How Do You Check For Incoming Links?
A little reminder of three posts on DennisEdell.com and an EASY $300 on EasyCashContests 
.
Now I’m not asking about all those cool little SEO tools, that give you all the numbers and such. Instead, lets say you turn on your computer each morning and wish to see who’s linking to you…what do you use?
I’ve heard some say they just use the dashboard: 
(Highlighted to the right.)
I however have come to realize recently that this method can be quite ineffective…three reasons I see for this:
1. It shows your comments on do follow blogs; useless for these purposes.
2. It shows sites where you are top commenter; again useless for these purposes.
3. This morning mine shows this site as linking to me. 1 Million PayPal to the first to explain that to me.
Some use Google alerts as well, although I haven’t set any up yet.
Please enlighten us oh link swami’s, how do YOU check to see who’s linking to you?
Bowing to your graciousness,
Dennis
Buy a site-wide link while it’s empty and reap the rewards!
Related posts:
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Tags: Easy Cash Contests, google, Google Alerts, Link Stategies, seo
Jaq @ Net Age Web Design
Kev
Latief@AnotherBlogger
sherry
December 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I use Yahoo’s Site Explorer at
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
Mike Collins´s last blog post..Will You Get Sued For Something You Post On Your Blog?
December 8th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“link:url” in search engines will do.
Google Webmaster Tools.
Yahoo Site Explorer.
Probably the most effective is just looking at your stats. If you’ve got an important inbound link it will show in your traffic as it will send some new visitors…
HowToMakeMyBlog.com´s last blog post..10 Simple Steps To Increase Blog Traffic Via StumbleUpon
December 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
This is a pretty handy tool for checking your backlinks also tells if they are no follow and the link title used.
http://www.backlinkwatch.com/index.php
December 8th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
For my blog, I just look at my WP Stats for now. For my website, I use http://tools.marketleap.com though I’m not so sure how good it is.
Matty Byloos Reply:
January 21st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
@Carla, that was a helpful tool! Do you know how accurate, or how often it is updated with data?
Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: 1.21.09
December 8th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
“that site” is using your burger image and link to it. that’s how you get the backlink.
I guess you owe me 1M now
Acakadut - Free Blog!´s last blog post..san diego news
December 8th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Hi Dennis. This the first time I’m commenting on your blog.
As for checking your backlinks, I suggest you use SEOPro’s link checker.
All the best.
Ganesh.
Ganesh - Online Bull´s last blog post..Pros and Cons of Being a Young Internet Marketer
December 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
wordpress tools just works fine with me..
December 8th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Google it with link:
Arun´s last blog post..Google Friend Connect Launched
December 8th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
am sorry, content missed in the above comment! you may want to Google with link:http://directsaleswebmarketing.com
Arun´s last blog post..Google Friend Connect Launched
December 9th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Nothing beats the power of Google alert to check any incoming links. Not only it alerts who is linking to me, it does tell me who is talking about me, my blog or any particular subjects of my interest.
All is done real time - almost immediately right into my inbox. So don’t ever say anything behind my back…
Yan
Blog for Beginners´s last blog post..Duplicate Content: Penalty or Policy?
December 9th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I use google alerts and also links: at yahoo and both google.
I heard that it is important to have more inbound links than outbound but have really to take note of mine at my site
Dominique´s last blog post..Learning to read(Part 2) - the A-Z way
December 9th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I use google alert using my target keyword to see others that related to me
revenue´s last blog post..Marketing Strategies Using Social Media
December 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Acakadut - thanks! How does $5 per month sound?
Since I don’t see a contact page, and they might not understand me anyway, it looks like I may have to turn someone into Google.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Ganesh - welcome aboard! I hope you like what you see, and stick around a while.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Thanks everyone for the feedback. It looks like Google alerts might do the trick.
The others seem good if I wanted to see HOW MANY backlinks I have and what not…as described in the beginning, this isn’t what I’m looking for for these purposes.
I just want something simple that I can click on to see who’s linking to me “now”…so I can follow the link and thank them….something like that.
Know what I mean?
December 9th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Yan - is that a dare buddy?
