John answered, “yes, if the links are being redirected. If you are moving from domain A to domain B, then the links pointing to domain A will appear pointing to domain B.
What is Google Search Console Links Report?
Google Search Console’s link report is just a sampling of your links. So, all links will not show. But the sampling of redirected(in the above case) links will show up.
This came up at the 7-minute mark in the latest Google webmaster hangout podcast.
Ritu NAGARKOTI: I have a quick question about all the domains. Whenever we redirect from an old domain to a new domain, it’s time to follow the backlinks built for the old domain. Is there auditable? Like when we audit, can we get to see when it will redirect to a new domain. After that, will it audit the old domain patterns we created for all domains that will be auditable?
JOHN MUELLER: I think they would appear in Search Console. In Search Console, you will see a sample of the links to your website. And if they redirect through another domain, I think we would still show that in Search Console. Sometimes, I think we show in-between states that you have a link through this other site.
Glenn Gabe summed it up nicely in his tweet:
301 Redirects
In order to move your domain, you must tell Google that you have changed the address of your website. You can do this through the Google Search Console (GSC). Then you have to redirect all the content from the old domain to the new one with the help of 301-redirects. John Mueller has also advised to keep old redirected URLs in sitemap files temporarily.
