How are links in ads perceived ?
-
Hi,
Please can someone remind me how links in display ads are perceived by G ?
A client of mine has purchased a display campaign with an industry related on-line publication that has lead to a massive spike in reported back links in Google Search Console (the new GWT). Does Google automatically identify these as ads (due to tracker codes etc) rather than paid backlinks or should they, like links in press releases, be no-followed or other advice ?
Cheers
Dan
-
Brilliant ! thanks so much for all that great info i really appreciate it !!
However the Mozbar highlighting doesn't have an effect on links in graphics like banners etc, only on text type links etc as far as i can see. Am i missing something here ?
All Best
Dan
-
Moz toolbar. See top left.
Screenshot before toolbar is set to highlight no follows
http://i.imgur.com/05p5h0T.png
Screenshot after after toolbar is set to highlight no follows
http://i.imgur.com/YSGw1gK.png
Example of toolbar highlighting no follows
http://i.imgur.com/Xy4iL9i.png
Other resources to learn more about Moz bar
https://moz.com/help/guides/research-tools/mozbar
https://moz.com/blog/announcing-mozbar-v3
http://www.poweredbysearch.com/mozbar-seo-extension-chrome-firefox/
or you can Google "Moz bar guide"
https://www.google.com/search?q=mozbar+guide
Search console is link agnostic.
https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq--webmaster-tools
Q: I know I have [one / several / dozens of ] links that Search Console isn't showing. What gives?
A: Although the link reports in Search Console are more comprehensive than doing a [link:example.com] query in Google search, they may not include 100% of all links that you know about. This is normal and should not be cause for alarm. Search Console does not always show 100% of the links that Google knows about, so just because a particular link doesn't appear in Search Console doesn't mean that Google doesn't know about that link, or that your site isn't "getting credit" for that link.Note that the link report in Search Console only shows whether a site is linking to yours; it doesn't show which links are most significant, and it can include links that are nofollowed, disavowed, or that don't pass PageRank.
-
Hi Clever PHD dont spose you can advise in regard to my last question (or anyone else in MOz team) ....That Moz bar can look at elements beyond the page level so i can determine if banner ads on a page have been 'no followed' ?
Also if these links are showing up in GWT/Search console does that mean that they are 'followed' or does search console show all links it finds ?
Cheers
dan
-
Which bit of it will ? thought MOzbar just looks at the page (rather than specific elements of it, like a banner ad) ?
cheers
dan
-
Moz toolbar will do it.
-
any tips for quickly checking if an ad has a 'no follow' on its link i.e. a browser based tool etc ?
much appreciated !
all best
dan
-
Ok thanks for the info !
Have a great weekend !
All Best
Dan
-
That would be best practice and the conservative approach to tell clients to no follow any banner ads pointing to the site. If you call yourself a white hat seo that follows Google guidelines, then that is your route. Not all SEOs are of this ilk, so what others do is up to them.
I would not expect that a publisher know to add a no follow. They are not focused on SEO, they are just focused on selling banners. As you are paying them for the banner, they should be able to accommodate this.
If they were not, you can have them direct the banner to a page on your site that is blocked via robots.txt and then (if needed) 301 redirect the page to the page that you want the user to see.
-
cool thanks for confirming cleverphd !
so as far as you know (and practice) most seo's will tell their clients to 'no follow' any banner ad campaigns they are carrying out etc ?
also is it now standard best practice to expect publishers when selling banner ad campaigns to 'no follow' their ads as standard ?
all best
dan
-
All paid links should be no-followed. Google is very clear about this
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
The following are examples of link schemes which can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results:
- Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
Can Google always tell if links are paid or not, no. Do the eventually figure out things, yes. If they figure it out in this case (and they might for the reasons you mention) that site could get penalized. Even if Google did not penalize, when the ad campaign ends, those links go away and the value goes away.
I would stay on the conservative side and ask that those links get no-followed. Try and find away to reap the benefits of the click through traffic from those ads.
