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Just realized most SEO tools are totally wrong about my competitors' backlinks

I visited a coworking space in Austin last month and overheard this guy complaining about how Ahrefs and SEMrush keep missing 70% of his actual backlinks. I thought he was full of it until I checked my own client's data against their Google Search Console logs. Turns out these tools only catch links from high-DA sites and skip all the legit niche directories and local blogs that actually drive traffic. Anyone else notice a huge gap between what tools report and what's really happening?
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3 Comments
fionamurphy
Found any specific patterns in the types of links these tools miss?
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mason_murray8
Found the same thing with local citations completely missing from reports...
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abbyhall
abbyhall2d ago
Used to swear by Ahrefs data until I did the same check against Search Console and felt like an idiot. It's wild how much local stuff and low-DA directories just vanish from their reports. Those niche blogs are usually the ones sending real referral traffic too.
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