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.
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
-
Our Firefox organic traffic seems to have been re-allocated to direct - anyone know why?!
In Google Analytic, the majority of organic traffic via Firefox browsers to one of our websites suddenly dropped off, and an immediate lift in direct traffic via Firefox browsers appeared. This trend has continued ever since. I've searched to find Firefox releases that might have affected it (eg. security/cookie settings), but haven't been able to find anything, or talk of this happening to other people, and the anomaly doesn't appear in our other website analytics either...anyone have any ideas?! The attached GA graphs show Firefox browser versions 21.0 and 22.0, but it's the same story across all versions. (You can also see that I'd also filtered out traffic via IOS 6 and Android 4 operating systems to remove any effect from these known issues). Thanks for any help that you can offer! kPRnrcd.png dy0Bjg7.png
Reporting & Analytics | | HubMDP1 -
Tools For Analysing Backlinks
Does anyone know of a good tool that analyses backlinks? I have already tried Link Research Tools and found it very useful but it is very expensive. Does anyone know of an alternative that does the same thing, i.e. will tell you what links are causing harm to your site?
Reporting & Analytics | | AAttias0 -
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 -
Google Analytics: Deleted Profile
Has anyone ever successfully managed to have a deleted GA profile restored? One of our client's profiles was deleted accidentally. I know the official line is it can't be restored, but...
Reporting & Analytics | | David_ODonnell0 -
Backlink Profile in Webmaster Tools
The quest for the "accurate" backlink profile never ends. We now have Webmaster Tools to help us with this search. My question is whether the backlink profile according to WT is the backlink profile according to Google. Do Google's search algorithms and WT synch up? If this is the case, forget OSE and MajesticSEO, WT will be the main backlink analysis tool I use going forward. Thanks for any insight.
Reporting & Analytics | | b40040400 -
Deciphering Facebook backlinks
I monitor our web traffic in real time using Woopra. I often make on-the-fly decisions about which AliveChat window to activate based on the backlink. The FB backlinks are encoded with something like http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.mydomain.com/&h=PAQFRib7D Is it possible to see which FB page that link originated? Best,
Reporting & Analytics | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0 -
Backlinks vs Incoming links
Hi, I've been getting stuck into some SEO analysis for a company I work for and I am a little confused. I've tried a search to get an answer but this has ended up being more confusing. The company has been around for decades and their website since 1996. I read everywhere about 'backlinks'. My SEO toolbar shows ZERO backlinks in Google but 218 in Bing. Google Webmaster tools shows nearly 2,000 incoming links from other sites. Is a backlink the same as an incoming link? Why is this tool showing zero? I am even getting email from SEO spammers saying my backlink count is ZERO. But I can see links everywhere I look to the site. Also, on the link analysis tool with SEOMOZ a competitor is showing 3000 external showing links with 250,000 total links. My site is showing 50 and 470 respectively. I have spent the best part of two years getting the site listed in industry related directories. We have paid for entries in Yahoo and some other high (PR) -ranking directories. Prior to me there was someone else adding the site to directories and getting incoming links from industry related sites. So this has been going on a while. Why are the backlings showing as zero but links from external sites showing over 1800? Thanks TT
Reporting & Analytics | | TheTub0 -
On what report do I get to know where do the external links come from?
I need to get a list of the external links. I don't find that report, where do I get it?
Reporting & Analytics | | carloscontinua0