Google Link building

Which links are relevant

[jambula]

Hi ,

i am wondering how you can find out which link or all your links are the links which Google uses .

any suggestions ?

Regards

Malcolm

[dertyfern]

Hi jambula,

There's no definitive way of knowing which links are passing value. As a general rule, easily had links from forums, blog comments, many social networking site will pass little if any value.

Links from websites that appear to have trustworthy attributes are what you want to acquire.

Obviously, recognizing 'trust' and when a site has the potential to offer it is key. There's no clear cut, magical way to determine this so this is where common sense comes into play. Sites that are relevant and leaders in your niche will likely have trust, so those are the one's you want to gain links from.

[webboy1]

I took a slightly different view of what was being asked, thinking more that @jambula was looking for a way to find which links Google is recognising.

I find Google Webmaster Tools is a good way to do this. You can of course use 'link:domain.com', but it doesn't show all links. I'm not sure Google Webmaster Tools shows all links either, but from what I've ever seen, it certainly shows more.

I've a new site I'm working on for a client and we've only started link building in the last couple of weeks. The Link:domain.com function still shows 0 links to site, but Webmaster Tools is recognising a few.

[dertyfern]

I'm not sure Google Webmaster Tools shows all links either

Not in my experience.

I think links being reported on and recognized are distinct:

- Reported on links can be found using link operators.

- Recognized, that's the tough part.

[jambula]

Thanks guy this was most helpful

[martinibuster]

I find Google Webmaster Tools is a good way to do this.

Google never shows what links it is using to rank a site. Google never has and it currently does not. Google has always displayed backlinks, but they have always been a sample, which means they are including links that don't count.

The links shown in GWT include links that are not counting toward ranking. The answer to the OP is no, there is no way to find which links Google is using to rank a site.

[aristotle]

I think Google uses several factors to evaluate a link:

1. Is it dofollow or nofollow?

2. Is it from a page with related content?

3. Is it from an established trusted site?

4. What is the anchor text?

5. How old is the link? (Possibly its perceived value gradually declines over time)

[wheel]

5. How old is the link? (Possibly its perceived value gradually declines over time)

Last year all the hoopla was that link values increase over time.

I've no idea which it is, if either, but we should make some small effort to seperate out complete speculation.

If I had to guess, given what I've seen in the last couple of weeks in the rankings, it is old links = better links (because I'm seeing some really old sites bubbling up).

[JS_Harris]

Hi , i am wondering how you can find out which link or all your links are the links which Google uses. any suggestions ?

Hi Malcolm, I have a suggestion. Copy one of your page titles and paste it into a google search box. Your page should be #1 unless it's a competitive term, the other 9 are the pages on which you want a link pointing to your page. It doesn't happen often. If your best link to that page is from a page ranked #100 for example there are 99 pages ahead of it that could possibly carry more value.

Talk about reverse engineering the serps huh? :-)