LOL
Hit me up on Skype when you get a chance please.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Revenue - what do you do to find those that don’t use you keyword(s)…which I would think happens more often then not?
December 9th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Dominique - true to a point, but don’t underestimate the power of outgoing links either.
Check out my Link Strategy Tips category for a couple articles, with more to come.
December 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Google link: has a 100 link minimum and page rank 4 minimum for links. A lesson to anyone who knows they don’t have backlinks but none show up using the Google search.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Huh, that should say, anyone knows they DO have backlinks. Many a website owner has been discouraged by the lack of results using link: in Google.
SEO Wordsmith´s last blog post..The Age of a URL and SEO
December 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I use a combination of Technorati, Wordpress dashboard and Yahoo site explorer to check who’s linking to me. Also, links that are worth it I receive traffic from them so I see them in my Analytics stats
Ben Tremblay´s last blog post..Right, contest is over: did you win?
December 9th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I use the Google toolbar, an SEO toolbar, the Wordpress dashboard, Technorati, and Google Alerts. So many tools, sometimes so little time.
~ Kristi
Kikolani | Poetry, Photography, Blogging Tips´s last blog post..Photos Taken with my LG CU920
December 9th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Dennis,
Google Alerts is probably the best for what you want. You may want to do both your web address and your name.
For those above that mentioned Google’s “link:” operator, that gives you a greatly reduced list of what Google knows about. I think the Wordpress dashboard uses this, so your not learning of all the links you have.
Ned Carey´s last blog post..The Power of Positive Thinking
December 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Site Explorer is my first choice. I actually just wrote a program that uses the site explorer API and, at least in my completely unbiased opinion :), makes sifting through all the links a lot more manageable and easier.
I plan on releasing it at some point, but I keep on coming up with more features I want to add.
Tiger´s last blog post..New Injectable Bone Cement Might Make Bone Grafts Unnecessary
December 9th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I track incoming links under the WP dashboard or Technorati. Its easy and I guess user friendly.
Wei Liang
Wei Liang | ABloggerBlog´s last blog post..Lesson 20: Blog Contest
December 9th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
@Dennis:
You always have the nicest things to say about me that I worry none. Hey, compliment goes into the alert too.
You know what? It’s kinda easy for any new blogger to get my attention nowadays. I’ve spilled the beans so what comes next is their choice….
Yan
Blog for Beginners´s last blog post..Duplicate Content: Penalty or Policy?
December 10th, 2008 at 5:21 am
cool post. first time commenter
I am gunna check out Google alert, never heard of that before. I use Google Analytics right now, but I have used Mint for checking backlinks before and that worked great.
Wynter Jones´s last blog post..SiteFlipRockstar Beginner Checklist
December 10th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I agree with Yan and Allan, Google Alerts are fantastic. Setup alerts for your name, company name, URL, slogan and anything else that directly relates to you. Google will alert you even if it’s not a link. For those that may not be familiar with alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts Be careful, don’t setup an alert with a very common name like ‘Joe’ or you will instantly become overwhelmed with emails.
You can also keep up with your niche be setting up an alert like ‘direct sales marketing’.
Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog post..Just Ask Someone
December 10th, 2008 at 9:37 am
SEO - what do you mean by, “page rank 4 minimum for links”? I have NONE yet my links show in Google.
Interesting on the 100 link minimum though.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Ben - I’m not sure how to use Technorati for incoming links?
December 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Kristi - where does the Google toolbar show incoming links? Also, which SEO toolbar do you use?
December 10th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Tiger - me envious lol, I could never do that. If you can’t stop the flow of ideas, perhaps a free and premium version
Of course a free premium version for the one that conjured the idea
LOL
December 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
LOL Yan, although I’m not a new blogger persay (don’t let the date on this one fool ya
), I totally get what ya mean. 
December 10th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Wynter - welcome to the community! I hope to see you around more
What’s Mint?
