Member Avatar for cmills83

I ran a backlink checker and it said I had 40+ outbound links from my sites, I know I only have <5 on all the sites. Do search engines count adsense as outbound links now? I thought it was ignored bc its jscript.

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— short answer: that 40+ count is probably the backlink tool seeing ad frames or redirect chains, not 40 explicit editorial <a> links you put in your HTML. Several replies here guessed JS/ads were being ignored; the reality is more nuanced because search engines now render JavaScript but ad units are usually delivered from separate ad frames/servers and often sit behind redirectors that crawlers are blocked from following. (developers.google.com)

Why tools disagree: third‑party link checkers differ in how they crawl. Some only parse raw HTML, others render the page (execute JS) or follow redirect chains and will therefore count anchors that only exist inside ad iframes or ad‑server redirects. Also, ad networks commonly serve assets from doubleclick/googleads domains that explicitly disallow indexing of those resources. That combination produces inflated outbound counts in automated tools. (screamingfrog.co.uk)

Quick, practical checklist to reproduce and confirm what your tool saw:

  • View raw page source (CTRL+U) and count literal <a href> entries.
  • Open DevTools → Elements after the page loads and search for iframe, adsbygoogle, google_ads_frame or similar to spot ad frames.
  • In DevTools → Network filter for "doubleclick" / "googleads" to inspect click redirect chains.
  • If you want an automated render, run a headless render (Puppeteer) to list anchors the browser sees after JS runs — or use a crawler with JS rendering enabled (Screaming Frog has a JavaScript rendering mode). (developers.google.com)

Final point: normal AdSense display units are an ad product, not editorial links you control; you do not need to worry that they will behave like sold editorial links. If you ever place paid editorial links yourself, mark them appropriately (rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow") so they are treated as paid placements. Google documented the rel attribute changes and how paid/sponsored links should be signaled back in 2019. (developers.google.com)

// minimal Puppeteer check (run locally)
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
(async () => {
  const b = await puppeteer.launch();
  const p = await b.newPage();
  await p.goto('https://your-site.example', {waitUntil: 'networkidle0'});
  const anchors = await p.$$eval('a', els => els.map(a => a.href));
  console.log('anchors:', anchors.length, anchors.slice(0,50));
  await b.close();
})();

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for ithelp

SE ignores javascript, what there is infinite loop ?

Member Avatar for Dani

Sign up with Google Webmaster Tools (google.com/webmasters/) and you'll get all the details as to exactly which pages Google finds linking to you and finds you linking to.

Member Avatar for cooluks

I ran a backlink checker and it said I had 40+ outbound links from my sites, I know I only have <5 on all the sites. Do search engines count adsense as outbound links now? I thought it was ignored bc its jscript.

Adsense is not considered as OBLs... It is just like a widget (javascripts)....

Member Avatar for guinanie

Adsense account is not counted as a outbound links
and it is just a services

Member Avatar for einfoway

If you are using google adsense then it would not be considered as outbound links. But if you have any other adsense program then just check if it has direct links or it uses Javascript. If its Javascript it will not be considered as outbound. yes if its has direct links then it would be considered as outbound links.

can you post your link let us check out :)

Member Avatar for cmills83

I would but I cant post links in this forum

Member Avatar for Dani

Check out the site reviews forum ... you can ask for a site review about anything from web design to whether you think the site has good usability or you can request an seo evaluation.

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