Considering the Panda algorithm updates, would you recommend reducing high amounts of inbound links from a single website?
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My website has a significant number of inbound links (1,000+) from a single website, due to a sponsorship level contribution.
Both my website and the other are authorities in the industry and in search results (PR of 5). Since even ethical websites can suffer a penalty from each iteration of Panda, I'm considering significantly removing the number of links from this website.
Do you think that measurable change would be seen favorably by Google or would the drop in links be detrimental?
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I would say it's all about motive. We've become link-phobic now.
As others have mentioned, it's Penguin that is concerned with inbound links and not Panda. With that being said, however, Penguin is meant to penalize websites that have grossly abused anchor text. So, if you got a pile of inbound links from a bunch of different websites all containing your money keyword as anchor text then this can set off the Penguin filter.
But, one sitebound link (even if it results in thousands of links from that site) is not likely to do that. If this were the case I could easily take down my competitor by pointing a single sitebound link at their site! (Agh...don't start negative SEO debating now though.)
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From Google's view, I would ask 2 questions:
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How much credit points you would give to this website?
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Are those links look natural in Google's view or not?
I saw one website ranks #2 on the first page and 50% inbound links from one single domain.
However, the single domain is owned by Google.
This may give your some tips about the "single domain".
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I think the update you're concerned about it Penguin, not Panda. Panda dealt with onsite and content issues. Penguin dealt with links.
But, if you have legitimate links of this kind, listen to Dana. You're fine.
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I agree with Dana - the only thing you would need to worry about is if the link was a direct text link using a keyword anchor that is used abundantly throughout your link profile. Even then, if its an authority site that is relevant this is not something to worry about at all. In fact its probably a great link (regardless of the sitewide instances).
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I always like to begin my responses to questions pertaining to prediciting what Google might do with the caveat that I can't predict anything Google might do.
That being said, I think you are fine and don't need to do anything. Industry relationships like this are normal, common, widespread and accepted. For example, there was a trade publication that picked up info on hundreds of our products earlier this year and put links to them all over the place. It was an official industry magazine. It was a great thing, and we didn't even have to pay for it. Eventually, they moved on and picked up someone else, so the links gradually dropped off.
The same kind of thing can happen, say, for example, if some news about your business makes the front page of Huffington Post. Suddenly, you are going to get thousands of links because there might be a headline link to your website from every page of the Huffington Post. Then, gradually they will drop off.
Don't worry about this scenario. That's my advice. These are the kinds of relationships you want. Going around cleaning up like this is not really going to effect Google at all and it's going to cost you a lot of time you could spend building new links.
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