, but I'm not sure...
If both Google and Yahoo's tools report quality, relevant backlinks from higher PR sites, that means my site should be getting some level of endorsement by those sites, right? Or could Google and Yahoo have those links indexed but for some reason still withhold the link juice from me?
I know it's a rambling thread... end of a long nighter here. Sorry.
[edited by: martinibuster at 5:14 pm (utc) on Jan. 8, 2008]
[edit reason] Removed link and reference. See TOS. [/edit]
Or could Google and Yahoo have those links indexed but for some reason still withhold the link juice from me?
Yes, its quite possible for them to know about the link but decline to pass any value across it.
those #*$!s ;)
erm... seriously, that is rather troubling. If that is indeed the case, what can I do to "convince" them (googe, yahoo) to treat me kinder? Increase my PR? ....
It seems like a catch-22: I need some quality link juice to up my PR (one method, at least), but I'm denied the value of quality backlinks I do have b/c google deems my site not worthy, which can only be rectified by increasing my PR. And so the cycle begins... How do I get off?
So, generally, its not *your site* as the link recipient that is the problem, but the site sending the link.
So, not much you can do, apart from Get More Links, in the hopes that some will pass value.
:(
This is very general advise, too - it might not be at all relevant to your situation.
How old are these links? It can take some time for them to start working, sometimes.
Oh, you say they are cached. That's a start.
Generally they only decline to put value on links if:
- the sending site is no good (but thats normal 0 PR)
- they think the link is bought
- they think other links on the site are bought, so this one might be too
thanks for the clarification. I don't think any of those situations apply to these sites, as all are well qualified, relevant, and free links and several of the sites have very good PR. A couple are social, networking sites and the links are actually on my profile page. But none of the sites sell links that I'm aware of.
And yes the sites / links are all showing as cached. Some are several months old. So it is strange... I'd keep looking for new, quality backlinks regardless but it seems strange that I'm not seeing any juice here from the few dozen links I already have.
I'm not sure how you 'know' you're not getting juice from these backlinks. If they are indeed quality links, then you will get the juice unless those sites have rel="nofollow" on the links.
zydo is right. And I'll expand on his thoughts. The only way you can KNOW that your links are working is if you experience a jump in rankings. There is no other way to KNOW the links are working, period. If there is no movement at all then your links either don't have sufficient power or they are not working at all.
Number one rule: You can never use search engines as an SEO tool, and that includes SEO Tool site results, which come from search engines. They're all useless. Search engines limit their results so you can't use them for accurate SEO reasons. Stop depending on what search engines tell you.
We discussed this just a few days ago.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Please review that discussion.
