Why Does Google Hide Links?

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7
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.
#search engine optimization #google #hide #links
  • i think those days google hide and ignore everything
    • [1] reply
    • 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

  • 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.
  • Banned
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    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      [DELETED]
    • 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.
      • [1] reply
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    Why Does Google Hide Links?

    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.