We get quite a lot of questions about backlinks from our customers, and we point them at a couple of sites that can be used to check on these. What they are surprised about is that it isn’t possible to use Google to check on these. Although the link: command does work at Google, the number of results it returns has been consistently decreasing.
Explaining this peculiarity to a customer is always interesting, because they are so used to Google being top dog; it is almost alien for them to go anywhere else for information. We have to account for Google’s crippling of this functionality.
The exact reason that Google has hobbled this command is not entirely clear. Educated guesses would be that:
(a) Automated checking puts load on Google’s servers, so reducing the functionality encourages these not to be used
(b) Wanting you to set up Google Webmaster Tools, where the information is displayed, but only to site owners/managers.
Of course, the Webmaster Tools access means that webmasters do have visibility for seeing this information. It still probably isn’t entirely up to the minute data (it used to be approximately monthly) but it at least tells you where Google thinks your links are from. Likewise, Google Webmaster Tools tells you the keyphrases that are used to link to your site. This is useful, but isn’t quantified, e.g. it won’t tell you how many (or what percentage of sites) are linking with specific anchor text. You also can’t tell which site is linking with which phrase.
Perhaps the worst thing about the de-valued link: command that I have come across recently is unscrupulous SEO salespeople using it to try to sell to customers by saying “Google says you only have 8 backlinks”. Ignorance or misinformation?
