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
-
Increase in Direct traffic, drop in Google traffic, after updating Google Analytics settings.
I made some changes to our Google Analytics property settings (see notes in screenshot). As a result, there was an equal drop in Google traffic and increase in Direct traffic. Has anyone else seen something like this before? I'm wondering if I should revert. jE7buO6
Reporting & Analytics | | vcj0 -
Can not divide in different properties a domain in Search Console (Webmaster Tools)
Dear Moz Community, I hope you can give me a hand with the following questions. Im in charge of SEO of an ecommerce site in LATAM. It´s service is available in several countries, therefore each country has it subdirectory Eg. /ar /pe /co /bo /cl /br,etc... (in the future we will move to differente ccTLDs). I have been recomended to split or create different Search Console or Webmaster Tools properties (one for each subdirectory) but when Im creating a new property with a subdirectory, lets say www.domain.com/ar, Webmaster tools starts creating a property for www.domain.com/ar/ (NOTICE THE LAST SLASH) and it returns since that page doesn´t exist, what do you recomend me to do? Best wishes, Pablo Lòpez C
Reporting & Analytics | | pablo_carrara0 -
Exact Match in Google Search (Not Adwords)
I was going throught the list of keywords that have sent traffic to my site over the last 7 years and cam across one "A516 grade 70" that had hundreds of variants. Now in a lot of cases search volumes were different as were SERPS. We've tested a few variants with reworked pages (70% similar to original but optimised for variant keyword) and see good SERPS and traffic results. Theres obviously some diminishing returns here for us but the interesting question is when to these variants become an exact match and when not? In some cases the variants are unique because of the spacig, periods and hyphens used. there isn't a clear correlation with exact matc though. Insight appreciated. (Sorry for spelling errors. Form doesn't play nicely with iPad)
Reporting & Analytics | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
Google Analytics Code
We have a quick question about our Google Analytics code: We recently updated to a re-marketing Analytics code, and some of our traffic numbers seem to be off by a bit. I used the Google Tag Assistant Chrome Extension today, and noticed that it's finding our old Analytics code on our pages, but it's coming up as an error due to "no HTTP Response". I am attempting to remove this code from the website, but it is nowhere to be found in the HTML coding. Only the current one is there. So I'm wondering if this second Analytics code is effecting our traffic and reporting, even if the code is currently non-functional? and if it is, how could I go about removing it if it's not currently in our HTML? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | PlanetDISH0 -
Link Research Tools
Is anyone else here a user of Link Research Tools? I recently completed a Link Detox for my sites. However, it is saying that links from high quality press release sites are deadly and should be removed. They are also saying the same about the links from the Yellow Pages. Obviously I know these tools are automated, but does anyone know why they are showing these links as 'deadly' and should be removed? I have tried contacting LRT about this issue but am yet to receive a reply.
Reporting & Analytics | | AAttias0 -
Funnel Visualization in Google Analytics
Hello. I have a question about funnel visualization in Google Analytics where there is an eCommerce goal (i.e. add to cart, shipping, purchase) with the first step being mandatory. Issue:
Reporting & Analytics | | Unity
The amount of completed purchases reported in GA doesn't match the actual transaction figure via the eCommerce platform. Question:
I was wondering if anyone knows why this occurs? I have a few ideas on why however I haven't been able to locate any supporting evidence. So I was hoping to generate a few ideas from the SEOMoz community to help me investigate further. Any ideas welcome! Much thanks,
Davinia0 -
Exporting Keywords in Google Analytics
In the old Google Analytics, I would simply add &limit=30000 in the URL. Does anyone know how to export all keywords from the new Google Analytics?
Reporting & Analytics | | TommySwanson520 -
Set up Google Analytics by product category
Does anyone know if it's possible to set up Google Analytics data by product category? We sell roughly twenty product categories on our ecommerce site. We can look at our analytics performance for the site overall and drill down to specific pages, but what we really want to see is our performance by product category. Our product categories can include up to 5000 products. Any pointers on how to do this?
Reporting & Analytics | | ironpac0
