Link over-building?
-
Hello all.
One of the first things we do for our clients is to claim their local listings, include them on a set of selected directories (8-10), and blog directories (5), if applicable.
Since they will all be linked to the client site, could doing all of this at once run us into problems with unnatural link growth?
Thanks!
Frank
-
For local results they can be worth the effort. However, in my opinion, you would be better off investing the time and money into content or usability testing.
-
could doing all of this at once run us into problems with unnatural link growth?
The problem here could be one of "unnatural links" rather than "unnatural link growth".
-
Hi
So are you saying directories (even top-end ones such as Yahoo, BotW and Business.com) have NO benefit for organic search rankings? -
A couple years ago directories used to be a decent technique for improving your rank, but have since been devalued through algorithm changes. SEOMoz probably maintains them because they can have an impact in local results as some of them can count as citations.
-
If directories are so devalued, why does SEOMoz publish a directories list?
Serious question. -
In the first month of a new client I go on a huge citation building spree, and I've never encountered an issue. Some of the citations are directories, so I would say that you should have no problems. Just make sure you just use the companies name in the directories, and don't try getting any keywords in there. The links aren't worth much at all, like Jesse said, and trying to keyword stuff will just end up hurting your efforts.
-
Thanks Jesse.
We have done research on the directories we use, and try to focus on sites with high DA and Pagerank, and a few within our vertical. I agree that the majority of directories have no value, and tend to cause a negative effect. We do take care of the social links, but many of our new clients do not yet have a social presence, so it must first be created and built out before we link to it. That pretty much negates my main concern.
Frank
-
Potentially. Depends on the directories. Directories in general carry little-to-no value and most end up hurting more than helping. Especially blog directories. Google doesn't like these sites and generally it's my least favorite method of grabbing links for SEO. Local listings is important, however, and there are some directory sites that are decent enough to warrant grabbing links from but I'd say there aren't many more than 5 in all of the internet galaxy.
To dumb it down, if your question is simply "will building 20 links in one day get us a penalty?" the answer is most likely "no." However if the links are poison and this pattern continues, expect a penalty to be imposed eventually.
Hope this helps.
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
-
At What Point Are We Doing Too Much Link Building?
Hello Mozzers! This is a question that has been gnawing at the back of my mind as I learn more and more about link building. Historically, we have offered scaling package sizes with larger numbers of backlinks hand-built each month. We do this so our packages are very tangible for our clients. Our packages range from 15-100 backlinks each month. As I learn more about how to build links PROPERLY I am finding it next to impossible to keep up. I feel like we are definitely going the wrong direction in that regard. What are some of your thoughts on this? Thank you in advance for your valuable advice and support, Moz community!
Link Building | | ChoChauRice0 -
Spam Link Building Discovered - What would you do?
Hi Mozers, After investigating our no 1 competitor we have discovered their 87k back links comparing to ours 1k. After dipper investigations we discovered that all the back links are gained by the websites created by themselves. So what they did is - they had purchased 10+ domains and created 10+ new websites that are identical as their original .com version. EVERY SINGLE LINK on these 'new' websites link to their .com version. The 'New' websites are not indexed. Literally each of us can do the same and gain thousands of back links, but isn't it violating google's policy? What are your thought on it? (What is the best practice to report the violation of google's policy to Google?) Best regards, Lana
Link Building | | Chemometec0 -
Should I embark on this long term link building campaign?
I've been planning to set out on a massive link building campaign for the term 'how to start a business' and I can't decide if it's a good idea or not. (Metrics attached - my site is the last listed and the ones above it are the top ranking for that term) The sites ranking for that terms are on very authoritative domains, but the page link profiles on each of them are poor. This is one of those moments where you think, 'Am I about to waste a tremendous amount of time?' My guide is extremely thorough and I had hoped with a MASSIVE amount of elbow grease outranking pages that had poor content value + only has 4 referring root domains. The problem is, I'm not sure if the powerful overall domain authority would still outrank my newer site. Should I follow through with that general guide or focus on less hard to rank and less searched content? Argh confusion GB3jcsJ.png?1
Link Building | | ryj0 -
Using Online Communities for link building..
Hello. All I have a question in regards to online communities. Is joining an online community( i.e. Industry related forums, commenting on industry related news sites, responding to blog post) a good way to do link building? I don't mean in the sense of spamming but actually being an active part of a online community and adding valuable to the conversation. I have tried posting blog post on a industry related online community: biggerpockets.com but this site does not show up as a link when I pull an open site explorer for my website. Any suggestions ?
Link Building | | AubbiefromAubenRealty0 -
Link Building Speed
Hello everyone, This is my first day at SEOMOZ and I have already searched the forum for an answer to my question with no luck. How do I work out the pace at which I should be building links? Everyone talks about the importance of makling link building seem natural/organic, but how xactly do you go about this? Many thanks in advance.
Link Building | | ups0 -
What is the best company to use when building links to feature on multiple directories online?
I am looking to build links for my clients who are in a very competitive industry 'airport parking', can you advise where I can submit their URL to generate good quality links without being penalised?
Link Building | | shami0 -
Link Building PR versus topic
Regarding link building, what counts the most in terms of PR and relevance(topic). Is it whether, the link comes from a domain/page with high domain/page rank or that the link come from a domain with similar/relevant content? I know, we should always aim to get links from domains with both relevance and good page rank. But which is most important? For example: If we have a web site about swiss made watches. Should i focus on getting links from other domains with information about swiss made watches. Or can i achieve just as good link juice, by getting links from un-related web sites with high PR? We will of course get more qualified traffic from related domains. But from a pure search ranking, what plays the biggest factor?
Link Building | | petersen0 -
Our link building strategy - affiliates and trophies
Hey guys, I just wanted to follow up on Rand's excellent whiteboard Friday: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/preventing-linkbased-penalties-whiteboard-friday It got me worried I think, but I'm not sure. We have a site where we are building up links in 2 ways: We have an affiliate set-up. A search widget in an i-frame, and below the i-frame a followed link pointing to the relevant page.
Link Building | | sichristie
The anchor text varies for each affiliate depending which region the affiliate comes from. We have awarded about 500 of our partners with trophies - i.e. - this partner has best reviews or most sales etc. Our partners are absolutely loving it.
The trophy is an image link which they can embed on their website, with alt text only mentioning our brand - that was an oversight ( I think). I wish the alt had been dynamically generated for each partner.
The trophies link to our partner pages.
So we are getting many links to our deeper pages, which is great.
The links I believe are relevant as they are coming from our partners websites and pointing to their relevant partner page on our website. So burning question is. Would you consider these links dodgy given Rands recent whiteboard friday post, and the recent farmer algorithm change? Many thanks, Croozie0