December 10th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Brian - thanks for the tips and warning. It does look like alerts is th one for me.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Well up until now I simply used link: on google, but realize some of the limitations on that from reading the comments here. The link checker on SEOPro seems to work nice. I guess I’ll use that one from now on. Thanks for the info.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Welcome to the community Job! I’m glad you found the info useful, and hope to see you around more often.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
hi Dennis,
Damn! I clicked through to that website, found the In-and-Out hamburger picture with a link to your site, and was already to collect one million dollars… then I read your comments. Someone beat me to it!
I think your post points out the limitations of the wordpress dashboard link notices. If you uncover the secrets to knowing about meaningful new incoming links, I’d appreciate if you could write a new post about it. It would be good information to have, and based on the number of comments on this post, people would like to know!
~ Steve, aka the now-hungry-for-in-and-out trade show guru
Steve | Trade Show Guru´s last blog post..Trade Show Secrets
December 10th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
RE: link PR. It’s generally thought that Google doesn’t include links that are PR 4 or better, but this can be lower ranks as well. At the very least, the backlink has to be at a PR equal to or greater than your site. That’s my understanding.
SEO Wordsmith´s last blog post..The Age of a URL and SEO
December 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Steve - yea buddy, U see lots of bloggers say they use the dashboard…unless I’m really missing something big time, I just don’t get it.
Now if I am missing something, someone please tell me; I’m in my blogs everyday as it is and that would certainly be simplest. LOL
I don’t really understand what you mean but, “If you uncover the secrets to knowing about meaningful new incoming links”?
December 10th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
SEO - OK then that makes a lot more sense. I read it backwards as saying the link had to be a minimum of PR4, which made no sense at all. LOL
December 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
First of all lmao@ that Italian site that is linking to you. Not sure what the heck that is.
This is one example where there is certainly more than one way to skin a cat. One way will be to go to Yahoo and do a query for linkdomain:domain.com -site:domain.com this will leave out any internal links on your site. The best way however will be to use. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools. This a great for many other things as well. I have a relevant post if anyone would like any more information on Google Webmaster Tools
Gerald Weber´s last blog post..10 Rules the Best Online Copywriters Follow
December 11th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Obviously I’m a Google Analytics guy, but you know I’ve also posted some other sites on my blog that will give you some of those same types of stats. However, I stick with the big one for the most part. I’ve never really thought much about the dashboard, to tell you the truth.
As for that site linking to you, the domain name translation is “to always gain money”, so I could see the relationship there.
I’ll take my million in cash lol
Mitch´s last blog post..Two Software Issues
December 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Gerald - those tools are awesome for checking link and other stats for other purposes. i think for my basic needs here though, they are far too “general”; if vthat makes sense. LOL
December 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Mitch - so sorry my friend, but the million goes to the one above that noticed the illegal hot-link to one of my pics.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I’m claiming favoritism!
Mitch´s last blog post..Time Is Always A Factor
December 12th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I don’t actively check who is linking to me. Sure I may glance at the dashboard occasionally but I don;t go there just to see if I have someone new linking to me.
Sire´s last blog post..The Wayward Blogger Returns From Sydney
December 12th, 2008 at 6:11 am
There are several blog tools that tell you which blogs have a link to your blog. The best known of these tools are Technorati.
If you have the Google Toolbar installed, you can check your highest quality backlinks through it. Note that I say the highest quality ones. Google only reports incoming links from web pages of PageRank 4 or higher.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I use Yahoo Site Explorer, Google Alerts, SEO Backlink checker and Google Webmaster Tools.
I do not check too often with tools because it is against Google Webmaster Policy to use auto software and it can get you banned, Site Explorer and G Alerts are always safe.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s last blog post..Link Building - 7 More Do-Follow Social Sites
December 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Oh Mitch, don’t whine! OK though, since I don’t want unhappy readers you get a second chance for a half mil; fair?
Just tell me how a mere translation of a phrase can show as a link without actually being a link?
December 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Sire - if I may be so bold, that’s not too nice (and a little selfish)
Someone takes the time to say “hey” in one form or another, and it doesn’t matter?
December 12th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Cheap - welcome aboard!
A great tool for checking overall linkage, but too wide spread for my simple needs here.
(Please use a real name somewhere in future comments.)
