Inbound Links: Here today, Gone Tomorrow

Could someone shed some light on this issue for me?

When I first uploaded my website (www.optic-fusion.com) to the Internet about 2 years ago, I later learned about the "link:www" feature in Google and consequently used the feature on my URL. I had about 3 inbound links at the time from websites we had designed (as expected).

For about a year now, I have not been able to get any inbound links to my site to show up through the Google "link:www". The links that previously showed up still exist unchanged on the Internet, but Google says, "no links found."

During that time, I have revised my website design and content, but the URL has always remained the same. I did, however, change hosting companies about a year ago.

Is this why I lost my inbound links?

What can I do to get them back? I've submitted my site to Google at least 3 times over the past year and still nothing. Did I upset the Google Gods and now they rebuke me?

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks,
MadPsych

When you changed web hosts, are you on a virtual server now?

My site is hosted on a dedicated server.

Your site is completely indexed in Google, so you don't want to resubmit. Suggest submitting to Google, the urls of the pages on those other sites you mentioned, that your link resides on.

Also, suggest submitting your site to some smaller (free) directories on the Net, as well as to ODP. ODP can take a while, but being registered with them is valuable as far as Google's concerned (if you aren't already).

Forgive the stupidity, but how do I know if my site's been indexed by Google? Is it because a search for the URL returns the home page?

Also, how do I get my web site information updated with Google? For example, my home page in Google's search returns no title, but I've had a title on my home page for quite a while now.

Is there a way to have old pages deleted out of Google?

Thanks.

To check your indexing in Google, type into their search box,

siteptic-fusion.com optic-fusion.com

Above is showing up wrong. Type in "site" then a colon with no space, then optic-fusion.com space optic-fusion.com

and hit enter. It'll display the pages on your site that are indexed in Google.

You don't need to remove old pages from Google - Google spiders constantly and will eventually drop any old pages. If you have brand new pages added to your site, it doesn't hurt to submit them to Google. Although, once again, Google will spider on its own.

But you do need to acquire more inbound links - that's one of the factors that Google uses to rank sites.

Great! Thanks for the information. I didn't know about that Google feature.

Lately, we have been working very hard to increase our inbound links. I have several of my associates writing articles for publication on various websites with high PageRank.

I've also been submitting our URL to numerous search engines (some not at all popular, but with high PageRank) and also to Web Design associations that offer a "member listing," etc.

I guess I just need to sit back and wait for Google to do its thing.

Thanks.

Welcome - and best of luck!