Search Console says 111 links. Moz says 3\. Do I have a site problem?
-
I understand that Moz doesn't show all links; but i would think that out of 111 links from 43 root domains, they'd at least show 20 or 30 root domains. I definitely have more than 3 credible sites linking back to me. So do I have an issue? I've been trying to get my site ranking for 9 months, and I've tried EVERYTHING. Still no significant movement. Please help me figure out what's going on.
I've been trying to get my site ranking for 9 months, and I've tried EVERYTHING. Still no significant movement. I'm wondering—maybe even hoping—that this will help me uncover a problem that could set the whole thing back on course. Please help me figure out what's going on.
-
This is a great discussion and I appreciate the dialogue and awesome answers here.
I'm performing a backlink profile and developing a 301 redirect strategy for a website that has a forthcoming relaunch. I've found success using multiple platforms, including the magnificent MOZ.
And I agree with Erica, not every platform, including Google, crawls the entire web. I use multiple platforms. For example, in Google Search Console the website I'm working on shows 10,000+ backlinks. Most of them are the main domain (e.g. website.com).
But, a backlink profile ran in ahrefs.com shows around 5,000+ backlinks. What I've discovered in ahrefs is that the website has thousands of backlinks linking to other pages on the website (website.com/page-one, website.com/page-two, etc). This is really helping with my 301 redirect strategy and will help retain link equity when the new website launches.
So, yes! Use multiple platforms to discover your website's backlinking profile and choose your battles from there.
I recommend:
- MOZ, of course
- ahrefs.com
- SEMrush.com
- Majestic.com
- Google Search Console
Happy backlinking to you all and good luck Jared!
- MOZ, of course
-
The tool is ahrefs
-
That's great! What's the tool? I'd like to see about getting a subscription.
-
Hi Jared,
I'm seeing 56 referring domains and 288 backlinks pointing to that domain in the tool that we use.
-
You already received a lot of helpful suggestions. Have you ever tried http://www.backlinkwatch.com/ ? I use that sometimes to get an extra opinion. I use Semrush as well and always see a difference from that and webmaster tools and etc..
-
Thanks, Erica. I appreciate your time and attention!
-
Definitely. And I understand the tool not showing spammy sites. I just thought that it'd have more of my quality links up. Perhaps with time it will.
-
Thanks so much, Chris. I'm working www.drugjustice.com.
-
Hi Jared,
The comments below are correct. Moz's index isn't a complete view of the web, but we try to crawl quality sites out there. Our index is always growing. But to be frank, no one -- not even Google -- crawls the entire web. There are just too many pages out there and computing power is expensive.
We focus on quality sites because we believe (and hope) our customers and community are focusing on high quality links that are still active, which are going to give them the best SEO results. (Also a huge part of the web is just spam nonsense.) Many SEOs -- and I include myself here -- will use multiple sources of link indexing for the broadest view of the web and their sites. I use Moz's OSE and Google Webmaster Tools (free and big, but includes lots of spam, which can be great if you're fighting a Penguin penalty). Others will use OSE, GWT, and OSE competitors like Majestic and Ahrefs, especially if link building is huge for them and they want to account for every penny. Every index is a bit different.
-
Remember that Moz's index is not a complete index of the Internet. They freely note that https://moz.com/blog/mozscape-index-2015
You'll notice this index is a bit smaller than much of what we've released this year. That's intentional on our part, in order to get fresher, higher-quality stuff and cut out a lot of the junk you may have seen in older indices. DA and PA scores should be more accurate in this index (accurate meaning more representative of how a domain or page will perform in Google based on link equity factors), and that accuracy should continue to climb in the next few indices. We'll keep a close eye on it and, as always, report the metrics transparently on our index update release page.
Moz is aiming towards accurate representation, not completeness. I don't think that anyone but a complete spider like Google or Bing could tell you how many links you actually have.
-
Hi Jared,
No problem at all. If you're happy to share your URL here I can throw it into another one that we use and let you know what I see.
To do the right thing by the provider of that tool, I wouldn't be comfortable exporting all the data but I can at least let you know what sort of volume I see as far as referring domains.
Since you're seeing a decent number in Search Console, I doubt this is an issue. To my knowledge, there is nothing you can do on your site to block inbound inlinks from being counted, it has to be done on the other end.
-
Really appreciate you taking the time to answer, Chris. I would understand if other backlink checkers gave me a different answer, but SEMRush also says just 1. I know I have guest posts out there with links coming back. The links are _not _"nofollow" so I'm at a loss. Can you think of any reason why backlink checker tools all consistently agree that my backlinks don't exist? (Please excuse the tinge of desperation in my voice.)
