We have been listed in the directories of Yahoo, Dmoz, and Google for
at least 6 months, but none of these listings have ever showed up in
Google's "Backward Links" for our home page. Can someone explain why?
(www.margesbraidedrugs.com)

Ringo

Hello ringo-ga,

You are running into the same issue that lots of people have
encountered with Backward Links:

'Searched all questions for "backward links" pagerank'
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=search&q=%22backward+links%22+pagerank&qtype=all

See, for example:

"Q: Recognizing Links to my website"
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=183376

As these answers explain, clicking "Backward Links" on the Google
Toolbar (or searching for <link:www.URL.com> on Google's Web Search,
which is the same thing) does not result in links that have a PageRank
of 3 or less.

If you click "Backward Links" for your URL, you will currently find
three links, which have PageRanks of 4, 5, and 5 respectively.  (You
can see the page ranks by clicking the link, and then, on the
resulting page, moving your mouse over the PageRank symbol on the
Google Toolbar.)

"Searched for pages linking to http://www.margesbraidedrugs.com/"
Google
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=link:http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emargesbraidedrugs%2Ecom%2F

The Yahoo!, dmoz, and Google Directory listings for the category that
includes Marge's Braided Rugs have PageRanks of 2, 3, and 3
respectively.

"Directory > Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Home and
Garden > Furnishings > Rugs > Braided"
Yahoo!
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Home_and_Garden/Furnishings/Rugs/Braided/

"Top: Shopping: Home and Garden: Floors: Carpets and Rugs:
Custom-made"
dmoz
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Floors/Carpets_and_Rugs/Custom-made/

"Shopping > Home and Garden > Floors > Carpets and Rugs > Custom-made"
Google
http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Floors/Carpets_and_Rugs/Custom-made/?il=1

That explains why these directory listings are not showing up in your
backward links.

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search strategy:

In addition to the searches cited in the answer, I searched Yahoo!,
dmoz, and Google Directory for:

"marge's braided rugs"

Thanks for your help