Google Search Console's link report seems to be either missing data or is now showing fewer links. I suspect it is a bug but I also don't think Google spends too much time monitoring this report within Search Console.
We've reported these issues numerous times over the years and Google has fixed the issues in the past.
For this site, Google is showing over 50% fewer links than it did in August for me. From about 350,000 external links and now down to under 150,000 external links.
Here are some screenshots:
February 20, 2026 (now fewer links):
February 12, 2026 (now more links):
February 8, 2026 (less again):
January 22, 2026 (now less again):
January 15, 2026 (now more):
January 8, 2025 (even less now - updated this story to share this):
January 4, 2026:
Here is what it was on May 27, 2024:
Here is a screenshot from June 2023 showing 215,000 links:
Here is a screenshot from July 2022 showing 550,000 links:
October 2019 at 1.2 million links:
August 2018 at 2.5 million links:
Are you all seeing big changes in links reported by Google Search Console?
This was spotted by Vijay Chauhan who posted about this on X and Bluesky. I did ask John Mueller of Google about it last week, but I did not hear back - to be fair, it was New Years...
Hi @johnmu.com l’ve noticed a big drop (around 75%) in external links count after the dec core update, mainly on sites that were keep declining after the dec core update. Could Google be cleaning up backlinks for these pages? Just curious if you can share your thoughts on this.
@rustybrick.com
— Vijay Chauhan 📈 (@vijaychauhanseo.bsky.social) January 2, 2026 at 2:07 AM
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yea, there might be something here. last time it had an update issue - maybe @johnmu.com can check?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick.com) January 2, 2026 at 5:43 AM
