• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Services
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

Home » Google » Google Search Console Reports Microsoft Bing Search Results as Links

Google Search Console Reports Microsoft Bing Search Results as Links

Posted on August 28, 2017 Written by Bill Hartzer

Google Search Console is reporting that pages from Microsoft’s Bing search engine are links back to websites. Today, in my regular review of the links to my website in Google Search Console, I found several suspicious links. I found about 10 Bit.ly links listed. This is normal, as others will use URL shorteners in social media to link to a website. However, investigating these links, I found that several of these are actually just the Bing.com search results pages.

Let’s look at an example.

Here’s one particular Bit.ly link that Google’s Search Console is linking to my website, BillHartzer.com:

https://bitly.com/5jff1K

google search console bitly link

If you’ll notice, the screen capture above is the stats for this particular bit.ly link. If you put a Plus sign + at the end of any bit.ly URL, you can see the stats for that bit.ly link.

If you look at this link, it’s actually the Bing search results for “microsoft bing” search query, their news results. Apparently at one time (or maybe even fairly recently) I ranked in the news results for that keyword search query, “microsoft bing”.

google links to your site

I took a look in Google Search Console (see above screen capture). Google Search Console reports this as a link to one of my posts back in 2009, about Bing now renewing their domain name, which did get a lot of traffic at the time. The bit.ly URL, though, does show that it’s a search results page from Bing.

I know that Google has come out publicly several times and said that they don’t like to index search results. Well, I have called them out on that before.

But, in this case, this is pretty bizarre, if you ask me. I guess that Google thinks that Microsoft’s Bing.com pages are a good place to have a link from (which they are), since it’s an authoritative result. But this is rather odd to me, as Google is, for the first time years, is showing these Bit.ly links in Google Search Console’s links to your site. This particular link, the one example I show above (there are more), has been around since 2009. Why is Google Search Console just showing this now?

The Bit.ly links are 301 redirects, so I assume that Google would, in fact, count this as a link since it’s a 301 redirect. Obviously this link to my site isn’t showing up right now in Bing’s search results, so the link isn’t there. But nonetheless, Google probably shouldn’t be reporting Bing search results pages as links back to your website. It could be that because there is a redirect involved, Google is showing this as a link and doesn’t recognize the Bing search results pages.

In this case, though, this is a 2009 bit.ly URL. The fact that it’s just showing up right now is curious to me–why now?

By the way, it’s not just this particular bit.ly URL. Here’s another one: https://bitly.com/cJdQ74+

Filed Under: Google

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management. As an SEO Expert, Mr. Hartzer frequently serves as an SEO Expert Witness and Domain Name Expert Witness in legal cases worldwide. He also oversees DNAccess.com, a company that provides brand protection and monitoring, domain name background checks, and stolen domain name recovery services.

Recent Posts

  • Meta, Miramar Group, and Swire Resources Revolutionize Customer Engagement on WhatsApp with Omnichat December 7, 2023
  • Unleash the Power of Personalized Marketing Magic: Blueshift Introduces Game-Changing Free CDP Starter for Marketers December 7, 2023
  • Revolutionizing TV Advertising: Waymark and DanAds Join Forces for Instant, AI-Generated Ad Magic December 6, 2023
  • Winston AI Unleashes ‘Luka’ (V3.0): The Unbeatable AI Guardian with 99.98% Accuracy in Spotting Fake Content December 6, 2023
  • Revolutionizing Content Creation: BrightEdge Unleashes Copilot for Content Advisor December 6, 2023
  • Unleashing the Power of Quora Ads December 5, 2023
  • Is Santa Real? Here’s What 3 Search Engines and 3 AIs Say December 4, 2023
  • iKala Unleashes AI Magic with 2 Million Influencers in Southeast Asia December 1, 2023
  • Baidu’s A.I. Advertising Platform Boosts Lead Quality and Cuts Costs for European Native Ad Company December 1, 2023
  • Web.com’s AI Wizardry Transforms Website Building for Entrepreneurs November 30, 2023
  • Revolutionizing Marketing: Jasper Unveils AI Partnership Program November 30, 2023
  • Revolutionize Your Social Media Game: Hookle’s AI Image Suggestions Set to Transform Small Business Marketing November 29, 2023
  • Unlocking Internet Secrets: ICANN’s Game-Changing RDRS Service Revealed November 29, 2023
  • Fansearch Launches OnlyFans Search Engine November 28, 2023
  • Actual SEO Media’s Approach to Discovered-Currently Not Indexed in Google Search Console November 28, 2023
  • Yoast’s New AI Writing Assistant Slashes Time Needed to Craft SEO Gold for WordPress Sites November 28, 2023
  • Revolutionizing Black Friday: Logie.ai’s Game-Changing Tools Set to Transform E-Commerce Sales November 22, 2023
  • Revolutionizing Holiday Shopping: Storyblok’s Survey Unveils Shocking Consumer Trends, Exposing Website Trust and AI Skepticism November 21, 2023
  • TicketNetwork’s $825,000 Fine Exposes Dark Secrets of Ticket Prices! Unveils Deceptive Tactics and the Scandal of Search Engine Ads November 21, 2023
  • Temu Strikes Back: Scam Websites Shut Down in Battle Against Fraudsters November 20, 2023

Hartzer Domains

Bare-Metal Servers by HostDime

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Scott Hendison
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins
DNAccess
SEO Dallas

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (22)
  • AI (24)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (16)
  • Domain Names (223)
  • Google (241)
  • Internet Marketing (28)
  • Internet Usage (87)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (43)
  • Marketing (185)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (6)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (10)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (50)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (21)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (171)
  • Search Engines (210)
  • Social Media (210)
  • Social Media Marketing (1)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·