Frequently Asked Questions Home > Support > FAQ: Links

General

1. Can I check my link popularity on regional versions of Google and other major search engines?
2. Can I exclude links from my own domain?
3. How can I check Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank of the linking pages?
4. How can I suggest a new search engine?
5. I get different link popularity scores when I check my site with your Links tool and my browser. Why?
6. Why are the "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" reports grayed out?
7. Why do you have only a few search engines in the Link Popularity Analyzer?
8. Why does the software report far fewer links in the "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" reports?

Q: Can I check my link popularity on regional versions of Google and other major search engines?

A: In case you are interested in your backlinks found at the local variant of some major SE, you should choose its international version in the list; for instance, you will select Google.com to check backlinks for www.google.co.uk.

The thing is Google, like any other major search engine, has one general database where all the links are counted. All the regional versions of major SEs show the results pulling them out of the general database.

Q: Can I exclude links from my own domain?

A: You can exclude any domains that you do not want to see in reports by using a mask with '*' and '?' characters, for instance, *.mydomain when you configure the scanning profile. In the profile manager, go to the third 'Specify exclusions' tab and enter domains that you want to exclude from analysis.

The domain filter is available on the "Linking pages", "Links text analysis" and "Linking sites overview" tabs.

Q: How can I check Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank of the linking pages?

A: You can check Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank of the linking pages at the '3. Linking pages' (available in the paid editions) and '5. Linkings sites overview' tabs. In a Profile manager, go to the 'Set scan rules' tab and check the respective options.

A: You can check Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank of the linking pages at the '3. Linking pages' (available in the paid editions) and '5. Linkings sites overview' tabs.

Click the profile button, select 'Edit profile', and in the profile manager, go to the 'Set scan rules' tab and check the respective options.

Q: How can I suggest a new search engine?

A: Only a few major search engines allow you to see how many pages link back to a specific page. If you know of a search engine that provides a link popularity search, click 'Suggest a New Feature' in the Web CEO Support Center or contact our support@webceo.com. We usually add new search engines within a couple of weeks.

Q: I get different link popularity scores when I check my site with your Links tool and my browser. Why?

A: We are extremely careful about the quality of our tools and do everything in our power to make them produce accurate results. However, there are circumstances that can affect the accuracy of reports. Below are the most likely reasons:

1. Search engines' instability.

Search engines may show a different number of links (even across a day) for technical reasons such as database updates, temporary switches to older backups or different databases because of maintenance, etc. You will see these variations if you repeat the search in your browser too.

2. Browser language.

Make sure you have set the same browser languages in Web CEO and your browser. Open the 'Settings' window in the 'File' menu and select 'Connection' on the 'SE Requests' tab. There you will see the language Web CEO uses, and will be able to change it.
If you use Internet Explorer 6.0, then in order to find out the selected language go to the Tools menu > Internet Options > General tab > Languages.

To resolve the cookies and browser language issues and have the program use your browser cookies and languages, select 'Settings' on the 'File' menu, then move to the 'SE requests' tab. Click 'Connections' and then check 'Use IE cookies and language settings when requesting search engines'.

3. IP-address of your PC or proxy server.>

A search engine can switch you to its regional version automatically if you have a proxy server with an IP address that fits in the specific IP addresses range. Ensure that Web CEO and your browser use the same proxy server to connect to the Internet.

4. The Web CEO Search Engine Knowledge Base is outdated.

If none of the above solutions work, then Web CEO's search engine Knowledge Base may be out of date. Update the knowledge base. If this does not solve the problem, contact support@webceo.com giving us the URL of your site and the names of your selected search engines.

Q: Why are the "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" reports grayed out?

A: If these reports are grayed out, it means that you are using the Free edition of Web CEO; the "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" reports are available only to the owners of higher editions.

If you really need these reports, you should think of upgrading your Web CEO to SmallBiz ("Linking pages" is available) or Professional (both "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" are available). We provide a money-back guarantee, so you do not risk anything.

Q: Why do you have only a few search engines in the Link Popularity Analyzer?

A: Most major search engines have a special syntax for checking link popularity, and they make this syntax publicly available in the advanced search options. However, not all search engines support this option. Our tool includes all the important search engines that support the syntax for link popularity checking.

Please note that even if an engine supports backward link checks, we may not have included it because it is powered by a different search engine (for example, AOL is powered by Google; therefore, you will not see it in the list despite the fact that it supports link checking). Thus, the repeated results are excluded, unnecessary queries avoided and traffic costs saved.

Q: Why does the software report far fewer links in the "Linking pages" and "Link text analysis" reports?

A: Quite often, search engines do not show all link URLs that they report as a total number at the top of results page. For instance, neither Google nor Yahoo provide information on more than 1,000 backward links.