Google Webmaster Tools not displaying all backlinks
-
I was asked to take a look at a site that a friend redesigned and immediately plummeted in rankings. It was a flash site where the domain redirected to a flash landing page. When the site was redesigned, they removed the flash page and put in the new site on the domain URL without changing the redirect or putting a 301 in place on the old flash landing page URL.
This site didn't have many backlinks to begin with, but it did ok for some important search phrases. Now when I look in Webmaster Tools, there are only 2 backlinks showing. Meanwhile I know there are more backlinks in existence, primarily from yellowpages and citysearch.
I've had them put a 301 on the old flash landing page pointing at the domain URL and they've added a canonical URL. What have I missed here?
-
Agreed, the point I was intending to make was that the WMT backlink info is not a definitive list, therefore it is not reliable resource of all backlinks.
I think it is a common mis-conception that because WMT is a Google product, the information in it must be 100% accurate, where as in reality that isn't the case.
Good point about the Majestic Fresh index, btw
-
A few thoughts - It can take a while for new links to be found by Google. They say it can take a couple of weeks but I've seen links that took months to be found.
Also, does the site have the proper www/non-www redirect in place? If Google thinks the www and non www are two different sites it's possible you're only getting the backlinks to one of those options.
-
Really? I often find that GWT reports a larger number of backlinks than the other tools. I agree that it takes time for the links to disappear once removed. this is where Majestic's fresh index can prove useful.
-
That sounds odd,
As William says, there isn't a tool out there that provides 100% of your backlinks. However, GWT is the most reliable source and usually provides more than any of the other tools (not surprising given Google's index).
I suspect there may be an issue with how it has been setup in GWT. I would go through this with a fine tooth comb to see if there are any issues there.
-
I've never found WMT's a reliable resource for backlink info, often it does not show all backlinks also when backlinks are removed it takes some time for them to disappear.
How recently were the yellow pages and city search links added?
Definitely run the site through OSE, majestic and AHrefs for a better picture as William suggested.
A couple of other things you could check
Go to WMT -> Health -> Crawl Errors to see if any other pages are not found
Check how many pages are being indexed to make sure there are no sitemap issues etc
Hope that helps
-
You may want to try other backlink checkers. I don't believe any tools get 100% backlinks. Use WMT, Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, and others to get a good number.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Analytics / Facebook UTM
Hello, I have a quick question. I am setting up conversion tracking for my Facebook ads, so I am giving each ad set a tracking URL (UTM) in order to see which ads are converting etc. Is it possible to see on analytics how much I am spending on these ads or a cost per conversion? Or does the tracking merely track general analytics data such as bounce rate, exit rate, revenue generated etc? Kind Regards, James
Reporting & Analytics | | SO_UK0 -
Alternative tools for Keyword Traffic
Hi There, Wondering if anyone has any other tools they would recommend using for finding out keyword traffic on websites. Currently (and I'm sure like most), my website is connected to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. My biggest frustration becomes the "(not set)" variable that appears when I go to review the keywords section. It's always such a large number and I have no way of finding out what people might be typing in and coming across my website. Of course, I understand the privacy factor as to why Google must do this but it's certainly difficult to analyze what's working and what's not. Any tips, tricks or suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks, Lindsay
Reporting & Analytics | | MainstreamMktg0 -
Splitting Google analytics data
Hi Everyone I'm not sure if this can be done but thought i would ask anyway. One of our clients has a website which is a 3 tiered website, basically this means different access levels for different users depending on their ip address. The split is as follows (business 1, business 2 and the general public all see different things and areas within the website) Now what we are wanting to do is essentially split our analytics data for each of the 3 different users on the site, Can this be done through Google analytics? Thanks in advance. ps If im not clear enough let me know and ill try clear it up
Reporting & Analytics | | TheZenAgency0 -
Google analytics Goals and Funnels??
Hey - how's things? I've got 2 goals setup, each of which use the same thank you page but with different required funnels. The results have been identical for the last few weeks - which tells me I've got something wrong!! The first goal has a contact form on every page in the /products/ directory set up like this:
Reporting & Analytics | | agua
destination equal to: /thanks-enquiry/funnel step1 page: ^/products/.* required: yes The first goal has a form on 1 page called /on-sale set up like this:
destination equal to: /thanks-enquiry/
funnel step1 page: /on-sale required: yes Any ideas?0 -
Tips for migrating Google News traffic?
We are about to relaunch a site that gets a lot of Google News traffic. We are not changing domain, but the site structure is changing greatly, with the URLs of both news index pages and articles being shaken up. Obviously, we've 301-ed every page to its closest equivalent on the new site. We've also got a news sitemap. As we are not changing domain, is there anything further we need to do to help protect our Google News traffic. On a related note, does anyone have a relaible way of measuring traffic from Google News listings in universal search?
Reporting & Analytics | | Dennis-529610 -
Google Analytics Report throws up Google as a referrer
Good morning from Wet & Windy 12 degrees C wetherby UK... Using Google analytics I've noticed in the traffic sources refferer subsection some traffic is categorized as originating from Google. Whats puzzling me is.... I know a huge amount of traddic stems from Google but as the below screenshot illustrates only 21 visitors come from Google: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-refferal-sources-top-levelcopy.jpg And when i drill down some are coming from Google mobile 😞 http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Is traffic categorised as Google referrer down to Google hiding searches via ssl as explained here: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Google API Tools - Next Analytics
Have you used any API tools like Next Analytics and/or can you recommend another tool that is particularly useful for a SEO?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
How do I unlink my Google Analytics Account from SEOmoz?
Hi, I am new to the community and have a very basic question concerning the internal settings for SEOmoz. How do I unlink the Google Analytics Account from SEOmoz. I am sure there is an easy answer to this. Thanks for helping!
Reporting & Analytics | | sandoery0