Best Backlink counter?

[Jason Perez O'Connor]

When I was reading over one of the forum posts I came across people who check competitions backlink count.

I figure most of the tools out there can't give you exact results and google simply wont tell us the right amount, but what tools have you guys found to be more accurate and easy to use.

Or which do you prefer?

Thanks, Jay.

[aaron_nimocks]

Yahoo is the tool to use for checking backlink count. They track/update really quick.

[Jason Perez O'Connor]

could you link me to the tool please?

Thanks, Jay.

[bloggirl75]

I don't know if there is an exact tool, but when you go to the Yahoo search engine, look up the backlinks to your site by putting the following in: site:yoursite.com

[Strange]

This is the tool your after...

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

[Jason Perez O'Connor]

brilliant, got it :P

[Forest_Parks]

I use SEO elite for various backlink tasks such as counting backlinks from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and Alta Vista... Also it can look at common backlinks between say the top 20 phrases for a keyword and a few other cool things like that.

[khtm]

The problem with any backlink counter that I've seen is they NEVER show all your backlinks, just a sample of them.

Google had one that would show them all like 5 years ago but then they realized they were basically handing over the recipe for SERP to everyone's competition. So it's no longer available.

So while these sites are useful to see where some of your backlinks are coming from, they're not useful for tracking total counts.

That being said, I do use both of these tools:
- Yahoo Site Explorer
- Backlink Watch (shows a bit more useful details like anchor text and outbound links)

[Slin]

I second everyone who put yahoo. by far the most accurate from my findings.

[Jason Perez O'Connor]

Yeah i figured none would deliver exact results, but being able to get close estimates still helps better than nothing.

Thanks for all the help.

[khurram84]

now we've got better tools. To get a more accurate backlink count you have a couple of options.

1. Sign up for a Google account and go the the webmaster tools. You will first need to verify you own the account. Then you can access a number of important items like web crawl errors, statistics, and links. Just use the link tab to see a much more detailed view of backlinks.
2. You can use Yahoo's Site Explorer. Yahoo's site explorer is a great little tool to figure out just who is linking to someone without going through the hoops of signing up with Google and verifying you own a domain.

It seems that Google is a little nervous about letting "everyone" know how many backlinks their competitors have. However, since they've added "links" to the webmaster tools, maybe they'll start increasing the accuracy of the link: operator. After the great success of Yahoo's Site Explorer, maybe they'll have to. Only time will tell.

[joetheseo]

If you use Chrome i HIGHLY recommend this extension!

https://chrome.google.com/extensions...gpdceadpfaoclj


If can count backlinks and do several other cool SEO related tasks. Makes it really simple to spy on any website I want hehe

[janeycotley]

I've been using backlinkwatch

[Shaikat]

Searchengineginnie.com is a great tool to track your keywords position and back links.

thanks.

[XtremXpert]

I use Traffic Travis, still only the free version but is a really great software, thinking to buy the full one in the future

[jackwebson]

You can download the SEO Quake Toolbar. It has many useful SEO plugins including backlinks counter.

[Ferenc Makar]

Majestic SEO is one of the best link intelligence tools available to website owners today and the best part is that it's free. Majestic SEO: Site Explorer