Can changing our links page make our rankings drop through the floor?
-
Hi all,
When I first started at my current job, most of the link building (aside from submitting to free directories left, right and centre) was replying to every spammy reciprocal email and adding them to our links page!
Now we're all a bit wiser about such matters (thanks SEOMoz!), I want to get our links page turned into something actually useful. My plan was to get it neatly categorised, with recommendations, cut out unrelated links that would be useless to visitors and call it something like "Our Friends"
I thought this might be useful for future link building efforts, but in its current state, it's a complete mess.
However, I am worried about cutting out a lot of links if they have been reciprocal ones. Are the sort of sites that would be sending typical spammy link exchange emails for window installation in NY likely to notice our UK education site taking away their link six months later and take away ours? If they do, will losing links from these sites harm us? Perhaps more importantly, is my plan a terrible idea in the first place?
Look forward to hearing from y'all!
-
I would personally remove the page(s), but you could also do the following if you are afraid of losing links from partners linking to your site when they see their links are no longer there.
a) nofollow or javascript all of the links
b) noindex, nofollow, noarchive the links page(s)
c) block the links section in robots.txt
at a quick glance or to a non SEO person it would appear that nothing has changed, in reality you neutered all of the links - you should definitely do something to protect your site.
-
Thanks everyone, those are some really useful bits of advice!
Salman - that's a nice way of looking at it. I bet that will help me persuade my boss to let me do it as I'm sure he'll worry otherwise!
Aaron/Kieran - I've got a feeling that they are definitely not good links and there's some dodgy looking stuff popping up in Open Site Explorer. Content's going to be a big part of our future strategy, though I've been interested in how well competitors with poor content have been ranking in comparison and wondering if we are being penalised somewhere. Our recent focus has been much more on improving on site SEO and generating better quality content rather than blindly plugging away on low quality links and we've been steadily climbing rankings since I started that.
EGOL - Thanks for the link! Similar to what Aaron was saying, it really does emphasise having a good quality well-built site over supposed "easy" linkbuilding. Plus, it certainly makes me feel rather less guilty about removing them!
Thanks very much for the feedback everyone!
-
a little off-topic, but relevant
A post made by link trader Maluk nearly ten years ago but still relevant today... (today you would add "nofollow" and scripted links to his complaint....
http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/warning-ref-link-partners-5513.html
-
Hi Amy
_will losing links from these sites harm us? _
If you are worried about the link quality just put them into Open Site Explorer to see their weighting. If they are spammy then delete.
_Perhaps more importantly, is my plan a terrible idea in the first place? _
If you know/feel/think that your link list is spammy then I would delete them and so it is a good idea. This SEOMOZ link is worth a read as a refresher course on the topic if you haven't seen it already. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-101-the-almost-complete-link-guide
Good luck with your efforts
-
Salmen is right... I'll add that not only is a link from a spammy site bad, but reciprocal linking can also downgrade the value of a link since it seems forced, which it is.
I hate to sound so cliche, but if you can come up with content people will link to and share without having to trade links with them, then you will get the most SEO benefit.
However, you are definitely headed in the right direction and if linking to your friends is helpful to your audience... do it!
-
The plan is actually good and you should have done it from the start.
Consider link worth from spammy site as 0.2 as compare to a link from great resource as 8.
so if you loose 40 links from spammy site, and gained one link from good site it will be balanced or more beneficial.
Don't worry about loosing your reciprocal links if you intend to work on the plan of gaining more links from reputable sites!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will links from startup/tech blogs help a site rank for *money* keywords?
If a startup has a tech blog (say, domain.com/tech) and a startup journey blog (on domain.com/journey — think groovehq.com/blog), will garnering high PA/DA links to those pages help the root domain rank for keywords related to the startup's services? For example, continuing the Groove example, will quality links to their aforementioned startup blog help them rank the homepage for Online Help Desk Software? Even when those links are from non-helpdesk content on non-helpdesk sites? My theory is that links from high DA sites won't be a bad thing — as long as they're not from spammy pages and done naturally. In some niches, where it's hard to get organic product-related links, this might be a worthwhile strategy. Am I right? Or sadly misguided...? 🙂 EDIT: BTW. The niche I have in mind is fairly uncompetitive, and it'd be easier to garner links from the startup/tech community than the niche community itself.
Link Building | | brandrsn1 -
What Makes A 'Natural Link Profile'?
I find it hard to recognize unnatural link patterns when the links to my site are so familiar. It can be hard to see the wood for the trees! How many links from one site is too many? Does it depend on the size of the site? Thanks for your advice on this.
Link Building | | T0BY0 -
Does nofollow link has any effect on link building
I recently read some article on noflollow link and the author says that nofollow link does have some effect on page rank. Can anyone explain the effect of nofollow link on website ranking?
Link Building | | petwho0 -
Can copyright links to your site have a negative impact on your SEO?
many of the websites we designed have a copyright link in the footer. Like: webdesign by company name then this is made a hyperlink to our company website. Some of these websites have a high PR and other metrics but rarely are about webdesign. What is a clever thing to do? Tom
Link Building | | Onlinq0 -
Ranking drop Any help please
hi i got a website www.willowstairlifts.co.uk and I am doing seo for keyword Stairlifts , it was going all good i managed to get it from page 15 to page 4 but yesterday its start going backward it jumps back from position 31 to 61 , i have been very careful in doing on page and also with my link building. I have just a few directories , bookmarks and I am targeting guest post, and i have got few links from them. i cant find anything wrong and worried, as surely it can be a penalty, is it just google dance? as i am aware google is recently doing some updates which they are denying it. hope you guys can help me , many thanks
Link Building | | conversiontactics0 -
What are your favorite tactics for getting links to money-pages?
We've got content marketing and other great tactics for getting links to content pages, but what are your favorite tactics for getting links to your money pages (i.e. product pages, landing pages, devices pages, sales letters, etc.) For example: For certain sites (especially some ecommerce sites), one can get a few backlinks by doing giveaways, contests, or events Some sites can give their product to bloggers to review If you're selling an exciting product and/or a product that appeals to a passionate user base, such tactics can work great. There are some sites that such tactics won't work very well for, though. For example, if you sell a boring or highly specialized product that bloggers won't want to review or giveaway as a contest prize - such as valves used in a specific commercial application, or an expensive B2B product that you can't really giveaway. Creativity is of course important, but sometimes it can only take you so far. What are your favorite strategies for getting quality backlinks to your "money pages" especially for sites that don't fit into the "ecommerce site selling cool stuff" category?
Link Building | | AdamThompson0 -
2 links going to same domain but different pages
Hi, How is the link juice distributed when you have 2 links in the same article but they go to different pages on the same domain? I know some say if 2 links go to the same page in an article then only the first link passes juice. Would it be better to have 2 articles each having 1 link or 2 articles each having 2 links?
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Link value personal pages on .edu
Many .edu colleges and universities provide students and alum a free hosting service. Here's an example: http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/homepage.shtml According to SEOmoz bar, the PA=53 and DA=94. What is the banklink value from a page like this? Surely this is not the same as a backlink from www.wisc.edu, is it? Best,
Link Building | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0