Google Search Console Links Report Appears to Show Fewer Links: What SEOs Should Know
Many SEO professionals are noticing something unusual inside Google Search Console. It looks like the Google search console links report is showing fewer links than it did before, and in some cases, a big drop. This has raised questions across the SEO community about whether this is a reporting bug, a data refresh issue, or a quiet change on Google’s end.
Several site owners noticed that their external link numbers suddenly went down, even though they did not remove links or make any big changes to their sites. One example shows a site that had around 350,000 external links earlier this year, but now the report shows fewer than 150,000 links. That is a drop of more than half, which naturally raised questions.
Vijay Chauhan was the first to talk about this problem on X and Bluesky. After that, more SEOs looked at their own Search Console accounts and saw that their traffic had also dropped. Not every site seems to be affected, but a lot of people are saying that something is wrong.
Is this a real loss of links?
Right now, there isn’t a clear sign that Google is getting rid of or ignoring these links. Most signs point to a problem with reporting rather than a real loss of backlinks. Google Search Console has had problems with its links report many times in the past. Similar issues have appeared before, and Google later fixed them without much explanation.
Google has also said before that the links report does not show all links. It only shows a sample to help site owners understand link patterns. Because of this, the numbers in the report can change from time to time, even if nothing has changed on your website.
Should You Worry About Rankings?
Most sites don’t need to worry. If your search traffic, rankings, and indexing are all normal, then the drop in the Google search console links report probably isn’t bad for your site. Many SEOs say that their traffic has stayed the same even though they have fewer links.
Don’t make quick decisions based only on this report. Taking away links, denying domains, or assuming a penalty without clear proof can be worse than doing nothing.
What SEOs need to do right now
You can do these simple things:
- To compare link data, look at other backlink tools.
- Keep a close eye on your traffic and rankings.
- Don’t make big changes to your SEO just because of this report.
- Keep an eye on Search Console for new information.
Google may fix this bug without saying anything, like it has done before. After a future update, the numbers might go back to normal.
Last Thoughts
Problems like this show us that Google Search Console is useful, but not perfect. The links report has always been less reliable than other parts, in particular. The best thing to do is stay calm and focus on how well the whole site is doing until Google confirms what’s going on.
People in the SEO community will probably keep talking about this on sites like X and Bluesky, so check back for updates. We should see the data settle down again if Google responds or fixes the problem