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Why Does Google Hide Links?

by Carl Brown
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I was just wondering if anybody really knows why Google doesn't show all links?

In another thread I gave an example of a site who has the first six spots in Google for a keyword. He has 7,000 links according to ahrefs. Almost ALL are from wordpress footer links and Google only shows 34 links (I thing). I checked Bing and Yahoo and they show similar numbers.

I guess my question for those who really know (if anybody really can know), are those 6,966 backlinks ignored by Google if they're not being displayed? Maybe because they're footer links that's the answer for this site, but is it true for all sites I'm competing against? If it is true, then my competition for the #1 spot for this particular keyword really isn't that tough. I'm just trying to figure out exactly what I'm competing against.
#google #hide #links
  • Profile picture of the author affiliaterbuzz
    i think those days google hide and ignore everything
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      There are many reasons. First, who says they're not?
      Second, the internet is dynamic. Things move in and
      out at lightening speed. Even google does not know how
      many links a site has, nor do they care.

      There's many factors for a discrepancy in link
      numbers. Since there are several ways of going
      to the same link, www. domain.com, domain.com,
      domain.com/, domain.com/index.php, www. domain.com/index.php,
      etc....how are they treated?

      The bottom line is this. Google will show the links they
      like the most. Or, in some cases, actually count. Count
      being a relative term.

      What people here call a backlink, and I've called them
      on this several times, does not mean google calls
      it a backlink.

      You can actually get some valuable info on the stats
      you give.

      A) What links does google count? Can we come up
      with a reason why, and, maybe get more? If we see
      34 out of thousands, what does that say about the
      futility of getting more just like that?
      B) The sheer number of backlinks to a site have
      little if anything to do with a google ranking for
      any search at any given point in time.

      People should not extrapolate anything much
      more from the sheer number of links.

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author JCTorpey
    Originally Posted by Carl Brown View Post

    I was just wondering if anybody really knows why Google doesn't show all links?

    In another thread I gave an example of a site who has the first six spots in Google for a keyword. He has 7,000 links according to ahrefs. Almost ALL are from wordpress footer links and Google only shows 34 links (I thing). I checked Bing and Yahoo and they show similar numbers.

    I guess my question for those who really know (if anybody really can know), are those 6,966 backlinks ignored by Google if they're not being displayed? Maybe because they're footer links that's the answer for this site, but is it true for all sites I'm competing against? If it is true, then my competition for the #1 spot for this particular keyword really isn't that tough. I'm just trying to figure out exactly what I'm competing against.

    From my understanding, Google only shows indexed links. For example, you can have 150,000 links to your site, but if Google indexed only 10 of them, it will only show that there are 10 links when you search Google or check via Webmaster tools.

    Ahref is showing more (probably) because it is using a different algorithm and checks more than just google's indexed links. Hope that makes sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author John1iii
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by John1iii View Post

      I use Market Samurai, as well. The price tag may 'appear' high, however, IMHO, it is the best....and that price tag has paid for itself very easily.
      Ugh... Market Samurai is junk. Google Keyword Tool with SEO SpyGlass will give you much better information. Traffic Travis also does most of what MS does, but it's free.


      As for the original question, the biggest reason they are somewhat secretive about links is that the more information they give to us, the easier it would be to try to reverse engineer their algorithm or at least a good portion of it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Carl Brown
        Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

        As for the original question, the biggest reason they are somewhat secretive about links is that the more information they give to us, the easier it would be to try to reverse engineer their algorithm or at least a good portion of it.
        Thanks. I think most are missing what I'm asking.

        The site I was questioning has about 7,000 backlinks to the front page alone (according to ahrefs). Looks like zero links to any other page. The overwhelming majority of those links are from Wordpress footer links.

        Google shows 34 links (none are the Wordpress footer).

        Does Google hide those 7,000 links because they don't want to reveal everything to us, or does it mean they're not a part of the rankings calculation if they don't show them? Knowing this could help us all to understand what we're competing against.

        I know Google doesn't like these sorts of links, but the site hasn't been penalized (yet), and like I said, the site owns the top six positions in Google (with 34 links that Google displays)
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by Carl Brown View Post

          Thanks. I think most are missing what I'm asking.

          The site I was questioning has about 7,000 backlinks to the front page alone (according to ahrefs). Looks like zero links to any other page. The overwhelming majority of those links are from Wordpress footer links.

          Google shows 34 links (none are the Wordpress footer).

          Does Google hide those 7,000 links because they don't want to reveal everything to us, or does it mean they're not a part of the rankings calculation if they don't show them? Knowing this could help us all to understand what we're competing against.

          I know Google doesn't like these sorts of links, but the site hasn't been penalized (yet), and like I said, the site owns the top six positions in Google (with 34 links that Google displays)

          Google is aware of far more links than Ahrefs or any other backlink service is. Ahrefs, Majestic, SpyGlass, etc. do not have the resources to crawl and index as much of the internet as Google does. So it is definitely not a case of Ahrefs having information that Google does not.

          As for why Google doesn't show all the links they are aware of, like I said, it would give us a lot more information and data to use towards unraveling the algorithm. They don't want that. If it is your site though, GWT will show a more complete list of links. They are never going to say with 100% certainty what links they are counting and what links they are ignoring. That only benefits people trying to game the algorithm.

          In other words, you are never going to get a definitive answer to your question.
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