Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Changing backlinks anchor text
-
Hi,
I've read a few blog post here that suggests the strength of building links using your brand as an anchor text. This supposedly gives the site authority. Currently a chunck of the back links to my homepage are on generic terms i'm trying to rank for which doesn't seem to be working very well. I was thinking of contacting the various webmasters to change the anchor text to that of the site brand name but wondering if this will signal a manipulation of links to the search engines and potentially could be flagged as paid links?
Has anybody done this before and what is the danger of doing this?
Thanks
Duke
-
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated guys.
Duke
-
What's your percentage of exact match links in your overall link landscape? Is it over 20% (I would assume lower, but this is the number I've been hearing)? If so, you are probably over-optimized for your phrase. The best action would be to change the links to either your brand, or more preferably, to a similar phrase.
However, if you have less than 10% exact matching links, I wouldn't change those at all. Exact match is still beneficial for ranking (but I doubt it will be forever), and you would actually have some room to grow with them.
With that in mind, remember to:
- Not focus on just one keyword at a time. Gaining 50 Exact links in a row makes it obvious they aren't natural
- Use variations of your keyword, as well as exact.
- If it's your homepage, get a bunch of Brand links.
- Keep a couple poorly optimized links in there (unless they are from high quality sites!)
-
Hi Duke
Thanks for the further info.
As the objective is to not rank better for brand terms, so rather it is to rank better for Non-brand terms, then it doesn't make any sense to focus inbound links on brand terms within the anchor text. That can be counter-productive towards those important Non-brand terms.
Brand is one of many factors when it comes to Search, which you seem to know already. The more brand mentions and links on brand terms, the more authority that brand acquires, in theory.
However that doesn't necessarily benefit Non-brand search.
So all-in-all, my advice is to focus link efforts on a natural blend of Brand and Non-brand links, catering for both is important. Don't worry too much about changing existing branded links to non-brand, instead, focus on both types of links and anchor text moving forwards.
With best regards
Simon
-
Hi Simon,
Many thanks for your answer. The objective is not actually to rank better for the brand term. I thinking along the lines of the link profile and how many of the achor text used are the brand compared to generic terms that we are trying to rank for. Apparently, there is the move towards rewarding inbound links on brand terms than generic term so the advise to webmasters is to build more links on their brand terms.
Hope this clears my question up.
Best regards
Duke
-
Hi there
Changing the anchor text of inbound links that's already optimized for your non-brand target keywords will risk in reducing your rankings for those keywords; obviously depends on factors such as the quality of those inbound links, competition...
If you are already ranking top for your brand, then this doesn't seem like a worthwhile exercise to do, unless Brand is everything to your business. If your brand is not ranking well, then by all means go for it for some existing inbound links.
If you can identify any inbound links on anchor text such as 'click here' or 'visit the website' then by all means try to get that anchor text changed, if the link is worth it.
In most cases, I'd suggest focusing on acquiring new relevant medium & high quality inbound links (natural links that is, not paid) with a variety of relevant anchor text, including both brand and non-brand. This would be time better spent compared to changing existing links that may not help to achieve your goals; increasing the number of relevant visitors to your site.
Hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
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
-
Footer backlink for/to Web Design Agency
I read some old (10+ years) information on whether footer backlinks from the websites that design agencies build are seen as spammy and potentially cause a negative effect. We have over 150 websites that we have built over the last few years, all with sitewide footer backlinks back to our homepage (designed and managed by COMPANY NAME). Semrush flags some of the links as potential spammy links. What are the current thoughts on this type of footer backlink? Are we better to have 1 dofollow backlink and the rest of the website nofollow from each domain?
