In the past, anyone wishing to view the incoming links to their website could type "Link: www.example.com" into the Google search box. The result, however, would only produce a small proportion of links that Google actually knew about and used when ranking sites for its search engine result positions. This is thought to be because Google feared that site owners would use the data to try and manipulate rankings.
So why are Google all of a sudden allowing us to see a little more behind the scenes? Well, it seems that webmasters wanted it, so Google gave it. Google Webmaster Central product manager Vanessa Fox explains:
"We take [webmasters] feedback very seriously. We have been looking at ways to provide this data and are ecstatic to make it available."
Google adds that it is happy to release the data knowing that it is only available to the owners of the site, rather than people who might try to misuse the data.
In the world of search engine optimisation, the number and quality of external sites linking back to your site is known to be an important part of the Google algorithm - so having a better idea of who is linking to you is valuable knowledge for webmasters seeking to optimise their websites.
The new tool asks webmasters to first verify their identity by either of two simple methods: uploading a HTML verification file to their domain or adding a META tag to their site's index file. Once Google has verified the genuine owner of the site, it allows access to the number and identity of internal and external links and provides the option to download this data.
Webmasters are already praising the tool, with the general consensus being that it's better than any other free or paid link back tool currently available.
With the traditional Link: operator tool, Google.co.uk reveals around 388 links pointing back to the bigmouthmedia.com site.
But with the new Webmaster Links tool you would be able to see a far more complete number of backlinks once you have verified that you are associated with the website they link to in the webmaster console.
However, it's important to remember that even this is not 100% of the links the Google knows about. As ever, Google keeps some cards close to its chest, stating that it knows of "more links than the total we show". However, the new link reporting tool gives considerably more data than previously available and is a welcome step to webmasters who have been vying to know more about Google's inner workings.
