Google has officially killed off their link command

A Google spokesperson has confirmed with Search Engine Land that the company’s link command is no longer functioning. Google told us the feature is no longer around, and using a link:www.domain.com will likely return irrelevant results.

We saw signs of this going away a year ago, but then Google told us the link operator “is not dead.” Now, Google is telling us the link operator is essentially dead.

Yesterday, Google’s John Mueller told webmasters not to use it. Of course, most webmasters already have known not to use it for years and years now. But as long as the link operator returns any results, it can be deceiving and imply that the function does work.

Google has not commented on when they will make sure the command returns nothing or a message that it no longer works. But for now, Google has confirmed with us that the feature is not working at all now.

If you want to see your links, there are plenty of third-party tools, and also access to your link report, in the Google Search Console.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.