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Google Search Console Link Report Tips

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Google search console tips

Google Search Console has a link report that offers useful insights about both external and internal links.

The report is available on the left column near the bottom. It simply says “Links”. Click there to see four major reports: top external links, top internal links, top linking sites and top linking text.

Publishers will find it worthwhile to review the report periodically, such as once a month, to ensure their sites are getting good link coverage.

Top Linked Pages

Top linked pages has a list of pages that have the most links to them from external websites. It puts the highest number of linked pages at the top as well as their “target pages”.

Click on any of the sites on the list to see greater detail, specifically a list of the target pages.

Why is the top linked pages report useful? Because it shows the quantity and quality of backlinks, which has a major impact on search rankings. Site publishers can disavow bad sites or focus on attracting backlinks from sites in important content categories.

Search console links report

This snapshot shows the number of links from a single external site.

Top Linking Sites

This report is a close cousin of the Top Linked Pages report. It lists the sites with the most backlinks.

Clicking on the “More” button will show the number of unique links to your website from other websites. It includes the number of linking pages on the external sites as well as the landing pages on the publisher’s site.

Ideally, this report will show an increasing number of linking sites but not an increasing number of links from any individual site. An external site with 50 low quality links is unlikely to have the same positive impact as an external site with one high quality link.

The report is an opportunity to identify and disavow spam links using Google’s disavow tool. It’s hidden within the search console. Publishers will more easily find it by using the Google search engine and the term “google disavow tool”.

Top Internal Links

How much internal linking has an impact on search engine rankings for individual site pages is a matter of debate.

But there is no question that the quantity and location of internal links has an impact on visitor behavior. They also have an impact on analytics such as bounce rate and pages per visit.

Like the external links report, the internal report shows the pages with the most links at the top and the ones with the fewest at the bottom. Not surprisingly, there are many more internal links than external links.

The internal links report is useful because site publishers can check pages with the fewest internal links and add more. The extra links will make it easier for both visitors and search engines to find them.

Top Linking Text

I find this report the least useful of the four Google search console link reports. It simply shows the text that external sites use in the backlinks.

Website publishers have little control or influence over what text other sites use in their links.

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