December 12th, 2008 at 9:55 am
JR - Yep it definitely looks like alerts is the next thing I need to learn to use.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Nope, don’t understand the question. I mean, the link took me to another page, so I’m missing it.
No matter; I’ll just lament missing my million dollars for a second time in my life. Ask me one day to tell you about the day I hit the jackpot in Canada.
Mitch´s last blog post..Two Software Issues
December 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
@ Dennis,
Yeah try it out, it takes one second to sign up and it’s pretty cool!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s last blog post..Link Building - 7 More Do-Follow Social Sites
December 12th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
@ Mitch - Umm yea, I don’t think I wanna know. LOL
@ JR - Another post coming in regards to Google alerts alone, stay tuned!
December 12th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I used WP stats for my blog and for my homepage http://www.urlfan.com/
Peter Lee
work at home ideas´s last blog post..100 Subscribers For Work From Home Business Blog
December 13th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Hey Peter, urlfan looks nifty, thanks for the tip!
December 14th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Hello Dennis,
I use Online-utility.org, mentioned it on my post: http://norhafidz.com/the-best-incantations-for-google/
It is pretty accurate as far as I am concern.
Norhafidz´s last blog post..The Ultimate Blog Contest
December 14th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Cool tool Norhafidz, thanks for the tip!
December 15th, 2008 at 5:01 am
I don’t know. That’s sort of like screaming hi as your running by. I’d much prefer they stop for a chat. Heck, even a trackback would be preferred, and it would at least get me to pay them a visit.
Sire´s last blog post..Increase Return Commentators With A Simple Plugin
December 15th, 2008 at 9:33 am
A chat must start with a “hello” and any noticeable link can do that. Trackbacks are preferred if applicable.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
The thing Dennis is that they are assuming that people check who are linking to them and obviously not everybody does that. It’s like someone talking behind your back hoping that your eavesdropping. I much prefer they tap me on the shoulder to get my attention.
Sire´s last blog post..So, Have You Been Stumbled Or Not?
December 30th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
A great tool to use is Firefox’s SEOquake which you can find as an “add-on”
download it and install… activate it when you’re on your site and it will give you all the backlinks that google reads, yahoo reads, pr, and a bunch of crap you don’t need.
Goodluck
December 31st, 2008 at 11:43 am
True Air, I do use it for links in other ways, but for my simple needs here, that’s ay to broad.
Thanks for the input and welcome to the community!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Haha. I use url fan, google alerts, manual Google search, technorati, and Google Webmaster Tools.
If you have a blog, and are linked to by other blogs, its easier to check for incoming links than for ’static’ websites.
There are also some very useful tools. I found one a while back - I’ll have to look in my history to find it - but all you do is put in a url, and it miraculously finds all incoming links and gives a notation as to whether they are nofollow or follow, and the PR of the page…
Shirley´s last blog post..What’s Up With The Wikipedia Plea for Donations?
January 1st, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Shirley - what is URL fan? I don’t remember that being mentioned before.
I know the one you mean with the PR and all that; I can’t remember the name either.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 am
using the wordpress blog has the advantage you can see the incoming link.
Sherry´s last blog post..Are you Winners of Flip Mino HD ?
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
Sherry - true, but as I said above it is wildly unreliable; showing links that really don’t mean anything for my purposes.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:21 am
Hi, I use SEO Quake to see all backlinks to my site.
You can set up and it will appear on your firefox toolbar and it also give your more feature like google index & yahoo index.
Donni´s last blog post..What other blogs about ClickBank Code
Dennis Edell Reply:
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Thanks for the comment, and welcome to the community Donni!
Michael Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
@Donni, i use the same.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I use Google alerts. It works for my purposes, but you guys have given me some other tools to check out.
Thanks!
Dennis Edell Reply:
November 21st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@Darvin @ Best Ionic Air Purifiers,
Welcome to the community! Thanks for your input and I hope to see you around more often. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a tip, I give plenty of luv to those that luv me. I’ll be visiting your site soon
.
Darvin @ Best Ionic Air Purifiers Reply:
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
@Dennis Edell, Thanks Dennis I am watching your ever move…