-
Hi Jared,
Unfortunately this discrepancy is unlikely to be an indication of anything to do with your site. I have seen similar happen in the past and checked across the 3 major link profile tools and got wildly different numbers in each.
I'm a very big fan of Moz and their suite of tools but OSE is often the one to report the least number of domains by quite a margin so I wouldn't be surprised by what you're seeing.
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
-
Spam score by moz
como puedo estar seguro de que los enlaces toxicos que informa la herramienta moz spam score, son realmente malos para mi seo? Algunos de ellos parecen totalmente buenos! gracias!! as I can be sure that the toxic links moz tool reports the spam score, they are actually bad for my SEO? Some of them seem totally good!
Moz Pro | | Sbm20080 -
No data in Moz
Hello, Since last tuesday there has been no data in Moz anymore. The error code for the homepage says: '608 : Page not decodable as specified Content-Encoding:' I checked this list http://moz.com/help/pro/why-can-t-rogerbot-crawl-my-site but it doesn't tell me more.
Moz Pro | | MarcelMoz
Hopefully anyone can help me. Thanks, Marcel0 -
Help us with Moz Academy!
Hey Q&Aers! I just wanted to create a discussion thread here to talk solicit some feedback and help with Moz Academy! We want your help coming up with future lessons so we’re getting you the content you need. So, think about what you’d or your team would like to learn from Rand and others at Moz. Let us know! “So, what is Moz Academy?” you may ask. Well, Moz Academy gives subscribers the power to be better marketers, which will enable them to use Moz’s products with more depth and awesomeness. We want to provide a hub of marketing knowledge that will create a stronger community where people can teach each other while using Academy as a frame of reference. The key to this project is empowering you to kick even more ass than you already do! If you have any questions about Moz Academy, feedback about lessons, or ideas on a future curriculum please feel free to get involved in the discussion below. Looking forward to see what everyone comes up with.
Moz Pro | | Nick_Sayers1 -
Too many on-page links
I received a warning in my most recent report for too many on-page links for the following page: http://www.fateyes.com/blog/. I can't figure out why this would be. I am counting between 60-70 including all pull downs, "read more's", archive, category and a few additional misc. links. Any ideas or suggestions on this? Or what I might do to rectify? Perhaps it's just an SEOmoz report blip... We currently don't have the post list rolling to additional pages so it's kind of passively set up to be endless, but it's in the works.
Moz Pro | | gfiedel0 -
Open site explorer
"Unable to retrieve linking pages on this anchor at this time." This is the notice I get when trying to see links for anchor text. Can someone help?
Moz Pro | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
Old Incoming Links Redirected to new pages are not Being Factored on the Open Site Explorer
Hi, My website has been online since 1994. We have old links pointing to pages that no longer exist so what we have done is to create redirects to the specific page where the content is being displayed now. However, when we use the Open Site Explorer, the linking root domains do not show those sites that contain old links pointing to our domain. One good example of this one is: dmoz.org. Am I improperly handling the redirects? Or, what do I have to do so that old links that are being redirected to the new pages where the information is are accounted when calculating domain authority and trust? Thanks, Alex
Moz Pro | | costarica.com0 -
SEO Moz ranking reports
I am confused. The SEO Moz ranking reports state that my site show show up in a specific position in SERP for a specific keyword yet when I google the keyword the ranking is different. Are these ranking reports merely indicative or are they supposed to be accurate?
Moz Pro | | casper4340 -
Why are inbound links not showing up?
I'm new to SEOmoz but have a question regarding inbound links that I don't see posted in the forum. In order to become more familiar with SEOmoz tools, I've been checking out sites that friends and family members have created as practice. Things have been going really smooth until I came across a 2+ year old page that should have included an inbound link from wsj.com but said link is not appearing in OSE for this page. Background: A friend of mine has a (basically) defunct blog that had a pretty well trafficked posting in 2009. However, when I use OSE to check out both the domain and page inbound links, I don't see the aforementioned inbound link from wsj.com. Why is that? Or, it's insanely late - am I missing something? Friend's blog posting: http://bcclist.com/2009/04/21/craigslist-killer-megan-philipcom-removed/ WSJ posting with a link to my friend's blog (4th paragraph...anchor text = "taken down"): http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/21/who-is-megan-mcallister/ No rush. Again, I'm doing this as practice and being new to the site, I figure I'm overlooking something. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Moz Pro | | ICM0