So, thanks to a tip off from reading this article, I delved further into Google website tool land.
First, you need a Google Webmaster account, this is easy enough, if you have a Google account (for instance, you made one for a Gmail account) then you can sign up for this program as well.
To access the new information you will need to verify your website. Fortunately Google allows you to do this one of two ways. The first way is a common method that sites like Sitemeter and other link trackers use, you embed a bit of code into your home page. The second way, which I really appreciate, is that you create an html file and upload it to your website’s server. Google then checks to make sure it is there under the name it gives you. I appreciated this method because it is one less bit of code to clutter up my home page.
Now, on to the new tools.
You may or not be familiar with Google’s already existing shortcut. You simply type “link:www.yoursiteurlhere.com” into the normal Google Search bar and it brings back results for sites linking to that url.
The trick is that it only shows you some of the sites.
With this new tool, you can see much more.
Why is this interesting? Well, it helps to see how well your word of mouth campaign is doing, and it helps uncover places that link to you that you didn’t know about before. In general, it is also just good sense to know as much as you can about who is reaching you and what they are saying about you.
