Inbound Links - How accurate or up-to-date is Open Site Explorer?
-
When I type my domain into OSE I get a list of linking domains. Most of them I have seen before and I know were active last year.
However, when I click through, many of these links have been removed (which is what I wanted/requested) and some of the pages return 404.
Google (via link:www.mydomain.com) doesn't show these links as active either.
My question is why does OSE show them?
Thanks
-
Thanks Jo but there has already been an update since I started this thread.
I wonder if UK sites get indexed less frequently in these updates.
Thanks
Neil
-
Hi there,
It's probably worth checking again once our latest update goes live this week.
The next update to the index this week should update a good number of the older links, but it may take additional index crawls for them to fall out of the system!
I hope this helps
-
It has been almost two months since I opened this thread and the links I mentioned are still showing in OSE.
I guess my question is still valid.
If the links have not existed for at least - bare minimum - two months, why does OSE show them?
-
Thanks very much for your response Charles.
That is very interesting about Google's link search operator.
I am pretty sure those links were not there last month either - I didn't disavow them, I just asked for them to be removed some time ago - and I shall be watching keenly to see if they are still listed in the OSE next month.
Many thanks
-
Hi there
First of all, Google's "link" search operator is not accurate. At all, actually. Read this post of Rand: https://moz.com/blog/google-link-command-busting-the-myths
Now about OSE. The way it works is the explanation of why your links can be still shown as well as the explanation for why new (or older existing) links are not being crawled yet.MOZ has it's own index, it does not contain all links on the internet. It's large, but still limited. So, in case of local listings, for example, MOZ doesn't crawl past few first couple hundreds results. Here is the topic on this matter: https://moz.com/community/q/local-listings-aren-t-being-crawled
Also, the OSE index is updated about once a month, so, if you deleted/disavowed backlinks after last update (date can be found here), it will not show changes for sure.
And lastly, Even if you disavow backlinks through Google, they are not being removed from it's existance, they are still on those forums/sites/etc, they are just not being counted by Google as link-juice passing entities.
So, to sum up: Google "link:" search operator is inaccurate, mozscape index is being updated every month, not every day, at the same time crawling only "surface" links, and disavow doesn't equal deletion.
Hope this helps!
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
-
Ranking keywords are not showing for my site
Hi, I have started my website 6 months ago and many of my site's keywords are ranking but when I explore my site Get YoWhatsApp in Moz site explorer, it doesn't show ranking keywords there, I'm a little bit confused about this, when my site's keywords will be shown there? Atqd4Bf
Link Explorer | | GetYoWhatsApp0 -
Why moz and ahrefs reported a remove link that is exist?
Hi in last few days I checked my website in moz link explorer and ahrefs and it showed lots of my backlink as removed! But when I checked this on the browser its OK is there any problem with these tools? Anyone has this problem? Thanks
Link Explorer | | namibiagonzo0 -
WP Events Calendar Creates URLs Too Long in Site Crawler
My travel/tourism site is on WP and using an Events plugin that ads a calendar of events to many pages. The MOZ crawler is indexing almost 46K links with a URL too long, but the site only has about 3.8K pages indexed in Google. I can tell MOZ is indexing the same pages over and over again but just adding a random calendar month and year. Here are some examples. https://www.visitcurrituck.com/four-day-stay/?full=1&long_events=1&country[0]=US&ajaxCalendar=1&mo=10&yr=2003 https://www.visitcurrituck.com/four-day-stay/?full=1&long_events=1&country%5B0%5D=US&ajaxCalendar=1&mo=10&yr=2034 https://www.visitcurrituck.com/beach-houses-family-time/?full=1&long_events=1&country%5B0%5D=US&ajaxCalendar=1&mo=1&yr=1873 Any advice on how to prevent MOZ from indexing this way? I don't believe that Google is seeing this also, but maybe they are. I just know my site has over 63K issues and I'm sure at least 75% or more is because of the way they are picking up on the events calendar. Thanks!
Link Explorer | | CinivaAgency1 -
My site links to my clients not showing in Moz
I've got a web design business with a site that's been out there for 17 years - www.biztoolsone.com. I've got links to my clients' sites in my portfolio page. The backlinks list for my clients, when I check them in Moz, don't show the links from this site. They always showed in the list until a few months ago. The site has a DA of 59 & PA (for home page) of 50. The spam score is 0/17. I'm having a tough time telling my clients that the Moz backlinks list is accurate when that site doesn't show in the list. The same is true for www.fayettevillenc.biz - this is one I created years ago to generate backlinks. It's got a spam score of 4/17, so I'm a little more understanding of that one. Thanks for any guidance!
Link Explorer | | wcksmith10 -
Really slow to load results on Open Explorer and "error fetching your data" messages
Hi, I am new to Moz and I'm finding using Open Explorer a real pain and frustrating, not only is it really slow, but for the past couple of days I've been getting "error fetching your data" messages when trying to show links etc. Is this just generally what its like or is there another problem?
Link Explorer | | Dave_B0 -
Which links are most powerful
If I am analyzing a competitor website, how can I see which websites are the most powerful to get links from? I am using Opensite Explorer.
Link Explorer | | vkpolar0 -
Why moz pro detects inexistent links?
I have a campaign in moz pro to my personal webpage for testing purposes and also a bit of learning. But i have a question: On link -> Link analysis i can see this: http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/chat/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/docs/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/down/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/foto/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/news/index.php?news=1 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/project/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/ro/index.php 404http://maqui.darkbolt.net/project/who/index.php 404Obviously all these address doesn't exist. There are links on the page project/index.php linking to, for example, /chat/index.php.How can i resolve this problem on the stats? There's something bad really on the page? As i can see all links on the page are working properly.
Link Explorer | | Er_Maqui0 -
External link numbers down year on year
Hi, Just wondering if anyone knows why a website that has definitely had some links acquired over the last year would now show less links and from fewer referring domains than they had this time last year? How is that possible - assume it is down to the way OSE / Moz crawl the web and collect data but need a definitive explanation for a client that has noticed the drop in link metrics and as a result authority. Many thanks,
Link Explorer | | lollowe0