Back links in altavista but not google?

[leelee]

Can someone explain why sites have backlinks in altavista and yahoo but none in google?

Thanks

 

[Arleigh]

That's because search engines have different algorithms or criteria for counting backlinks.

 

[marka]

Also depends on how you are looking at the backlinks - are you using Google Webmaster tools? Sometimes Yahoo Site Explorer shows backlinks then some time later (maybe days) they show up in Webmaster tools.

 

[leelee]

Thanks for both these replies, is google webmaster tools for use on your own sites only?

Reason i ask is iv been trying to find sites that have expired with lots of backlinks and that's how i discovered the difference with altavista and google.

I also discovered that just because a site has 200+ backlinks doesn't mean it has pagerank!

 

[marka]

By coincidence this thread has just started by someone who has a tool for doing what you ask:

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/uk-ex...ts/47721-1749-domains-dropped-10-02-09-a.html

 

[leelee]

Thanks for that.

 

[ddwebguru]

Google focuses more on relevancy while taking into account the number of backlinks of a website whereas Yahoo is not as powerful as Google and inevitabley it shows more backlinks than Google.

 

[Arleigh]

Google also gives more value on relevant backlinks from dofollow sites. But other search engines like yahoo still count nofollow links as backlinks.