Thousands of Missing Links in OSE Report
-
Hi there,
Moz reports 70k+ external links pointing to my site but when I use the Open Site Explorer to export all links, I only see 9,000+
I have tried combining different combinations of fields ('this root domain', 'this subdomain', 'all links' etc) but can never see more than 9,000 links.
My website does redirect to www. and have a couple of subdomains, the report for non www. only shows around 120 external links.
We also use Ahrefs and the crawl reports here display 40k+ links (on the dashboard and when exported) which makes me believe the problem is not with my website but rather OSE.
Any help is much appreciated,
Thanks,
Jason
-
Thanks Patrick,
I talked to Moz Support and this is what they said:
Hi there! Great question. Unfortunately, a limitation of our API is that we can only export the top 25 links from each linking root domain. This means that if the majority of your links are coming from a small number of domains, we would only be able to export a small percentage of your links. This includes internal links as well as external links. This process ensures that you have a wider range of data from all domains linking to you in the CSV rather than a focus on data from a couple of domains. If you want a full export of link metrics, you may want to take a look at our API to set up your own calls.
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even think of using the Google Search Console! Will be doing so now haha.
Thanks,
Jason
-
Hi there
Rand, in another Q+A thread, recently discussed Moz's index becoming smaller than prior ones. You can read that more here.
I highly recommend pulling from multiple sources, you seem to be doing so already with Ahref. I also recommend:
Majestic
Google Search ConsoleIt will give you a more detailed look at your backlink profile since one vendor's data set is different than others.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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
-
I build DA from 15 to 26 in 45 days, but now it stop. We have links from 50+ high authority websites and building more.
Hi Team I build my website domain authority from 15 to 26 points in the last 2 months. We getting links from high DA traffic websites all across the globe through guest posting. We grow from 34 linking domains to 155 in this duration(45days) and still, we are working on getting quality links through authority websites. My DA stops on 26 which is not growing for last 2 weeks. Please share your views on it. Thanks in advance
Link Explorer | | AtulSharan1 -
What do these link terms mean?
I'm not sure what all of the different link terms mean: -External, followed links -Internal, nofollowed links -External, nofollowed links -Internal, no followed links -Total linking domains -Followed linking domains What are the differences? Which metric will indicate the total # of other sites that are linking to my site? Thank you!
Link Explorer | | sgarrels0 -
OSE 'request CSV' for links blank
After doing the link check on a domain, got 40 or so links. Clicked Request CSV The file that is downloaded contains no links. The column headings are there but no content Did this twice and got same blank file. OSE is showing the 40 links
Link Explorer | | cbpayne0 -
Why does OSE show different link equity for homepage with and without trailing slash?
Hi all, I am working with a developer who believes OSE (Open Site Explorer) is flawed. His reasoning is that OSE shows completely different link equity and domain authority for these two URLs [company name is purposely withheld]: http://www.mydomain.com/us/ and http://www.mydomain.com/us NOTE: http://www.mydomain.com/us has been properly 301-redirecting to http://www.mydomain.com/us/ for years. The developer's argument is that the URL that is being 301-redirected shouldn't have any link equity at all, therefore OSE is flawed. Here is the response I would like to give him. Please feel free to poke holes, provide feedback or flat out correct me if I am wrong: Dear inquisitive developer, Any URL that is being linked to by another site that has link equity will get link equity passed to it. This is true even if the URL is a page that doesn't exist. What it can't do (if it doesn't exist) is then pass that link equity on to another page. Moz's OSE is showing separate link equity for the two versions of this URL because other sites have linked to both versions. The fact that one 301-redirects to the other is good and ensures that link equity from one is passing to the preferred URL. The 301-redirect does not, however, remove link equity from the first URL, but rather passes the existing link equity from one to the other. Consequently, Moz's OSE is not flawed, but rather is displaying the link equity of one URL that is benefiting the other via a 301-redirect. Sincerely, Dana
Link Explorer | | danatanseo3 -
Where can I see the list of the new backlinks reported?
In my dashboard I see a +875 in external links. Now they are 1,130. This sounds worrying rother than good news! I'd like to get an explaination but how can I see where these links come from? And when? How can be explained a steep increase in the link count from the last index? Also, a minor question, where can I find the increase percentage? I am able to see only the absolute count.
Link Explorer | | 2mlab0 -
Why does Open site explorer only show a fraction of the linked Domains that Google does?
One of my sites ( http://www.georgerossphotography.com ) shows 19 root domains and 155 links on Open Site Explorer. This doesn't pass the sniff test with me and when I look at Google Webmasters they show 120 domains with 1,870 links. I am assuming that Google use it's own data for ranking purposes which makes me question the validity of Open Site Explorer? Am I missing something ? I have been using OSE as my primary tool and now I feel that it has little value. I would appreciate any feedback. George.
Link Explorer | | sirgeorge0 -
Why are no-follow links in my blog comments across the web showing up as "equity-passing"?
When I make comments on blog posts (and there's a link in my comment or my name is the link to my site), the links are always no-follow (as they should be). But, when I check Open Site Explorer, the new links show up as equity-passing. Are they actually passing equity or is this a mistake?
Link Explorer | | infotrust20 -
Need advice on creating link report
I am trying to create a new report that will show the effectiveness of each link source in terms of delivering traffic and how quality that traffic is with regard to conversions.... With that, I want to know how I can first get a list of all external links to any page on my subdomain and then align that list with traffic/conversion data in Google Analytics. Can someone provide me step by step instructions on this? I assume I would start with Open Site Explorer and export the list of external links to pages on my subdomain. My issue lies in how to get the same general list out of GA that lines up with the urls in the OSE export. I have tried referrals, but that does not give me a compatible list.
Link Explorer | | dsinger0