One of the most popular questions on r/SEO in Reddit is, "Why does Google Search Console not show all backlinks to a website, even though the links are indexed and 'follow'?"
Since the replies on the platform were not comprehensive, I made this into a post to help anyone understand why this is happening and what they can do about it.
Here is the initial question on Reddit:
Common Reasons Google Search Console Not Showing Links
When you get a backlink from another domain, and this does not show up in Google Search Console Reports, it's usually because of one of these reasons:
- GSC does not show all links Google knows about a website
- The link is new, and the reports have not been updated yet
- The page the link is on has the noindex, nofollow robots meta tag
- GSC tables show 1,000 links, and exports are capped too
- There was an issue with Google Search Console Data
- GSC and link tools use different methods to crawl and count links
1. GSC does not show all links Google knows about a website
The first reason a link does not appear in Google Search Console reports is that GSC does not show all links that Google knows about a website. If you monitor your links data over a long period, you'll notice inconsistent data.
You may experience huge spikes or drops over time that don't necessarily reflect the actual number of links pointing to your website.
As stated by Google in their documentation, the GSC links report isn’t a comprehensive list of every link. It shows a sample of internal and external links, and some URLs are left out, for example links from pages that are not indexed.
A few other things about the report explain why the numbers can look wrong:
- It includes links Google has found over time, so some of them may have been removed since, or the linking page may no longer exist.
- It doesn’t tell you whether a link is nofollow.
- Data is grouped by root domain, so links to the www and non-www, http and https, and subdomain versions of your site are all counted together.
- Duplicate links (the same source URL linking to the same target URL) are combined into one.
2. The link is new, and the reports have not been updated yet
When you get a new link, it may take some time to show up in the GSC links report. The data in the report is not real-time, and even if the page the link is on is indexed, the link will not show up immediately in the report.
3. The page the link is on has the noindex, nofollow robots meta tag
Another reason that might keep a link from showing in Google Search Console is the noindex, nofollow robots meta tag. A page may be available online, but if it defines "noindex nofollow" in the header, it won't be indexed by Google, and thus, the links will not be counted.
To check if this is the case, navigate to the page using Google Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page, and select "View Page Source" from the dropdown menu.
Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) to search the page and look for "robots". If you see something similar to the screenshot below, Google will not index the page or follow any links.
4. GSC tables show 1,000 links, and exports are capped too
When you navigate the links report, each table shows a maximum of 1,000 rows. On a site with many links, the link you’re looking for may simply not be in the table.
To see more, use the EXPORT button on the main Links report page (top right). It lets you download up to 100,000 rows as a CSV file or a Google Sheet, in two versions:
- Latest links: the most recently discovered links to your site, sorted by discovery date. This is the best place to look for a new link.
- More sample links: a sample of links taken from the full set of links Google knows about.
Even the export is not a complete list, but it shows far more than the 1,000-row tables. Exporting a single table (for example, Top linking sites) still gives you only up to 1,000 rows.
5. There was an issue with Google Search Console Data
The Google Search Console links report may be experiencing bugs, and the data may be messed up. As mentioned above, if you notice large drops in the number of reported links, check if there is a confirmed bug. X and the @googlesearchc (Google Search Central) account are the best places to do this.
6. GSC and link tools use different methods to crawl and count links
Another important factor to consider when analyzing your links is that Google Search Console and backlink checker tools use different methods to find and report links.
Google Search Console relies on Google’s indexing process to discover links, while backlink checkers like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz use their own crawlers and databases, which can sometimes discover links that GSC has missed and vice versa.
As we'll see below, it’s best to cross-reference data from multiple sources to get a comprehensive view of your backlink profile.
How To Check Your Backlinks In Google Search Console
Before you conclude that a link is missing, make sure you are looking in the right place. Here is how to check your backlinks in Google Search Console:
- Log in and select your property. Choose the website from the property menu at the top left. If you haven’t set it up yet, first add your website to Google Search Console.
- Click Links in the left menu. It’s near the bottom of the menu.
- Look at the External links section. It has three tables: Top linked pages (your pages with the most links), Top linking sites (the domains that link to you most), and Top linking text (the anchor text other sites use).
- Drill down. Click MORE under a table to see the full list, then click a site to see which of your pages it links to, or a page to see which sites link to it.
- Export the latest links. To check whether a specific new link has been picked up, use the EXPORT button on the main Links page and choose Latest links.
If the link is still not there, go through the reasons above. And if Search Console shows other errors on your site, our guide on how to fix errors in Google Search Console will help.
How To Find All Links Pointing To Your Website
You can combine data from several sources to get a more accurate view of all the inbound links pointing to your website. Follow these steps:
1. Export data from Google Search Console - On the main Links report page, click EXPORT and choose Latest links or More sample links (up to 100,000 rows). Exporting the Top linking sites table gives you only the top 1,000 sites.
2. Export data from Bing Webmaster Tools - Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's Google Search Console version for Bing Users. If you don't have an account, create one, navigate to the Backlinks report, and click the DOWNLOAD ALL button to get the data in Excel.
3. Export data from your favorite link-building tool - Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs allow you to export link data in Excel format. For Semrush, go to "Backlink Analysis", select Backlinks, and click the Export button.
4. Merge files and exclude duplicate rows - Once you get the data in Excel, merge the files (the easiest way is to copy/paste the rows from one to the other) and use the REMOVE DUPLICATES feature to list only unique domains.
While this method can give you a more accurate view of your link profile, it involves manual work, making the process time-consuming. I recommend choosing a third-party tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, SERanking, or Moz and using that to analyze your links and run link-building campaigns.
Remember, whichever method you choose, you'll never get a 100% view of how many links point to your website. The web is changing fast; links are added and deleted constantly, and tracking every single one is rarely worth the time.
What you do with the data depends on why you’re looking. If you’re tracking a link-building campaign, check that your new links appear in the Latest links export. If your traffic dropped, look for links you lost from important sites. If you’re worried about spammy links, Google says it ignores most of them, so they rarely need any action.
Instead of measuring links, focus on getting links from high-quality websites that can improve your rankings and traffic. Link building is not a numbers game, but it's a matter of getting links from websites that can move the needle.
Learn More About Links
To learn more about backlinks and link building, use the following resources:
- Link Building Techniques - actionable ways to get links to your website.
- What Are Backlinks - why they matter and how to get them.
- Link Building Articles - updated with new content weekly.