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
-
Are links from charities really better than 'normal' links.
Hi Guys. Just wondering about this idea that links from Charities are particularly good. I've heard people say that links from .org sites are particularly strong. But anyone can get a .org domain, it's just that charities tend to use them more often. Right? I just don't get the logic. Can anyone give more detail about this? Is it a myth? Is there quality info on this topic I can check out? We're working with several charities at the moment, and they all seem happy to blog and link to us...so I just wanted to know a little more. Isaac.
Link Building | | isaac6630 -
Internal Linking - Post links vs Side Bar Links behaving differently
Hi, I have a question regarding the internal linking behavior. My website is www.hindimeaning.com which is approx 3 years old. I have approx 450 posts. Now i have a widget on right sidebar "Popular posts". A widget below my posts "Related Posts". And a simple html CSS menu above the posts (I removed menu around 6 month before so currently it will not show.) I crawled my site with moz crawler (same are the result from google crawler as well) and it shows menus links as internal links. While sidebar widget "Popular posts" and "Related Posts" are not showing as internal links. If we talk theoretically what i learn till now is "every link on a page behaves as internal link". Then why the widget links are not showing as internal links. Thanks, Mahesh Kumar
Link Building | | chaudhary04890 -
Indirect Link Earning via dofollow Links In News Articles
Hello, MOZ SEO Gurus. I've been trying to think some deep thoughts on safe, effective link earning for news publishing sites, and wanted to run this up the flagpole and see if you salute. Our site is a biotech news service -- we pump out copious amounts of news content each day, which works well for driving traffic. That being said, we also want to rank some optimized landing pages as well. Take, for example, this page, which we'd like to rank for "secondary progressive MS" and related keywords: http://bionews-tx.com/secondary-progressive-ms/ Now, as far as I'm concerned, shopping this page around to MS influencers isn't easy. I can go to Foundational websites, blogs, etc., and say, "hey, we have this info page on SPMS, and I thought that you might find it helpful/want to link to it." But chances are, the MS influencers already have their own proprietary content on SPMS, and there isn't much value to linking to it. Therefore, I think that we'll get few link earning conversions on the effort. However, what if I take our Secondary Progressive MS landing page, and I link to it in a corresponding article about SPMS research, as I did here: http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/01/30/secondary-progressive-ms-natalizumab-clinical-trial/ Then, I go to the drug developer who is at the center of this story and say to them, "hey, we recently covered your drug in the news, and I thought you might want to link to it." Then, we get a link from an MS drug developer to the news article, which in turn has a prominent anchor text, dofollow internal link to the landing page for SPMS. If the link from the drug developer is dofollow, then we flow page rank juice from the drug developer page to our news page to our landing page. To me, it's much easier to earn safe links this way than to try and shop the landing page itself. That being said, if we get a dofollow link on the news piece, we only get a diminished portion of page rank going to the landing page. Is this strategy viable? Is the indirect flow of page rank from a linking site to a news article to a landing page even worth it? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Link Building | | bionewstx2 -
Are links with space considered to be the same as links with %20?
I wonder if Google would consider those three links to be the same? http://www.example.com/test page.html http://www.example.com/test page.html http://www.example.com/test+page.html
Link Building | | lucek0 -
What are the new ways of Link Building which will get quality links?
Hi We are doing following kinds of Link Building: 1. Article marketing 2. Directory Submission 3. Guest Blogging 4. Press Release submission 5. Infographics (Viral Marketing) I know blog commenting and links from discussion forums are considered as greyhat / blackhat by google. So I want suggestions on some other ethical(Whitehat SEO) ways of Link Building to get quality Links. Also suggest me some Free article submission sites which give " dofollow-links" Thank You
Link Building | | Virrtuo0 -
NEW LINKS
Hi If you plan to add new links to a site which currently has very few inbound links what is the maximum amount you could add in any one day before it is deemed by Google to be suspicious and unatural. I am referring ot manually added links, not robotic. Thank you 🙂
Link Building | | PH2920