: What does "via this intermediate link" mean for a back link in Google Search Console? I have a very clean link profile and try my best to play by the rules, generally I just knock out content

@Heady270

I have found a few of those links in my search console as well. It appears to be when the site is linking to a page that redirects. I often get it when the site links to example.com but I redirect to example.com.



In this case other.site.example.net links to example.com which 301 redirects to example.com.

Google uses "via this intermediate link" to mean that some sort of redirect was involved.

Links that go through a redirect certainly count as back links. For years there has been a debate about whether or not redirecting links count quite as much as direct links. Google has said that redirects reduce Pagerank by 15%, but more recently Google said that wasn't exactly true. Even if they count slightly less, they certainly count.

It isn't bad that a back link goes through an intermediate link unless the link is otherwise spammy or the redirect were a paid redirect.

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