Here’s an uncharacteristically simple one from me:  the Google
‘links:’ option--how do I get it to work?

I have followed the instructions on the how-to page (“Who links to
you?”, ://www.google.com/intl/bg/help/features.html), following
the model shown in the example (link:www.google.com) and just putting
my site name in place of ‘google.com’.   I have also tried it
repeatedly, both with the full address, starting with ‘http://www.’,
and just with the web page name alone (no ‘www’), and I cannot get any
answer returned but ‘Your search - link:www.<sitename> - did not match
any documents.’

Now, I may not have one of the Web’s hot sites, but I know for a fact
that my husband’s site, with another entirely unrelated domain name,
links to mine.  I should have got at least one return on this.  And a
search on his domain name does not return anything either, although my
site has a link to his.

What am I doing wrong?  How do I use this function correctly?

Thank you.
Apteryx

Hello Apteryx ~

To answer your questions:

You are using the Google Link: function properly. What you are doing
(from the way you explained it) is exactly what you should be doing.

The fact that nothing is showing is another question entirely. A
better question might be why links to your site aren't showing.

Should you choose to ask the question - you might also want to include
the following information to get the "best" answer you can from a
Google Answers Researcher. I say "best" because I am sure you know
that Google Answers Researchers are independent  contractors and are
not privy to the inner workings of Google, nor do we have any insider
knowledge about Google's carefully guarded search engine algorithms.
Any answer you might get is at best a very informed "best guess".

If you want to ask about your site(s) listing in Google, try to
include the following information so you can get that "best guess"
answer:

 1. The URL of your site;

 2. Whether or not your URL returns anything on a Google search (that
is, if you put your URL in the Google search block, does it return
your site at all?)

 3. The URL of your husband's site;

 4. Whether or not HIS URL returns anything on a Google search;

 5. Have you submitted your site(s) on the Google URL submission
located at:
      - ://www.google.com/addurl.html

 6. When did you submit your site(s)

 7. Have you ever been included in Google search (that you know of?)

 8. Do/does your site stats indicate a Google indexing?

 9. Any other information you can give.


Yours ever so,
Serenata

---

Request for Answer Clarification by apteryx-ga on 05 May 2003 00:08 PDT

Thanks, Serenata.  I would not be inclined to give the URLs because
that would blow away my pseudonym and reveal to all my friends and
detractors who it was that didn't understand that Bunuel movie.  But
yes, I submitted my site more than a year ago and have seen it come up
in response to a variety of Google searches.  I think maybe
RobertSkelton has the rest of the answer (thank you, Robert!).  So
I'll just ask you to clarify, please, which of the formats I used was
the correct one, and I'll consider this one answered.

---

Clarification of Answer by serenata-ga on 05 May 2003 05:13 PDT

Hello again, Apteryx ~

(Off topic ... but every time I see that name "Apteryx", I tend to
think of Johnny Hart's comic strip, BC. I love that Apteryx).

Actually, both (or either) of your link tries work, ie:
    link: www.yourdomain.com
    link: http://www.yourdomain.com 

Surprisingly, you will often get two different answers, although there
is a lot of overlap.

If you want to throw a real wrench into the works, try it with:
    link: http://yourdomain.com 

and you'll come up with even a third answer.

Hard to say, but maybe that's one tool that can use a little tweaking?

In any case page rank does seem to enter into the matter, but who's to
say?

Good luck,
Serenata

Thank you, Serenata.  That's fine.  I appreciate your efforts.

"Apteryx" resonates for me in all kinds of ways.  I didn't pick it
because of the BC character, but I don't mind adding it to the mix--it
blends right in.

Greetings, apteryx!

Since you can't reveal your URL, I can't say for sure, but I am
betting that the problem is that your site has a Page Rank of 3 or
less.

Because of Google's secrecy, it is not known for absolute certain, but
the general consensus among webmasters is that Google only indexes
backward links for a page if IT has a Page Rank higher than 3, and
only indexes the backward links that are coming FROM pages with a Rank
higher than 3.
  
From Senior Forum Member "Beachboy" at WebmasterWorld:  
"Your index page is PR3, Google won't show any inbound links unless
the page you're doing the query on is PR4 or greater."
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/4784.htm?highlight=inbound+links+higher
  
From Senior Forum Member "Birdman" at WebmasterWorld:  
"It is thought that Google only shows backlinks from pages that have a
pr4 or higher."
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/7309.htm?highlight=inbound+links+higher
 
In this case, the best way to find all pages indexed by Google which
contain a link to your site is to enter "www.mysite.com" into the
Google Search text box and click "Google Search". The page that comes
up should show something like:

Google can show you the following information for this URL:

Show Google's cache of www.mysite.com 
Find web pages that are similar to www.mysite.com
Find web pages that link to www.mysite.com 
Find web pages that contain the term "www.mysite.com" <==

If you click on the link for "contain the term", 
://www.google.com/search?&sa=G&q=%22%2Bwww.mysite.%2Bcom%22
you should see the list of indexed sites which contain a link to
yours.

Regards,

ace

Thank you, ace.  I do not aspire to have a high-traffic site (ever),
so I guess I'll never see that kind of ranking.  Your additional
guidance is very helpful.  I did find RobertSkelton's response
valuable, too (in fact, it helped me find exactly what I was looking
for), and wonder why it has been deleted from this thread.

Apteryx