On a recent Thursday, I logged into Google Search Console expecting the usual link report, only to discover a significant issue—it had broken. For some, it displayed zero links, while others saw their reported links drop by nearly 90% from the previous week.
Google acknowledged the problem and decided to revert to older data temporarily as they worked on a fix. This means the link data you’re seeing might be weeks old.
Google’s Response: John Mueller of Google mentioned, “Thanks for the heads-up, Barry. We’ll take a look to see if there’s anything unexpected happening (given the long weekends, it might take a bit of time).”
By Saturday, the links seemed to reappear, but as Mueller explained, they had merely switched back to previous data as a temporary measure. “They’re working on resolving the actual issue and in the meantime switched back to the data from the week before.”
Old Data: If you check your link report now, it displays old information. This is crucial to keep in mind if you’re using this data for reports to clients or stakeholders.
The Bug’s Impact: Many folks noticed either zero links or a drastic drop exceeding 85%. Here’s a screenshot highlighting the problem:
Why It Matters: For those relying on this link data for generating reports, the inaccuracy can be problematic. Data pulled on that Thursday might not be reliable.
While Google is addressing the issue, be prepared to work with data that’s temporarily outdated.
Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.
