What is Google Search Console Links Report?
The Google Search Console (GSC) Links report gives you information about your site’s backlinks – IE, links from external websites pointing to your – and internal links – links to your site pointing to other pages of your site.
Search engines generally see backlinks as voices of trust. Which means backlinks from reputable and relevant sites can help your content rank higher in search results.
Internal links, on the other hand, help to search engines to discover pages of your site. And help users navigate to different pages.
Why is the links report useful for SEO?
GSCS LINKS Report helps you find relevant data on backlinks and internal links so you can refine your link techniques to try to improve the locations.
LINKS Report shows you the following data:
- Top Linked Pages: Pages on your site that get the most backlinks
- Toplink pages: External sites that link the most to you
- Top Linking Text: The most common anchor text (link text) used in links to your site
- Top Internal Connected Pages: Pages on your site with the most internal links
And it looks like this:
The links report in GSC does not deliver the full picture because the data is sampled, they can show links you have since lost, it does not distinguish between valuable follow -in link and less valuable nofollow links, etc.
So it is useful to supplement this data with information from Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.
How to get access to and navigate
Access the Google Search Console links report by logging into your GSC account.
After logging, select the appropriate feature from the roller at the top. Then click “Links“At the bottom of the left menu.
Let’s look at what you can do from here.
Get external links data
The “External Links” column shows data as which of your pages have the most backlinks that sites link to each page and which anchor text the sites used.
Click one of the links under “Top Linked Pages” to see:
- How many backlinks target side have
- How many places link to that side
- A list of domains that link to the target side
Get data on internal links
The “Internal Links” column shows data such as how your pages are linked to each other, which can help Google find relevant and related pages on your site.
Click one of the pages under “Top Linked Pages” to see:
- How many internal links point to that page
- A list of pages linking to that side
ExportLink Report Data
You can export both external and internal link data for further analysis to an Excel document or similar software.
Click “Export external links“In the upper right corner and select”Latest links“To export a list of the latest backlinks to your site.
Or choose ”More examples of links“To export a sample of the full list of backlinks to your site.
You can also extract more granular data by clicking ”More>“Under Main Dashboard reports and clicks on”Export”The button on the corresponding page.
How to interpret link data
The Google Search Console links report can help you improve your external and internal interconnection strategies. How to use each report:
Top externally connected pages
Use this report to confirm that you have multiple backlinks pointing to important pages (such as your website and product pages) compared to less important pages.
Review which pages may need more backlinks so you know where to focus your link -seeking effort.
Toplink pages
See through your list of top coupling sites to make sure they are all relevant and high quality. And consider if there are any sites you might want a link from that you don’t look at the list.
For example, a health business would greatly benefit from receiving a Backlink from WebMD, an authoritative source of medical news.
Links from low-quality or spammy sites probably don’t improve your site’s location.
Top Linking Text
Review your links anktext to understand how search engines can see your site.
Anchor text provides context for search engines about the contents of the linked page. Ideally, the anchor text used in your backlinks should be relevant and varied.
Search engines can see over-optimized anchor text (such as using accurate match key words excessively) as manipulative. Which can damage your locations.
Top Internal Connected Pages
Check the Top Internal Linked Pages report to ensure that all pages of your site have internal links and that the most important pages receive the most links.
For example, a B2B SaaS startup can prioritize linking to product landing pages to make sure these pages have a better chance of emerging in the search results.
How to thoroughly analyze any site backlinks
Use dedicated Backlinks tools to analyze your Backlink profile in depth and review rival site’s backlinks to identify unused Backlink options.
Here’s how:
Open the Backlink Analytics tool, enter a domain you want to study, and click “Analyze. “
Go to ”Backlinks“The tab to view the sites that are currently linking to the site. Includes which pages they link to and the anchor text they use.
Use filters along the top of the report to find new and lost backlinks, follow and nofollow backlinks and more.
If you analyze your own site, it’s a good idea to look for lost backlinks.
You can then reach out to the most reputable domains (measure this by looking for sites with a high number in the “page as”) to try to get that link reinstated.
Pages of higher score can have a greater impact on your site and can help you rank higher.
Check your backlink -profile health
Performing a Backlink Avision helps you determine the quality, amount and relevance of your backlinks. So you can reveal ways to strengthen your Backlink strategy.
Open the Backlink Audit tool and follow our configuration steps to add your site. You can connect the Backlink Audit tool with your Google Search Console to increase the accuracy of each revision.
It, ”Overview“The tab highlights general information about your Backlink profile. Like toxicity score-a sign that you may have too many low quality links. And how many domains associate you (shown as” referring domains “).
Google is generally aiming to ignore spammy links instead of punishing the target domain.
So there is usually no need to worry. And you can work to balance a low score by getting more high quality links.
And it’s simple with Semrush’s Link Building Tool.
Try it today.
This post was updated in 2025. Excerpt from the original article by Ajdin Perco may remain.