Different number of backlinks (Search console - Majestic)

[skrauss]

Hi there,

I saw a notable difference between the number of backlinks from ref domains to my website in search console and majestic.

I basically have two questions: why such a difference? And which tool gives me the most accurate number between these two?

Thank you!

[ThomasHarvey]

It'll vary because of the crawlers, each company will have a different amount of sites in their database, and they will also have a different process to get their data live in their console. Honestly I would take each with a grain of salt and just try and use them as a rough guide.

[Travis_Bailey]

There will likely always be a significant variance between backlink tools. They have to first discover the links, and later determine if the links are still there. It's a pretty big job to do, for the entire internet.

Google Search Console will show you a sampling of links. You'll seldom ever get anywhere near the whole story from them. Unless, the site is new. I've still seen months long delays in reporting totally legit backlinks.

Majestic is pretty good. I've always found their metrics to be something of a gobble-dee-guk, which is only useful for comparisons between sites - within Majestic.

aHrefs is another backlink tool. And they do a fine job. But still, they have to update their database after crawls. The same as anyone else.

Open Site Explorer has always kind of lagged, but it's another source you should consider for backlink data.

So, no one tool has all of the information. I don't think that will happen for at least 10 years, if not more.

The reasons various tools lack certain information varies. Some tools, like ahrefs, are actually on the 'bad bots list'. And some webmasters use that to block their official bot from crawling their site. Thus no links would be discovered through their official bot, where sites block their bot.

Backlink research is as post-modern as it gets. (read: literature) You're seldom privileged with all the information. The sources you think should be authoritative aren't.

The answer has been, and will be for a while, seek out an array of backlink data information. No one thing is going to do it for you.

[Marketing-Omoda]

Google's primary objective is to give users the best experience, off course they do so by crawling the entire web for the most relevant results based on their search queries.

Google's Search Console is a free service that provides you with links Google the came across / found in the before mentioned proces.

With this in mind, be aware that Google does not crawl the web to give you as a webmaster the most recent en relevant backlink reports.

many links in Google's Search Console can therefore be old, non-existing links (even in most recent link reports)
Another shortcoming of Search Console in my opinion, is that is show where links are/were FROM, but not where they link TO.

I personally think paid services such as MOZ, Majestic en Ahrefs do better jobs at this, because their primary objective is to give webmasters / SEM's the best experience, not searchers.