Different Kinds Of Links.

could some of my 'reciprocal' be 'nofollow'?

[Pinchy]

Hi there,

I'm very green with the website thing so please be gentle.

In my Google Webmaster Tools, I have over 800 external links - some of which are reciprocal ones that are with complementary sites. However, if you type in link:www.mysitename.com, only 29 links come up - and none of my 'reciprocal' ones.

Any suggestions as to why this discrepancy? Does this mean the links are 'nofollow' and doesn't that defeat the purpose of a reciprocal link?

Many thanks in advance.

[jimbeetle]

It's just that the link: operator has never given a complete or even near complete list of backlinks. Webmaster Tools is the best overview of what links to your site Google knows about. (And Google does include nofollowed links in WMT.)