Should I switch all paid-for directory backlinks to nofollow backlinks?
-
Hello Mozzers, I'm looking at a niche party services directory (b2c), established for over 8 years. They're not using nofollow tags on backlinks from their paid entries (free entries only get phone numbers and not backlinks).
If they suddenly switch all the paid-for backlinks in their directory to nofollow backlinks, might that have some kind of negative impact. Switching sounds like the best way forward, but I want to avoid any unintended consequences. Perhaps I should only implement this change gradually?
Thanks in advance, Luke
Edited 30 minutes ago by Luke Rowland
-
Thanks Chris... they have virtually no backlinks but definitely operate within niche and quality is middling - there is some useful content on the site relevant to the niche, but not shedloads of content. Almost all outbound links (and not many of those either... perhaps 200). Finding it a tough one to call...
-
If I understand correctly, you are making changes to the directory and you're wondering if you should change all of their followed/paid links to nofollow all at once or some at a time. If that's right:
I'd first consider the quality of the directory itself. How many back links does it have and are they from authoritative sites within the niche? Is there a high percentage of low quality links? I'd next consider the quality, number, and relevance of the sites being linked to from the directory. Are they are all within a well defined niche that is consistent with that of the directory's back links. Is the scale of outbound links well beyond the scale of the directory's outbound links?
If it is a strong, editorial directory with relevant back links and outbound links to a well curated list of niche-relevant sites, you might keep the followed links and focus on building the directory's editorial value within the niche. You could do that by adding content that makes the site more valuable to visitor and more linkable to other sites within its theme.
If your directory has anything but those quality, relevant back links and/or has outbound links of a scattershot relevancy, it may not make much difference what you do, because there's likely not much intrinsic value in the site.
-
Hi,
A directory shouldn't be used for SEO purposes, only if they are relevant and used to help customers find relevant site, especially in niche industries.
The damage of a link penalty would be more of a threat that any lost link juice from the links changing to nofollow. If your site's authority is determined mainly by directory links then you may need to look at some other methods of creating quality links.
Kind Regards
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
-
Bad Backlinks to my website. Rankings Dropped
Hi guys, My name is Flavius and I work for a website named LaserPRocessing.ro from Romania. In april this year the site was infected with a virus and got around 1k bad backlinks. I found those backlinks on Moz Backlinks Tools. I added them on GSC disawow file. What next steps do you recommend to tell Google to block those links? Cheers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nojaflaviusalex0 -
Relationship Between Cross-Domain Canonical Versions and Backlinks
Hi All, I am looking for some community insight on how backlinks on the different versions of a canonical page are handled for ranking purposes. Suppose that I have two versions of the same page on two different domains: 1. https://www.mysite.com/tshirts <--Canonical Version 2. https://www.mywebsite.com/tshirts <--Non-Canonical Version that points to page #1 Also consider a third domain that is being linked to from the article. Since it is identical content, both pages contain the same outbound links to this page: 3. https://www.myclothing.com I am wondering how the backlink authority transfer is handled for page number two. Since it has the canonical tag pointing to page 1, only page 1 should be considered for indexing/ranking purposes as a whole page. However, my question relates to what happens to backlink flow since both #1 and #2 above contain links to site #3. In the above example, would both mysite.com and mywebsite.com be passing a backlink to myclothing .com, or would it only be the first domain (www.mysite.com) passing link authority since it is marked as the canonical for ranking purposes. Thanks for any thoughts!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Evan_Wright0 -
Does link replacement has affect on gaining backlink in good way?
Hey, Do you think that adding the link to existing post can strength my domain or google can notice that it is added later on? Would be appreciated for any comment. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gyesilkaya0 -
meta robots no follow on page for paid links
Hi I have a page containing paid links. i would like to add no follow attribute to these links
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kung_fu_Panda
but from technical reasons, i can only place meta robots no follow on page level (
is that enough for telling Google that the links in this page are paid and and to prevent Google penlizling the sites that the page link to? Thanks!0 -
Link Building, when to give up on a possible backlink provider
Hello, I'm doing content marketing, it's working but it's slow and steady. I'm looking for some wisdom here from people that have done a lot of linkbuilding. Phone calls are tending to be a great resource in our niche. But I've got about 10 sites that I've called about ten times each and they're taking up a lot of time. I've mostly narrowed down who to contact but that person won't answer the phone. My question is, when do you give up on a good lead? Do I just try to contact a good person 5?, or 10? times then leave a message, leave a message a week later, then give up? I don't think leaving a message for content marketing in this case would help much. Thanks for the advice.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
How much better are these backlinks ?
How Much better is a do follow backlink from these 3 pages PA of 28 with 12 outbound do follow links compared to a PA of 31 with 16 out bound links ? Compared to a PA of 42 with 35 out links ? How different would the link juice be from these 3 pages with the do follow links as described ? What has been your experience ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
Does a High percentage of nofollow inconming links, harm my campaign?
Hi all, and first of all, thanks in avant, my question is.... Does a High percentage of nofollow inconming links, harm my campaign? and when i mean a high percentage, i mean a 67% of all my incomings links, that are nofollow. Thanks! w7HDh.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ofuente0 -
Blog links - follow or nofollow?
I need my memory refreshed here! Say, I've got a blog and some of the posts have links to recommended external sites and content. Should these be nofollowed? They're not paid links or anything like that, simply things relevant to the post.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeterAlexLeigh0