Will getting backlinks to landing page from low quality sites negatively affect SEO?
-
I've recently started an initiative at my company to get our customers to publish a blog post about our company and to include a link to a landing page which sits on a subdomain attached to our main domain. The reason for directing visitors to the post to a landing page is to help with conversion.
I've recently been thinking that couldn't the backlinks to this landing page from our customers' blogs (generally small sites) have a negative impact on the overall SEO of my companies domain?
Thanks in advance.
-
Thanks for the advice Kurt and I'll make sure to be careful. It doesn't look like we will invest too much more in this strategy as it is quite resource intensive.
-
Thanks Dennis. I have a close relationship with these customers so I make sure the anchor text is fine. Thanks for the help.
-
Thanks for the help George. We aren't buying these links, just speaking to our customers and trying to convince them to write about their use of our service. I think we will be fine.
-
I would differentiate between low quality sites and small sites without much authority (yet). When I hear low quality, I think of a spammy site that doesn't have quality, original content. There are plenty of small blogs out there which aren't extremely popular, but do put out quality, original content. Getting links from small sites that produce decent content is perfectly fine. Getting links from a bunch of spammy sites, could eventually hurt you.
As to your strategy, you'll want to be careful. If you are offering incentives for people to post about your site, those links are technically considered paid links and are unnatural. According to the Google guidelines, those links should be nofollow. If they aren't and you are trying to gain link authority through these posts, you're playing a game of whether your way of buying links is something Google will be able to figure out (or your competitors will report). If Google does figure it out, those links may be devalued and your site could be penalized. Just be aware of the risks.
If you just want people posting about your site and sending traffic, then ask them to nofollow the links when they publish the posts and you'll be within Google guidelines.
Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com -
Definitely not something Id be worried about, as long as you set the proper rules and restrictions on what they can post/how long it is/how they link
Main thing I'd worry about is anchor text so just set proper choices for them.
-
Hi Justin,
Personally I think you'll be fine as you've described the initiative working. Google doesn't expect every link to a website to be from a high authority, otherwise it would look unnatural. In reality, there will be a mix of high and low authority pages/domains that link to every website. However, if the blog posts are being spun out on blog networks, or if your customers sites have been penalised by Google then it probably isn't going to help you much.
What isn't clear is whether you're effectively buying these links, and whether they will pass PageRank or not. I encourage you to read Google's guidelines on this: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en.
George
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
-
Backlink quality vs quantity: Should I keep spammy backlinks?
Regarding backlinks, I'm wondering which is more advantageous for domain authority and Google reputation: Option 1: More backlinks including a lot of spammy links Option 2: Fewer backlinks but only reliable, non-spam links I've researched this topic around the web a bit and understand that the answer is somewhere in the middle, but given my site's specific backlink volume, the answer might lean one way or the other. For context, my site has a spam score of 2%, and when I did a quick backlink audit, roughly 20% are ones I want to disavow. However, I don't want to eliminate so many backlinks that my DA goes down. As always, we are working to build quality backlinks, but I'm interested in whether eliminating 20% of backlinks will hurt my DA. Thank you!
Technical SEO | | LianaLewis1 -
Is my website is over optimized for ON page SEO?
The keyword for the page is “locksmith Logan” based in: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Is webpage over used main keyword 'Logan locksmith' and what other areas are for improvement.
Technical SEO | | bondhoward0 -
Discontinuing a site & Redirecting Traffic to an Internal Page
We are wondering the best way to redirect the traffic from a site that will no longer exist. The Scenario:
Technical SEO | | TopFloor
Our client wants to discontinue this website http://www.animalcarepackaging.com/. We’d like to redirect the traffic from this site to an internal page on our client's other website: http://www.glenroy.com/packaging/. This internal page is the most appropriate to the content that appears on animalcarepackaging.com (as opposed to just the entire site glenroy.com). Possible Options We Are Considering:
Option 1: Keep hosting animalcarepackaging.com and add a 301 redirect for all pages to glenroy.com/packaging/. Our concern with this option is that Google/Bing will see animalcarepackaging.com as a gateway, which could hurt glenroy.com. Option 2: Keep hosting animalcarepackaging.com and add a 301 redirect so all pages are sent to glenroy.com/packaging/; AND file a change of address with Google and Bing. We believe this will allow people who have bookmarked animalcarepackaging.com to go to glenroy.com/packaging/; while people searching for animalcarepackaging.com will go to glenroy.com's home page. We would augment this by posting a message on the homepage of animalcarepackaging.com notifiying users that the site will be discontinued and info will be found at glenroy.com/packaging. Option 3: Do a change of address with Google/Bing and send all traffic to glenroy.com (rather than an internal page). Post information on the homepage of animalcarepackaging.com that the site will be discontinued on X-date, and info about animalcarepackaging.com will be able to be found at glenroy.com/packaging. Looking for feedback on our options and suggestions on how this can be handled.0 -
Have a client that migrated their site; went live with noindex/nofollow and for last two SEOMoz crawls only getting one page crawled. In contrast, G.A. is crawling all pages. Just wait?
Client site is 15 + pages. New site had noindex/nofollow removed prior to last two crawls.
Technical SEO | | alankoen1230 -
Will Google index a site with white text? Will it give it bad ratings?
Will google not rank a site bc pretty much all the copy is white (and the background is all white)? Here's the site in question: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6w24f6h5p0zaxhg/Garrison_PLAY.vs2-static.pdf https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fwudppvwy2khpau/t43NozpG3E/Garrison_PLAY.vs3.jpg thanks--if you need me to clarify more let me know TM Humphries LocalSearched.com
Technical SEO | | CloudGuys0 -
Will removing the main nav from the homepage penalize the site?
I have a client who offers residential and commercial services. We are dividing up the site into two sections that distinguish between these services and the clients. On the homepage, we ask site visitors to first choose from the Commercial or Residential services. I don't want to have any main navigation options on the homepage because they will change depending on whether you select the commercial option or the residential. Will this hurt the site in terms of SEO? Are there any suggestions of how to structure the home nav so it is not confusing to the visitor, but won't hurt the optimization of the site? Thank you.
Technical SEO | | WebsightDesign0 -
Are (ultra) flat site structures better for SEO?
Noticed that a high-profile site uses a very flat structure for there content. It essentially places most landing pages right under the root domain folder. So a more conventional site might use this structure: www.widgets.com/landing-page-1/ www.widgets.com/landing-page-1/landing-page-2/ www.widgets.com/landing-page-1/landing-page-2/landing-page-3/ This site in question - a successful one - would deploy the same content like this: www.widgets.com/landing-page-1/ www.widgets.com/landing-page-2/ www.widgets.com/landing-page-3/ So when you're clicking deeper into the nav. options the clicks always roll up to the "top level." Top level pages are given more weight by SEs but conventional directory structures are also beneficial seen as ideal. Why would a site take the plunge and organize content in this way? What was the clincher?
Technical SEO | | DisneyFamily1