Why do I see only a few backlinks?

Where to look

Open Analyse → Backlinks → Overview. The card Where your backlinks come from reads only what is already stored: opening it never buys data.

What it shows

• Your own profile: which source reads it and what the last check found (linking websites, how many are listed, and the check's own notes, for example when the month's allowance limited the list).
• Your competitors: how they are measured. When your site and your competitors were measured from different sources it says so, because a gap website may then already link to you.
• Other sources: our web watch, our own crawler, imported files, Bing and the links you monitor, each with whether it is on, how many websites it found and when it last found something.
• Recent errors from the data source for this project's checks, with the date. The reason is shown to our team only.
• Why you may see fewer backlinks than you expect, from the data above.

The usual reasons

1. The built-in link checker. Without a licensed backlink index, your profile is read by the built-in checker, which only checks the links listed under Link health. It does not search the web, so a link nobody listed is not in your profile.
2. The index has not found them. A backlink index only lists the links its own crawler found. Small and local businesses are often linked from directories, forums and local sites it has not crawled.
3. Part of the list. A check can read only part of a long list (the month's backlink data allowance); its notes say so.
4. Errors. The data source can fail or be paused for a while; the card lists recent failures.

What to do next

• Import the Search Console links export: Google Search Console has no links API, so export the links and import the file under Found on the web. Files from Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz or a spreadsheet work the same way.
• A full backlink index: ask for early access (or, for our team, set it up under Backlink data).
• The web watch: our free bot reads public pages for your website, name and phone; ask for early access while it shows Beta.
• Add the links you know under Link health.