Google Webmaster Tools not displaying all backlinks

[BostonWright]

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?

[JustinTaylor88]

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

[MarieHaynes]

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.

[Adam.Whittles]

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.

[Adam.Whittles]

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.

[JustinTaylor88]

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

[William.Lau]

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.