Links from other websites to your own are vital for ranking well in Google’s search results; however, links from disreputable sources could land you with a manual action. As such, information on your link profile is vital, so you know who is linking to you and can gain additional insight on the kind of websites you would like to get links from in future.
Unfortunately, there can be a problem in gaining in-depth information on your links, as Google Search Console can appear to limit how many domains it displays from your backlink profile. At one point, Google Search Console would only show up to 1,000 of the domains linking to your website.
This could be enough to show a good selection of the links you have, but for bigger or older websites, you need a larger data set. This is especially crucial if you want to audit your links, but you’re unable to see some of the links that may need removing.
So – what can you do to solve the issue?
I have been able to download data for one website with details of over 10,000 domains linking to the website in question.
Once logged into Google Search Console, select the Search Traffic tab, then click the option marked ‘Links to Your Site’ (see below):
You are given the following three options for downloading a comprehensive view of your backlinks:
The first two will only give a limited amount of link data, up to 1,000 links or less. By choosing ‘Download latest links’, you can view an expansive list of links in the form of a CSV, allowing you to start the process of fully understanding your link profile.
If you want to get a better view of your backlink profile, Google have made it possible, if you know where to look. Assuming your site is currently suffering from a manual action, you will be able to see the links that could be causing problems and remove them. If you don’t have any links that could be problematic, then you will be able to see the kind of links you could target in future to improve your website.