What Is the Google Search Console Links Report?
The Google Search Console (GSC) Links report gives you information about your site’s backlinks—i.e., links from external sites pointing to yours—and internal links—i.e., links on your site that point to other pages on your site.
Search engines generally see backlinks as votes of confidence. Which means backlinks from reputable and relevant sites may help your content rank higher in search results.
Internal links, on the other hand, help search engines discover pages on your site. And help users navigate to different pages.
Why Is the Links Report Helpful for SEO?
GSC’s Links report helps you find relevant data about backlinks and internal links, so you can refine your linking techniques to try to improve rankings.
The Links report shows you the following data:
- Top linked pages: Pages on your site that get the most backlinks
- Top linking sites: External sites that link to you the most
- Top linking text: The most common anchor text (link text) used in links to your site
- Top internally linked pages: Pages on your site with the most internal links
And it looks like this:
The Links report in GSC doesn’t provide the full picture because the data is sampled, it can show links you’ve since lost, it doesn’t distinguish between valuable follow links and less valuable nofollow links, etc.
So, it’s useful to supplement that data with information from Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.
How to Access and Navigate the Google Search Console Links Report
Access the Google Search Console Links report by logging in to your GSC account.
After logging in, select the relevant property from the drop-down at the top. Then, click “Links” at the bottom of the left-hand menu.
Let’s look at what you can do from here.
Get External Links Data
The “External links” column shows data like which of your pages has the most backlinks, which websites link to each page, and what anchor text those sites used.
Click on one of the links under “Top linked pages” to see:
- How many backlinks the target page has
- How many sites link to that page
- A list of domains that link to the target page
Get Internal Links Data
The “Internal links” column shows data like how your pages are linked to each other, which can help Google find relevant and related pages on your site.
Click on one of the pages under “Top linked pages” to see:
- How many internal links point to that page
- A list of pages that link to that page
Export Links Report Data
You can export both external and internal link data for further analysis to an Excel document or similar software.
Click on "Export External Links" in the upper right corner and select "Latest links" to export a list of the most recent backlinks to your site.
Or, select “More sample links” to export a sample of the full list of backlinks to your site.
You can also extract more granular data by clicking “MORE >” underneath the main dashboard reports and clicking the “Export” button on the corresponding page.
How to Interpret Link Data
The Google Search Console Links report can help you improve your external and internal linking strategies. Here’s how to use each report:
Top Externally Linked Pages
Use this report to confirm you have more backlinks pointing to important pages (like your homepage and product pages) compared to less important pages.
Review which pages may need more backlinks, so you know where to focus your link outreach efforts.
Top Linking Sites
Look through your list of top linking sites to ensure they’re all relevant and high-quality. And consider whether there are any sites you might want a link from that you don’t see listed.
For instance, a healthcare business would greatly benefit from receiving a backlink from WebMD, an authoritative source of medical news.
Links from low-quality or spammy sites are unlikely to improve your site’s ranking.
Top Linking Text
Review your link’s anchor text to understand how search engines may view your site.
Anchor text gives context to search engines about the content of the linked page. Ideally, the anchor text used in your backlinks should be relevant and varied.
Search engines might see over-optimized anchor text (like using exact-match keywords excessively) as manipulative. Which can hurt your rankings.
Top Internally Linked Pages
Check the Top Internally Linked Pages report to ensure all pages on your site have internal links and that key pages receive the most links.
For instance, a B2B SaaS startup might prioritize linking to product landing pages to ensure these pages have a better chance of showing up in search results.
How to Thoroughly Analyze Any Site’s Backlinks
Use dedicated backlinks tools to analyze your backlink profile in depth and review rival site’s backlinks to identify untapped backlink opportunities.
Here’s how:
Open the Backlink Analytics tool, enter a domain you want to study, and click “Analyze.”
Go to the “Backlinks” tab to see the websites currently linking to the site. Including what pages they link to and the anchor text they use.
Use the filters along the top of the report to find new and lost backlinks, follow and nofollow backlinks, and more.
If you’re analyzing your own website, it’s a good idea to look for lost backlinks.
You can then reach out to the most reputable domains (gauge this by looking for sites with a high number in the “Page AS” column) to try to get that link reinstated.
Pages with higher scores may have a greater impact on your site and may help you rank higher.
Check Your Backlink Profile’s Health
Performing a backlink audit helps you determine the quality, quantity, and relevance of your backlinks. So you can uncover 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 audit.
The “Overview” tab highlights general information about your backlink profile. Like the toxicity score—a sign that you may have too many low-quality links. And how many domains link to you (shown as “Referring Domains”).
Google generally aims to ignore spammy links rather than penalizing the target domain.
So, there’s usually no need to worry. And you can work to balance out a low score by getting more high-quality links.
And that’s simple with Semrush’s Link Building Tool.
Try it today.
This post was updated in 2025. Excerpts from the original article by Ajdin Perco may remain.
