Google backlink update begins 7/16

[dazzlindonna]

The backlink update has begun. I don't yet see any PR update happening, but that may coming soon.

[Dani]

Thanks so much for the news Donna! I've been waiting for this one big time. My backlinks went from 100 two months ago to 600 the last update. I'm really hoping for a PR6 now. I just did a link:www.daniweb.com and now I'm showing up as having over 2,300 backlinks :)

[Dani]

I did some investigating and it seems the word on the street is that everyone is seeing 2-3X the number of backlinks previously reported, as Google is now showing < PR4 backlinks as well? Not sure of the ramifications of this. Anyone care to comment?

[Arizona Web]

The backlinks shown seem more accurate than before. The command www.domain.com -site:www.domain.com used to return a more true count of people linking to your page (usually double or triple the link: command) but now they seem very close in numbers.

[IncognitoNet]

Does Google update their backlinks on a regular basis or is it more continual and random?

[Dani]

In the past, what we were seeing was a monthly backlink update shortly followed by a PR update. We've missed this path PR update but have seen 2 backlink updates so far. So who knows ;)

[mrsam]

Havent seen any PR updates in ages. Hard to figure out what google is up to :)

[Dani]

What I believe google is doing is switching to a quarterly PR update. The reason for this is to discourage the us of buying and selling PR for PR's sake. This way, suppose you get a good backlink. That backlink will affect your SERPS right away - but you, as a webmaster, can't reverse engineer google to figure out how much weight it has given your pagerank, etc.

[mnemtsas]

How do you guess that Dani? I'm interested to know.

I'm thinking they will either ditch it completely (after all they don't own the patent for it) or keep it secret. Personally I hope they keep it secret or only update very infrequently like you suggest because I'm getting a ton more link requests now that PR isn't perceived as so important.

Mark

[gm1234]

Even I don't see any PR update happenning. I wonder if the report is true at all. You never know about google!

[Dani]

I got my idea after reading a bunch of other webmaster forums out there - and that was the gist of what I was hearing. Basically it would make sense for Google to try to lower the power that PR currently has in the webmaster industry. After all, like you said, they DON'T hold the patent for it - so now that they went public, it would be a good move for them.

[Arizona Web]

I think it probably also has something to do with their IPO. There is no logical reason for google to cause any kind of shake up or stir in their rankings that could piss some people off while their stocks are being traded furiously. It could potentially have a negative impact on the investors' psyche.

[mnemtsas]

I think the fact that people are still fixating on PR and have been moving up and down the SERPS without it changing is just a little sad :sad:

I've got a few nice KW's into the top 10 since PR stopped moving and have been getting a lot of recip link requests so my level of interest in it is a big fat zero.

[Arizona Web]

I think the fact that people are still fixating on PR and have been moving up and down the SERPS without it changing is just a little sad :sad:

Thank you... I have been saying this for months and have been catching a lot of heat for it.

just ask dani :p

[mnemtsas]

lol it's a bit controversial. People love things they can measure and PR is a nice handy number to bandy about. Without PR there is nothing people can use to say 'my web site is important, so if I link to you then you'll get a benefit'.

However I must say there is something in the whole PR thing from Googles point of view. I was chasing one KW and had worked for a while to build up relevant anchor links and got myself into the top 20, but try as I might I couldn't get into the top 10. Some wheelin' and dealin' (and ass kissing) got me a single relevant PR7 link, and hey presto 2 days later I'm in the top 10.

[Eric Bland]

Any word on the next update? Have not Seen one in awile. Almost the 1st of Sep.

[Eric Bland]

Thought it may have hit at the end of Aug, but still no sign.

______________
Eric Bland
Web sites Designs

[mnemtsas]

It's sep 1st? I'm in one of the first countries to see the new day and it's still Aug 30 here :)

As to when the update happens, it'll happen when it happens and not one second earlier.

[ronit]

Thanks so much for the news Donna! I've been waiting for this one big time. My backlinks went from 100 two months ago to 600 the last update. I'm really hoping for a PR6 now. I just did a link:www.daniweb.com and now I'm showing up as having over 2,300 backlinks :)

Hi,
Could you please explain the back link issue? At first our site (www.jungo.com) had around 610 sites link to it (according to google). Then I checked again when you published "Google backlink update begins 7/16". I typed link: www.jungo.com with a space between the "link" and the URL. I got as a result the number:1300. It settled fine with what I read here that your backlinks jumped from 100 to 600. The space as it seems creates a big gap because deleting the space presented poor results of only 268 links.
What is the difference between these 2 ways of writing and again the change from 700 links to 268 is almost imperceivable.
Waiting to hear from you soon. I am so confused.

[Dani]

When you don't use the space after link: then Google interprets it as the special signal to grab backlinks of jungo.com. When you do have the space, google just does a regular search query for the keywords "link" and "jungo.com"

[I, Brian]

There was actually another backlink update a few days ago, but the general report is that the backlinks are all screwy. Personally I'm not bothered - I'm personally about to uninstall the Google Toolbar and install Alexa instead. :)