How do I know what my actual backlink profile is?
-
The number of inbound links to my site varies so much across tools (GA, Google Webmaster, Bing, SEOMoz, Majestic SEO, site: operators). What's reality?
-
Google, Bing, SEOmoz, and Majestic all have their own programs that crawl the web, each having their own priorities and algorithms and limitations. Google is generally best for showing you links to a site you have verified in Google Webmaster tools. The other three will show you links for sites that are not your own. For Open Site Explorer (the SEOmoz tool), our index is not as large as Google's (I think they have more cooks in their cafeterias than we have employees altogether at Moz), but we do offer the additional metrics that you can't get from Google.
Google Analytics will show you which links bring visitors to your site that use javascript, and your log files will also show referring sites. If there's a link to your site that no one clicks on, it won't show in your log files.
The exact number of links may never be known, especially if you have links from an intranet behind a firewall that none of the bots are allowed to crawl. That's when you'll see something in GA that you won't see in any of the other tools.
I know this may not be the easy answer you were looking for, but I hope it helps. Let me know if I can do anything to help clarify things for you.
-
I would go with WMT. Besides the fact that it is Google, they seem to update every week or 2 vs moz who can barely stay on track for their monthly updates.
I dont think there is a 100% tool but from what ive seen all the links that show up in other tools can be seen on webmaster tools and then some. although this may not be true for everyone it is so for my current profile.
also keep in mind that just because it doesnt show up in the profile does not mean it is not counting for you.
-
Thanks. That's what I've been using as my true "yard stick".
-
Open Site Explorer gives you about as complete a view as is possible. It does it by crawling the web itself and finding those links for you. You can then run reports on them, etc.
Google Webmaster Tools is a close second, because it represents how Google sees links to your site. It's hardly comprehensive, however, and you have to build your own reports. But, still, anytime Google will give you better detail, take it.
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
-
How do i know that my website affected by Panda Updates ?
If website is affected by Panda updates then how do we know that? If have any type of tools or strategies or alert to find out affected website by Panda then update as soon as possible.
Reporting & Analytics | | renukishor0 -
Webmaster Tools V. OSE Backlinks to Disavow
Hey Everybody, So I am getting to the point where I need to disavow some backlinks. I am noticing a discrepancy between the OSE backlinks and the GWMT backlinks. My question is do I put both sets of links in the Disavow tool? Just the links from GWMT? Just the links from OSE? Etc... Etc... Thanks Everybody!
Reporting & Analytics | | HashtagHustler0 -
Can i know trough Google analytics the most busy time in the day ?
Hello guys,
Reporting & Analytics | | WayneRooney
I have a website with around 600-650 visitor a day.
Can i know trough Google analytics the most busy time in the day ? Thank you0 -
By linking adwords to ga is it possible to get it done within one profile only?
Hi mozzers, i have a ga account with 40 profiles and none of them are connected to adwords. I would like to connect adwords to just the combined profile and not the other 39 profiles? Is this possible? if it is how would you do it? thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
GA: Want to have a profile tracking only 3 out of 4 subdomains only?
Hi Mozzers, I would like to track 3 out of 4 subdomains in a profile on GA. I have 4 subdomains: www.example.com m.example.com subdomain1.example.com subdomain2.example.com I would like to create a profile with only the first 3 subdomains without subdomain2.example.com. Can someone tell me what to do to get this? I also have a profile called combined profile that includes all of them with this filter(attached). Can I add another filter to this profile? if it is the case what should I add and how? if not, creating another profile would be the only other way, right? if it is the case how can I filter it to get Thanks a lot! u4HxY06
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Property or profile?
I have Google Analytics installed on my website and have a blog going live shortly which I also want to track. The blog sits on a subdomain. It is built on Wordpress vs a custom CMS that the website is on but the idea is to have a seamless transformation helping traffic from blog to product pages on our website. Should I install the same Analytics from our website onto the blog and then set up a few new filters or should i create a separate analytics property for the blog (or even a new profile)? (sorry I should also add that the look and feel of both is very similar sharing main navigation links like SEOmoz - don't know if this makes a difference)
Reporting & Analytics | | design_man0 -
How do I find backlinks and/or SERPs for a subdomain
I realize this is probably a very basic question but if I want to find backlinks to a sub-domain of my site, how would I do that? Also, if I wanted to see what search terms were bringing traffic to one specific page of my site, how would I do that?
Reporting & Analytics | | aarnswife0 -
Want to link to GA profile, but the one I want is not showing in drop-down
How can I manually add the correct Google Analytics data in to my account? The two options I see on the drop-down are not the ones I want to select and I don't see a way to do it manually. Help!
Reporting & Analytics | | Uniqueson0