Inbound Links from Broken Pages
-
Hi all,
We have a client who has a lot of inbound links from external pages that are broken/404. The 404 pages are EXTERNAL and linking to my client's pages, but their domain still has authority and their home page (and other pages) still load.
My question is: what should we do about this? Do we detox those links, or are they still sending some juice given that they have domain authority, despite the fact that the pages linking to my client are broken?
So in other words:
- My client is: yyyy.com
- They have a link from vvvv.com/services, which is a broken page
- So what should we do about this?
Thanks all!
Gavin
-
Hi Gavin,
Agree with Martijn here - links from 404ing pages are very unlikely to either help or hinder a website, just as inbound links to pages on your site that 404 also don't help / hurt.
You probably do not need to do anything about these links. However, if they were very good links in the past and you would like them back, you could consider contacting the webmasters of the sites with the broken pages and asking them if they are aware of their errors and / or would consider updating.
Cheers,
Jane
-
Hi Gavin,
Probably by now the links to your client have lost their value as Google also noticed that these pages are giving a 404 response instead of a 200. That's why I won't bother about them, probably they will disappear one day from Open Site Explorer or any other link profile research tool you're using.
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
-
Should we get link from dated page with high PA/DA?
We have an unlinked mention on a page that has dated content about an old event but the page and site have a good PA and DA score. Is it worth it to go for the link? Thanks.
Link Building | | rdoty0 -
SPAMMY links to my search results page
Hi, I have a big problem, somehow someone has built THOUSANDS of SPAMMY links to my site's search result pages with keywords that does not even make sense or inline with the site. Links are dofollow and goes to /?s=TERM see the for yourself https://analytics.moz.com/pro/link-explorer/inbound-links?site=https%3A%2F%2Fhealthtian.com See image https://imgur.com/a/fahetyZ Please is there a way to BLOCK all at once? i feel these links are impacting on my site. Thanks
Link Building | | Lordcharsty1 -
Disavow links from legit sites but have spammy link profiles?
I'm currently doing a backlink audit for our site with a LOT of backlinks. Some of the linking sites are legitimate business websites in our industry who have linked to us for a totally legitimate reason (we have good content!). However, these businesses themselves have a spammy backlink profile—that is, the only sites linking to that site are obvious link farm sites. Here is an illustration: spammyseolinks.com; payforseo.xyz; blackhat.ru ==all link to==> legitbusiness.com ==links to==> mysite.com Should I disavow this backlink? I guess it's not really giving me much SEO worth since it surely been branded a spammy junk domain, but then again, it's a real website that we've earned a link from because we're doing stuff the right way. Is it hurting or helping me?
Link Building | | THandorf0 -
Why Links from Top Level Domains doesn't Pass Link Equity?
Hello, I have a doubt about Equity-Passing links report of OpensiteExplorer.org According to Sam Weber http://moz.com/community/users/432678 links which pass value from one page to another including followed 301 and Meta refresh links are under Equity-Passing links. I am surprising after looking at the links report generated by opensiteexplorer.org. Most of the article and directory links which have low DA and PA are under Equity-Passing links. Whereas websites like EzineArticle or Articlebase which have good DA and PA are not found in either Equity-passing links or under only nofollow category. Please suggest me if the report of Opensiteexplorer is not good enough or the links from the site like Ezine Article doesn’t pass the link equity. Thanks.
Link Building | | TopLeagueTechnologies0 -
Broken Incoming Links from External Site - What to do?
Our Google Webmaster 'page not found' reports consistently show two Chinese websites that have approximately 50 broken links each to non-existent pages on our website. One site is a PR5, the other a PR1. Two of our Chinese employees have contacted the site owners (even talking with them over the phone) to discuss the errors, where the broken links live on their sites, and how to fix them. They have contacted the site owners three times in the past three months, but still the broken links have not be fixed. What do you recommend we do?
Link Building | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Google is no longer ranking home page but sub page lower, why?
We were ranking on page 2 and number 4 for the key word motorcycle tires. Google was ranking our home page jakewilson.com; however, we have been adding new content to our site and doing some internal linking. We pointed some links about motorcycle tires to http://www.jakewilson.com/cl/52/Motorcycle-Tires and now that page ranks but on page 3 not 2. Any thoughts?
Link Building | | DoRM0 -
Any value in link building to local pages on my site?
If I'm trying to rank for the term 'wedding band' with my url: http://www.musicliveuk.com/home/wedding-bands will linking to local pages such as: http://www.musicliveuk.com/live-acts/hire-wedding-bands/wedding-bands-london help the main page to rank? I added the 'local' pages to try and pick up any traffic from long tail search queries but my main focus is on getting the main page to rank as the traffic from long tail queries is so small. So is it worth me spending time building links to these local pages in order to try and help the main page rank?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Recommended number of links on a single page to a different domain?
Hello fine SEOMOZ people, I have looked around and hope I have not missed an answer to this. The big picture: I know that when multiple links on a page point to the same external page, only the first link is considered for ranking purposes (at least for moz rank). What about multiple links on a page to (different) pages on the same external domain? The task: Using a client's network of sites to help build links (and advertise features) to the site they need optimised. The emphasis is on the usefulness of the info the the respective site's user but I am using the opportunity to create some meaningful anchor text links.The target site is feature rich and I could conceivavbly link to all the key site features (top level pages). However, my SEO spidey senses flagged the possibility that a few links on a page to the target domain (though to different pages on that domain), may carry more weight than many links on the page. I am talking about whether I can go ahead and put 10-15 links on a page to the key site features or whether I am (significantly) better off just selecting 2-5 key target feature pages and using other domains to link to the other features. Caveat: I think I am aware of all the peripheral concerns - not duplicating the page on other sites, varying the anchor text, not implementing the links all at once etc, etc.. Am I overthinking this?
Link Building | | LoweProfero-AU0