Two months ago, we quoted a Google search quality representative named Aaseesh as telling us that all the links you need to analyze can be found within Google Webmaster Tools link report. Despite it only being cited as a "sample" of links, Google said all you need are the links within that report.
Heck, I was not confident so I even asked Google's John Mueller to confirm the fact and John Mueller indeed said this was true.
But is it?
Marie Haynes posted topic in the Google Webmaster Help forums where she said a client of hers received an unnatural link notification from Google but the example inorganic link cited by Google was no where to be found in Google Webmaster Tools link report.
I obviously don't have access to this Webmaster Tools account to verify but I trust Marie.
I checked Majestic SEO and the bad link doesn't show in their reports also.
But the main concern here is that Google told us all we need is Webmaster Tools links but here is proof that we need more. And if we need more, how do we get the bad links we cannot be confident that the link tools we have access to for free or paid tools have this data?
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Update: On August 15th I finally got word back from Matt Cutts and posted those details on Search Engine Land. Here is Matt Cutts comment:
It’s certainly the case that we endeavor to show examples from the set of links returned by Webmaster Tools, and likewise we prefer to assess reconsideration requests on that basis of those links. However, if there’s a really good example link that illustrates a problem, we do leave enough room to share that link, especially because it can help point the webmaster in a better direction to diagnose and fix issues.
