That Proves it, the Yahoo Backlink Checker is Worthless

[Shaunman]

I am building backlinks for a website. In the Yahoo search engine it has moved from page ... well alot to page 1. Bing it moved from page 8 to the top of page 2 and Google page 5 to page 2.

It has clearly been going forward as I build more and more backlinks. So, I decided to see just how many backlinks I have in Yahoo site explorer. 0, Nada, ziltch.

According to Yahoo site explores this site has no backlinks whatsoever, even though I've build a ton of backlinks to it and it appears to have moven up in the rankings. So, it seems like the Yahoo backlink checker is completely worthless, it doesn't show you all the links it knows about. Either that or the SEs just love my site and have ignored all my backlinking.

[lukemeister]

Yeah I'd probably just focus more on looking at your search positioning than number of backlinks, it's the end result your wanting to see anyways - I've been frustrated by the same thing in the past and I finally realized that I should just focus on looking at my rankings to determine how many more links to try to build rather than trying to dig up established backlinks and stuff

[KirkMcD]

Or maybe they haven't updated their database that shows the backlinks and you need to wait.
It takes like six weeks before a backlink shows in Google's Webmaster Tools. There is probably a delay like that for Yahoo, but it is much shorter than Google's.

[MarkAse]

I don't think anyone who has been on this forum for any significant length of time would tell you that YSE is meant to show you the exact number of backlinks for your site. That being said, it does seem to do a good job keeping track of links like those created in our Sig's here, but is incredibly bad at counting stuff like profile links. I think its useful to watch link counts over time

[jasonl70]

well, the links need to be on pages that are crawled/indexed, and just from my own server logs it is quite clear thay yahoo does not crawl anyhwere near as well as google. They may very well not have found those links yet. I know of a lot of sites people use for backlinking (bookmarking site, etc) that are not very well indexed - so backlinks on them are not very likely to be found by spiders.

also, as pointed out, these tools are not real time.

I have had sites show the same pattern as yours - w/o any backlinking at all. simply onpage seo, and se's gradually bumping it up in the serp's.

[MervikHaums]

Originally Posted by KirkMcD

Or maybe they haven't updated their database that shows the backlinks and you need to wait.
It takes like six weeks before a backlink shows in Google's Webmaster Tools. There is probably a delay like that for Yahoo, but it is much shorter than Google's.

Yeah, yahoo site explorer is far better than Google's for checking the backlinks. You must check again after I think. But mostly it should be updated quickly. Are you sure that your created backlinks are there still?? May be it take some time to get indexed.!

[evertd]

Did you check for links correctly? If you enter site:mysite.com in yahoo, and click the links button, make sure the 2nd dropdown says "Entire Site" and not "Only this URL".

For example, is you built all your link to www.mysite.com and you check for mysite.com, the default setting in yahoo won't show any links.

[Shaunman]

Did you check for links correctly? If you enter site:mysite.com in yahoo, and click the links button, make sure the 2nd dropdown says "Entire Site" and not "Only this URL".

For example, is you built all your link to www.mysite.com and you check for mysite.com, the default setting in yahoo won't show any links.

Yup I know, I also know that for some reason if you click on page #9 on yahoo site explorer your link count goes up. I've tried that on a few sites and thought it was interesting.

But it is kind of irrelevent here, because it still shows no links.

[JustinDupre]

You should write them an email or check it again in a few days. I'm sure there must be an error or some sort of technical problem from yahoo.

[lexilexi]

Did you check both with and without the "www." in Yahoo site explorer? You'll get a completely different set of results with and without. You might find all your links in the www. version.

[GuerrillaIM]

I usually see links turn up in yahoo within 3 weeks. If your building profile pages on spammed out sites though you may never see these appear without some extra work.

If they don't turn up in yahoo link checker then the chances are they are not indexed. Check the page holding the link is indexed.

[adam westrop]

Yahoo never shows all my links, yet they are indexed in Google and that is all I care about, dont care about Yahoo or Bing... Google is where the traffic is and will be for a long time yet... There aint a Google beater on the market yet and that includes Bing!

[MarkAse]

Agree on Yahoo. We've been on the first page of Yahoo for about a month for some significant terms in the wine industry without any significant results. As soon as we moved into the top 5 on Google, the sales started coming in almost instantly.

[~kev~]

Hold old is this site?
Do you have a yahoo site explorer account? Or are you just using it without logging in?
How many backlinks does your google webmaster tools show?


From my personal experience, yahoo picks up a lot more links then google does. If this site is only 1 - 4 months old, come back in 6 months and report your results then.

[Shaunman]

Hold old is this site?
Do you have a yahoo site explorer account? Or are you just using it without logging in?
How many backlinks does your google webmaster tools show?


From my personal experience, yahoo picks up a lot more links then google does. If this site is only 1 - 4 months old, come back in 6 months and report your results then.

The site is actually pretty old, well over the 1-4 month range. I don't have a google webmaster account or a yahoo site explorer account. Not sure if the results will be much different.

Unless the results are vastly different after you login then I still think the yahoo site explorer is worthless. I have seen stuff like this happen before.

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by Shaunman

I don't have a google webmaster account or a yahoo site explorer account.

Then I suggest you create yourself a yahoo site explorer and google webmaster tools account - their both free services.

[Wakunahum]

It's far from worthless. There are many things you can learn from what backlinks that it does show. Even if it shows 0 now it will show more later.

You can at least use it to find what some of the links that your competitors have to make sure you at least get those backlinks. That's something that is valuable.

[Shaunman]

Then I suggest you create yourself a yahoo site explorer and google webmaster tools account - their both free services

I added my site to Yahoo site explorer, it gives me the same results as the regular backlink search.

I'm just tired of caring about what these backlink tools say. As long as what I am doing is moving me higher in the rankings that is all that matters.

[charto911]

just a thought but maybe you put the searcch into site explorer wrong...you know wrong parameters

[Shaunman]

just a thought but maybe you put the searcch into site explorer wrong...you know wrong parameters

Like how? I checked link:MyURL in yahoo. In site explorer I just clicked the explore button. Both seem to disregard a lot of backlinks.

[livemusic]

I have had more trouble with google showing links which I know exist. Yahoo always shows more for me.