Open Site Explorer and link numbers

[eatyourveggies]

I know this question has been asked many times in this forum but I still can't work it out.

Why does this link:

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.bookpal.com.au&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=external&target=subdomain&group=0

Which is showing all links, external, to pages "on this sub domain" show 1,935 external links but this link:

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.bookpal.com.au&sort=page_authority&filter=follow&source=external&target=subdomain&group=0

which is exactly the same but this time shoing followed + 301 links, says "showing 1 - 50 external links) but won't show the total links (and I know the mouse-over on the question mark says it's won't show the total links, but I don't understand why it can't show the total links when it could show the total links when I requested to see "all links" instead of just "followed+301" links.)

but it actually lists 700 links (14 pages, 50 results each page). I know the link list is limited to 25 links per domain but then it means you can NEVER know the total link count unless you download the full report.

This makes using OSE to know numbers of links (internal, external, or otherwise) impossible.

And if anyone uses the API, why the API (external+follow) returns 1,451 links?

I'm sure it's an ongoing issue with people trying to get their head around all of this and I've never really been able to.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

[SamWeber]

Hi!

Although the data has changed a bit since you posted this question, the reasoning behind what you see in OSE is still the same.  The reason we show total link counts but don't break down follow counts is due to a limitation in the way the API is set up with OSE.  This is also why we only report 25 links per linking root domain in the app and exports.

The only way around this would be to set up API access which would give you what amounts to a "firehose" of data.  It would then be up to you to parse the information as needed.  Hopefully that answers your question

Best,

Sam
Moz Helpster