How to find recent inbound links

[rlopes]

How to find out what sites have recently linked to my site?

Most online tools don't show what inlinks are new or old. I need to know which of the links pointing to my site are relatively new.

[martinibuster]

Most links generate traffic. A daily referrer report generated from your log file or online analytics is a way to spot recent link acquistions.

[rlopes]

We get referrer traffic from over a 1000 sites, making it hard to identify which links are new and which are old.

[piatkow]

Load the results from whatever tool you use into a database - keyed by run date.

[Lame_Wolf]

What is the point of all this ? Does it matter, or make a difference ?

[rlopes]

> piatkow
Thanks for the idea. Although it's a little time expensive it could work.

> Lame_Wolf

There's many reasons why one would use such info.
Just to mention one, I want to know if I have been getting new links since my site redesign, and if they are quality links or not.

[Lame_Wolf]

There's many reasons why one would use such info.

I've been in this game a long time, and I cannot think of (a useful) one.

Just to mention one, I want to know if I have been getting new links since my site redesign, and if they are quality links or not.

A bit of a waste of time, don't you think ?
The time spent doing that could be better spent elsewhere.
If anything, I'd rather know what sites no longer link to me, rather than knowing who is linking due to a redesign. Each to their own I guess.

[rlopes]

> Lame_Wolf

Knowing if the linking to my site has increased or decreased over time can tell if you going in the right direction.

Anyway, what I call a waste of time is asking the reasons why someone makes a request. If you don't know the answer just move on.

[Lame_Wolf]

Knowing if the linking to my site has increased or decreased over time can tell if you going in the right direction.

Precisely,... over time. But you want to know which ones were added since your change. The problem with that is you don't know when the link was added, only when Google etc have picked it up. The link itself could have been added months before your change.

Now, unless you've made your site to become spammy looking, then it would be more beneficial to find out who has dropped your link.

When I link to sites, they have to be related, non-spammy, beneficial to my visitors... not because the site looks nice.

Anyway, what I call a waste of time is asking the reasons why someone makes a request. If you don't know the answer just move on.

I am trying to save you some time and to show that your wants and needs are flawed.

Surely, the other sites will be linking to you because of your content, yes ?
Or have you plastered your site with adverts and now wondering if people will want to link to you ? I maybe wrong, but that what it smells like to me.

[martinibuster]

The problem with that is you don't know when the link was added, only when Google etc have picked it up.

Right, that is what the OP is after. How to get the information before Google decides to show it. It was left unstated (but it should be understood) that Google never shows complete backlink information. The backlink SERPs are only a sample.

I am trying to save you some time and to show that your wants and needs are flawed.

Thanks for your concern but the op has stated a valid reason for monitoring new links, to evaluate the success of changes made to a site. Other reasons are to monitor the continuing success of a site, track the success of a campaign (for example a press release), to spot negative trends, to identify when an important link has been granted so you can bookmark it and crow about it to validate the authority of your site (like a link from NYTimes or an important blog). Some new links are from copyright infringers who link to the infringed site in the belief that the link makes it fair use. It's good to keep an eye on those and kill them ASAP. There are many reasons to monitor new links. I do my best to monitor them as well.

If none of those reasons makes sense then please start a new discussion to probe further. I understand your intentions are to help, but it's not fair to the OP to take the discussion this far off topic. ;)

[Lame_Wolf]

The problem with that is you don't know when the link was added, only when Google etc have picked it up.

Right, that is what the OP is after.

No. The OP said..."How to find out what sites have recently linked to my site?" That link could have been there months before the site changed its look. Which proves nothing about the link was added after the site change.
Hence Flawed.

[Lame_Wolf]

... but the op has stated a valid reason for monitoring new links, to evaluate the success of changes made to a site.

How ?
Without repeating myself yet again, read my previous posts about it.

I for one would be concentrating on other aspects of link building / checking.
My site has been going for years and I cannot remember the look and design of sites that I have linked to. Yes, I do check to see if they still link - if they've gone up or down in PR etc.

The OP was quite specific in their request... what links were added since the change.

If the content hasn't changed, then don't worry about it (unless the site has become spammy). If it has become spammy looking, then concentrate on the old links being removed.

[tangor]

Oddly enough, I do this already, though the data comes from my raw logs (which I dump into an off-line Access database) and run several relational tables against it... one of which is "linkfrom" which contains links to the site AND the first date added to the table. I can then do date calcs, etc... which also alerts me when I HAVEN'T had activity from a known link after 60 days... reminds me to check on that link to see if it still exists.

Use whatever database you like, but you will start with your raw log first, then build out by whatever criteria for your sub-tables (all unique) to do your reporting.

One value is knowing who is linking and HOW LONG IT TAKES G or B or Y to find it, too. But in the long run unless that link is in the big SEs the only value you'll get is learning wehre word of mouth has spread your fame, or your link building success, or how rapidly the scrapers have found YOU.

[Lame_Wolf]

the data comes from my raw logs (which I dump into an off-line Access database) and run several relational tables against it... one of which is "linkfrom" which contains links to the site AND the first date added to the table. I can then do date calcs, etc... which also alerts me when I HAVEN'T had activity from a known link after 60 days... reminds me to check on that link to see if it still exists.

Although not 100% foolproof, that is about the best way to go about it, even if there is a (possible) learning curve to achieve it.