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Thursday, September 12, 2013
In recent years, our Webmaster Tools product has provided roughly 100,000
backlinks
when you click the "Download more sample links" button. Until now, we've selected those links
primarily by lexicographical order. That meant that for some sites, you didn't get as complete of
a picture of the site's backlinks because the link data skewed toward the beginning of the
alphabet.
Based on feedback from the webmaster community, we're improving how we select these backlinks to
give sites a fuller picture of their backlink profile. The most significant improvement you'll see
is that most of the links are now sampled uniformly from the full spectrum of backlinks rather
than alphabetically. You're also more likely to get example links from different top-level domains
(TLDs) as well as from different domain names. The new links you see will still be sorted
alphabetically.
Starting soon, when you download your data, you'll notice a much broader, more diverse
cross-section of links. Site owners looking for insights into who recommends their content will
now have a better overview of those links, and those working on cleaning up any bad linking
practices will find it easier to see where to spend their time and effort.
Thanks for the feedback, and we'll keep working to provide helpful data and resources in
Webmaster Tools.
As always, please ask in our
forums
if you have any questions.
Posted by Yinnon Haviv, Software Engineer, Webmaster Tools Team
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["Google Webmaster Tools will now provide a more diverse sample of backlinks, moving away from primarily alphabetical selection."],["This change aims to offer site owners a more complete view of their backlink profile, including links from various TLDs and domains."],["The improved backlink data will assist site owners in understanding their link sources and addressing potentially harmful linking practices."],["While the sampling method is improved, downloaded links will still be presented in alphabetical order."]]],["Webmaster Tools updated backlink sampling to provide a more comprehensive view. Previously, links were selected alphabetically, resulting in a skewed representation. Now, links are sampled uniformly from the full range of backlinks, including diverse top-level domains and domain names. This change offers site owners a broader overview of their backlink profile, aiding in understanding content recommendations and addressing poor linking practices. The new links remain alphabetically sorted after being downloaded.\n"]]
