4 replies to this topic

[GaryBradshaw]

When I look at Google for my site to see how many inbound links they give me credit for I see two differant numbers depending on what I enter:

link:http://domain.com - returns 40
&
link:www.domain.com - returns 201

So which format of the domain will Google use to determine IBL's

Thanks

[chrishirst]

If you 301 non-www to the www version it won't matter.

But if those numbers are representative (which they more than likely aren't) the www should take precedence. However you then need to take into account the importance that Google puts on the pages with the backlinks and to a lesser degree the importance of the prior links to those pages etc etc. So the non-www could be the one.

In other words take your best guess and it may be closer. So meanwhile back at the first line of this post

[Jill]

So which format of the domain will Google use to determine IBL's

Looking at Google's inbound links command in and of itself tells you nothing. Use other search engines to determine your inbound links because Google's doesn't work.

[Michael Martinez]

When I look at Google for my site to see how many inbound links they give me credit for I see two differant numbers depending on what I enter:

link:http://domain.com - returns 40
&
link:www.domain.com - returns 201

So which format of the domain will Google use to determine IBL's

Thanks

Use this query string to see how many sites referencing your own Google knows about:

"www.domain.com/"

You will get more than inbound linkage, but most of it usually is inbound linkage (and for most sites it all tends to be inbound linkage).

Google now recommends this method.

Using other search engines to check your linkage only gives you an approximation of what Google may find. It won't tell you anything about what Google actually has found. But if you see 1,000 links on Yahoo! (for example), then it is reasonable to infer that Google should know about several hundred of them.

If you see only a few dozen links on Yahoo!, then Google may not know about any of them.

[Ron Carnell]

I think this is actually the only instance where Google's link: command returns useful information.

link:highrankings.com

link:www.highrankings.com

Two different URLs that return exactly the same backlinks in exactly the same order is either an amazing coincidence or an indication that Google recognizes that the two URLs are identical. You'll see this happen for a redirected URL relatively quickly in Google, but it'll also eventually happen on parked or otherwise aliased URLs. In my opinion, this is the flip-side of the duplicate content filters. I believe it suggests that not only is one of the URLs filtered when dup content is detected, but Google also merges the link credits, much as it does for a 301 redirect. I've just never quite got around to testing that theory.

Ultimately, Gary, I think the question "So which format of the domain will Google use to determine IBL's?" is meaningless because, essentially, Google with use both -- since it sees the two URLs as two different domains. You apparently haven't told Google they're not (with a 301 redirect), and Google hasn't yet figured it out for itself.