Are paid links on your brand name considered bad by Google?
-
I've been intrigued recently by the penalty applied to a site we have just started working with. They were penalised back in summer last year as their previous link builder had built 60,000 links all with the same hard to get keyword anchor text....we're still sorting it out.
My question now is that if the client pays for inclusion on some relevant sites, such as niche directories and those sites automatically produce 'follow' links, would the client be penalised if they link on their own company name? For example if they manufacture blue widgets and the anchor text on the link is 'ABC Manufacturing' rather than 'Blue Widgets' would Google see that as a reasonable link?
I appreciate that if they linked back on the keyword anchor text 'Blue Widgets' it would be wrong but I'm seeking clarification on using the company name. Any thoughts?
-
Thanks so much, but without this pain we would never have got the client! We're the good guys, just trying to unravel a tangle of American .edu links and sitewide footers from other American sites for a business based firmly in the UK. What the last guy was thinking we've no idea...
Thanks for taking the time to contribute
-
Thanks again Irving; we're advising the client to stay away from directories anyway, and concentrating on providing a useful service for end users. Links, if they happen, will be a bonus we hope!
Thanks guys...;-)
-
in my experience, ALL paid links should be no-folow. Also they may have penalized you for having all the same few keywords. A good link building strategy Must look natural to Google. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before you get penalized.
Sorry this happened to you, i feel your pain!
-
The difference is naturally occurring links from regular non paid diversified sites vs paid links from directory type sites that Google has already flagged as being bad neighborhoods used for SEO, and these sites are most likely linking to a lot of penalized sites as well which makes you guilty by association.
So it has more to do with the places you are linked on than it does overusing your brand name in the anchor text, plus naturally occurring links will have their own keyword mix and match diversity.
brandname
visit brandname
visit brandname.com
go to brandname
some will be do follow, some will be no follow, some might be image links
-
Thanks Irving. Just wondering though, the client naturally attracts links anyway so surely that can't harm them? Or can it? There's no way to stop that. They regularly blog and get shared on social as they are an 'authority' and spent years on page one of the results so people in the industry know them and we don't want to diminish this activity which, irrespective of links, is what they are known for. Any further thoughts from anyone welcome here!
Thanks all....
-
if your brand name is your domain name then you should already rank for that. don't build links while trying to recover from a penalty.
-
Thanks, good advice. We're slowly trying to undo the harm already done and build good relevant backlinks, hence the question. I think that we will need to take almost everything off and start again with this one.....
-
If you are already penalised, I wouldn't touch paid links of any kind, especially directory ones
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
-
When conducting a link building strategy does it matter the country the link is from?
We are a UK business and if we have links mostly from US based blogs and websites does this penalise us. The links are from relevant websites and topics. Should we be focusing on .co.uk sites
Link Building | | Caffeine_Marketing1 -
Are charity/sponsorship links good, bad or just useless?
Some facts: We will probably only doe this 2-3 times a year (we have hundreds of links coming in each year from organic sources). This is for a really prestigious charity website with very nice link profile from other non-profits, news organizations, and even government websites. We will get a logo on their sponsorship page, with a link back to our site. Some articles say Google considers this "buying a link" and will therefore penalize you. Or at best, this will have no effect. And here's a Search Engine Land article saying the exact opposite. $1,500 is a lot of money. So I just want to make sure I'm not wasting it -- or worse -- getting penalized.
Link Building | | Brand_Psychic0 -
Unnatural Links To Your Site — Impacts Links warning, Should I do something?
Hi, I got: "Unnatural Links To Your Site — Impacts Links Google has detected a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to pages on this site. Some links may be outside of the webmaster’s control, so for this incident we are taking targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole. " I don't see any dropping at rankings, could the best solution here to be, just to leave everything as it is and be more careful with the link building in the future? Or is there a danger that Google gives further penalties if I don't act on this one do something? I am little afraid that if I start removing links, my rankings will drop, even though they have remained same if don't do anything? Any help is appreciated.
Link Building | | pok3rplay3r0 -
How do i replace bad hits on Google?
When people search for our brand name on Google, the 4th and 5th hits are threads from open forum. The discussions can hurt our image very much and we have to do something to replace it. I need some tips for how i can replace the community and push it down the list.
Link Building | | DialectAB0 -
Are the following considered bad links for Link Building.
I've been doing a lot of research lately on link building & I've read a lot about having a diverse amount of links. Social links, Blog links, comment links, footer links, No follow links, Directory links as well as links with Anchor text URL match, brand match, partial brand match, non-descriptive, and with keywords. But there is a lot of talk of removing those links that look like a site that's built just for link building purposes.... but Directories are basically built for link building are they not? I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if they feel links from the following directories would be bad links. (Non-Paid) http://www.yoganza.com http://www.wkool.com http://www.wee-directory.com http://www.voicelet.com www.hotfrog.ca http://www.webdirectorieslist.com http://multiplelistingboard.com http://mozdirectory.net http://freedirectorypr.info Industry specific below: http://bestautolinks .com http://automotivedome.com http://automobilebuzz.com http://craigsautolinks.com Thanks so much for the help!
Link Building | | DCochrane0 -
Why my twitter handle link is not getting counted in links, though for other sites it is counting!
My twitter handle page link is not getting counted, though it is getting counted for other sites
Link Building | | EG0CENTRIX0 -
Changing domain names... Bad idea?
We are re-doing a clients e-commerce website. Before I had entered them on SEO moz we had decided to change their domain name to one with a keyword inside. I had not known that they had an online marketing company previous working for them. They have a domain authority of 42 right now. It would be a horrible idea to switch their domain right? I looked at some of the links, they all have a variety of good anchor text. But alot of the links are coming from sites or directory categories that are not relative. We are also planning on doing 301 re-directs for the links. But this will not transfer the domain authority to the new domain right? Any thoughts?
Link Building | | DTOSI0 -
May links from Google Adsense ads increase my PR?
I wonder, whether a google adsense ad linking to my website is seen by the google robot like a usual do-follow link that increases my pagerank.
Link Building | | schuett0