Backlink Tool Finding Links That Aren't Visible
-
I'm using a variety of backlink toolsl; OSE, SEM Rush, Link Research Tools and Google Webmaster Tools.
On some occasions the tools are telling me there is a link to my site on a certain page, however when I open that page I can't see any mention of my company.
I have run all these reports today, so I think it is unlikely that Google is using old data.
Does anyone know why this happens and if I should still be concerned about links that I cannot see but backlink tools are telling me are there?
Thanks guys.
-
Have you tried using ahrefs.com? It seems to update its index on a daily or almost daily basis, which is much faster than OSE and GWT.
-
It doesn't really matter when you run the reports, the bots/spiders are crawling and refreshing their index on set timeframes. When you "run a report" you're doing just that, you're getting a report of the last crawl from that particular bot.
So for example, OSE's last refresh was on **May 21, 2014 **and it's next isn't til June 18th.
That being said, none of them are going to be perfect and complete also.
When you say "unlikely that Google is using old data" it makes me think you're focusing on the GWT backlink analysis which is arguably the weakest of those mentioned.
All of those things combined should explain why you are seeing things that may not be there. Hope that 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
-
Referral Data Q's
1. We recently ran a promotion on both FB and Reddit, which is https, linking to our non-https site. We utilized UTM links to our landing page. Our GA campaign data returned extremely low hits in comparison to what we actually received (and recorded via FB/Reddit dashboard). Obviously our Direct traffic spiked during these times, caused by a secure to nonsecure referral, I'm sure. I'm also noticing a spike in referral traffic from lm.facebook.com that correlates to the ad times. Does this mean Facebook's link shim is stripping away my UTM data? My question is why we receive SOME properly UTM-tagged referral traffic in our campaigns? What's allowing some of it to go through? 2. I've tagged our email signature links with UTM as well, hoping to clean up some of our Direct traffic. I understand that external clients like Outlook and Thunderbird likely won't pass referral data, but do hosted clients like Gmail, Yahoo, and such? And if so, would the https to http difference obstruct this again? I'd love some insight onto these questions, especially if I'm off the mark with a few of my assumptions there.
Reporting & Analytics | | kirmeliux0 -
I've seen 4webmasters.org/default.apsx as a referrer, but now it's showing as top page visited
I've seen 4webmasters.org/default.apsx as a referrer, but now it's showing as top page visited. How is this happening and how do I fix it?
Reporting & Analytics | | Stamats0 -
Types of Links
I am not sure what the difference is between the different types of links...my competitors exceed my site in certain types, and lag behind in other types...I'm trying to figure out which are more important maybe? Followed Linking Root Domains External "Followed" Links vs External links Linking C-Blocks Just trying to understand the general differences...
Reporting & Analytics | | sdwellers0 -
Google webmaster links vs Moz Reporte do follow links
A bit confused about my seo reports for a site I am tracking in Moz. Google webmaster reports i have 1836 links to my domain.
Reporting & Analytics | | KenW
Moz reports 273 external followed links.
Website Auditor reports 449 dofollow and 338 no follow.> total 787
What is important factor that I should be reporting to my client that really matters?0 -
How can you add a rel canonical tag if you haven't created the wrong pages?
For one of our white paper campaigns we are getting multiple URL's some how but we only have one version of the page. So do I put the rel canonical tag on that one single page? Will that fix the other url's from being indexed? I'm assuming people are typing in the urls with underscores and capital or non-capital letters and it's showing up that way in analytics. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Sika220 -
Too many links because mega menu within wordpress
I have a mega menu on my website with a lot of product categories. In my site analysis its coming up as a problem because there are too many links and its on every page. Is this something i should worry about or how should i correct it?
Reporting & Analytics | | Inbuilds0 -
SEOMoz & Google Webmaster Tools crawl error conflicting info
Site im working on has zero crawl errors according to SEOMoz (it did previously have lots since ironed out) but now looking at GWebmaster Tools saying 5000 errors. Date of those are not that recent but Webmaster Tools line graph of errors still showing aprox 5000 up to yesterday There is an option to bulk action/tick them all as fixed so thinking/hoping GWT just keeping a historical record that can now be deleted since no longer applicable. However i'm not confident this is the case since still showing on the line graph. Any ideas re this anomalous info (can i delete and forget in GWT) ? Also side question I take it its not possible to link a GA property with a GWT account if created with different logins/accounts ? Many Thanks Dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Fb, twitter, etc stats tool?
I once saw a tool (from Distilled, I think?) where you would input your blog post or page URL, and it would give you a table showing how many Facebook likes, Tweets, etc that page has gotten. Does anyone have the URL for this or a similar tool?
Reporting & Analytics | | AdamThompson0