Earlier this week, we reported on some declines in the number of links reported in the Google Search Console links report. Well, it got a lot worse this morning, and now everyone is seeing huge declines in the link report.
I am glad I captured a screenshot of my link count that day because today it is a lot less. In fact, it is about 40% links being reported from just a few days ago. I went from 287,000 links to 177,000 links.
Here is what I see now:
Here is what I saw on May 27, 2024:
Here are some of the complaints online:
I don’t know if anyone is interested… GSC reports far too few links. Last week the number (internal links) was 13x higher. Homepage links are completely missing. #SEO @SEO_Suedwest @rustybrick @JohnMu @danielwaisberg @googlesearchc pic.twitter.com/UtitQcdm3T
β Christian Radny (@ChrisRadny) May 30, 2024
Is there a bug in Search Console link report? π
Many websites are seeing a huge drop in backlinks.
And some zero alsoβοΈ@rustybrick @JohnMu #SEO @googlesearchc pic.twitter.com/lM8WB9tsKhβ Abhishek Ghoniya (@abhiicheck) May 30, 2024
90% of our backlinks are gone today on multiple websites. Another issue?
β Goddess Dilek (@Evilworld1234) May 30, 2024
There are also complaints in the comments area here and in the forums.
Google has historically shown fewer and fewer links over the years.
Here is a screenshot from June 2023 showing 215,000 links:
Here is a screenshot from July 2022 showing 550,000 links:
October 2019 at 1.2 million links:
August 2018 at 2.5 million links:
Did you notice a drop in links in this report? If so, how bad?
Does it even matter anyway? π
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help Forums.
Update: Daniel Waisberg from Google said the team is looking into it:
Looking into it
β Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) May 31, 2024
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