Link Building | | MultiAdE1 -
How to get rid of bad backlinks
So I noticed my rankings going down and spam score going up. So under my spam score there are over 100 links for different websites but ALL redirect to semalt.com I researched it and it says they hijacked a bunched of backlinks but don't know much more. How can I get rid of all those backlinks? I was told I could use the disavow tool but apparently that can hurt my ranking as well. The semalt.com site has no backlink to me - it looks like the pages that have/had my backlinks, they've redirected to them. For instance this is one of the links http://www.oxvideos.xyz/indianantyphotoxxx 422005fb-9240-40a4-8b65-f5b1f5079dea-image.png
Link Building | | landlwoof40 -
Backlinks from non-relevant site
There's a forum I used to participate in that allows you to include a link to your website in your signature block. I have over 500 posts in the forum so that provides a lot of backlinks to my website. However, I recently decided to remove my website link from my signature for two reasons: The forum is 95-99% dead. Hardly anyone uses it anymore. BTW, the website that houses the forum is still popular within is niche (articles, etc). Just the forum appears to be dead. The website and its forum really have no connection whatsoever to my business. I'm in a completely different niche. However, I have no idea if I've made the right decision. Will removing my signature and the backlinks hurt my site? Or will it help it since the other site really isn't related to mine? Thanks for any thoughts on this!
Link Building | | emh19690 -
Backlinks through dofollow commenting
I'm interested in building backlinks to my photography business site by leaving good, engaging comments on other photographers' DoFollow blogs. Is this a good idea? Is it worth the effort? Through a little research, I've managed to locate more than 40 dofollow photographer blogs that have a domain authority of 35+. The idea is to take an hour or so a week to leave 10-20 comments on their blog posts. Would you consider this a good strategy? I rank on the first and second page of most of my keywords that I'm working on, but I want to rank 1st or 2nd on them. I used the keyword finder tool on google adwords to find the keywords that are the most searched for in my area. Surprisingly the competition is not large, so I'm fairly comfident I can get there. I've already optimized my site substantially and I'm looking into link building. Thoughts?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Using Schema markup for backlinks
Hi, Is there any benefits for using schema markup for backlinks. Using for Article directory submission,Drupal Submission etc.. mUz1umK.png?1
Link Building | | ruddyhapiq0 -
Backlinks From Press Releases - Should I Disavow Them?
About 2 months ago, I published a press release through PRWEB with a link back to my website of course. Now it must have been one of those morning where the coffee wasn't strong enough as my website already has a Penguin penalty I'm trying to get lifted. The intent wasn't to spam the web but rather to gain some traction in the business hosting world. Like I've said, the coffee must've been too weak that morning as it didn't even cross my mind to see if I could "nofollow" the links in the press release. I just hit the submit button... As I'm in the process of submitting a disavow links request to Google, I'm wondering if I should include the URLs to copies of those press releases? I mean, there's no way I can find all those links as it was submitted not long ago. Google and link tools will keep discovering other copies of the PR for months to come probably.
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
What is keyword rich anchor text?
So, I have searched around the internet but, I still can't find the answer.What is Keyword Rich Anchor Text? Is it basically just exact matching to the page. For example if my page was www.randonmpage.com would a keyword rich anchor text be randompage? Thanks. Peter
Link Building | | PeterRota0 -
Backlinks: What are they really and how can I create them.
I am relatively new to the SEO world, and I want to build backlinks linking to our main site. My preferred way to create backlinks is by adding them in my blog comments or forum responses. I am an active participant in a large number of blogs/forums related to our field and I would like to add relevant backlinks in the comments/answers I post. I originally thought that a backlink was just a link, but none of the links that I have added to blogs like that have been recognized as backlinks. https://www.dynaread.com/ Why is this so? I know now that good backlink would be something like: Dynaread is a science based dyslexia remediation program for older struggling readers. However I have no idea how to add this types of links to blog comments or forum pages where there is no link tool. Do I have to do something with HTML? Please explain briefly what a backlink really is and most importantly how I can create them. Thank you in advance for your help! Joy P.S if you have suggestions about some resources where I can learn more about the subject please let me know. I love to learn more.
Link Building | | Dynaread0