External Keyword Anchor Links - Always Bad?
-
1) I've been told that other sites linking to my site with keyword-rich text are bad.
2) But Google Console / Analytics shows that we rank extremely high for random, pointless phrases loosely tied to the topic of our site. Like "dht blocker". (its a hair loss site)
3) This week I began analyzing our backlinks. Guess what I found? Literally hundreds of bot-created spammy trackback and pingback text links around the phrase "dht blocker"
It seems to me that keyword rich anchor text on external sites is NOT a bad thing. In fact its an outstanding way to rank better for your desired keywords. Obviously the "bad" is the spam element. Probably the high quantity. On unrelated websites. But guess what? It worked. _We are ranking extremely well for these pointless phrases, thanks to these spam bots. _
Obviously we will be disavowing all these sites. But I want to start building quality links via legitimate, honest means.
So here is my question:
If I begin a legitimate honest link building campaign with other websites, and request that they put the HREF around our most coveted keyword phrase - is this inherently BAD? Or is it actually possibly GOOD? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts?
-
Keyword rich anchor text on external sites will help your search rankings. But it's also against Google's rules. If an unnaturally high percentage of the links to your site have the same anchor text, you run the risk that Google will ignore their value or will penalize your site. My suggestion would be to get some links with keyword rich anchor text but also get a lot of other links that don't have keyword rich anchor text so your overall link profile looks natural.
-
If you write to me and say... hey.. would you consider adding my new article to your news feed. I would look at it and add it, only if it was outfreekingstanding and highly relevant to my audience.
However, if you write to me and say that you want specific anchor text, then I am going to delete your message and all future messages, I don't care if the Pope is writing for your site. Why? Because you are trying to manipulate the search engines and I don't want to have anything to do with your site because I don't want to be linking to anything that Google will count as spam.
-
I think you want me to give a palatable answer.
If you ask for the anchor text it is manipulative. If the person with the website determines the anchor text then it was not manipulated by you.
-
I feel like you're still not answering my question.
Going by your logic, any link building at all is "Manipulative". Technically, isn't it? Yes.
My question, once again, is whether links containing anchor text are inherently bad.
That was the question: Are they INHERENTLY bad.
I gave two options based on the question:
1) They are inherently Bad
2) They are possibly GoodI posed my question in a very deliberate way. I will repeat the original post so maybe its more clear what I am saying: I have been told that ANY ANCHOR TEXT LINKS ARE BAD.
Any. All.
But I found an example of obvious spam using anchor text links, and we rank well for those.
Therefore: Is ANY (ALL) Anchor text linking bad? (Yes / No)
Since you haven't said a simple yes or no, Im going to go with "NO" anchor text links are not inherently bad and in fact seem to be a very effective way to rank well ... IF ... (this was obvious, and a given) its used responsibly and in moderation.
-
That method is manipulative. The anchor text is being placed to manipulate the search engines.
And, if you get a high number of keyword rich anchor text links you might have a Penguin problem.
-
So the direct answer to the question in bold above, is ........?
-
These are descriptions of manipulative links based upon anchor text that are quotes straight from Google (here).....
" Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links."
"Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites."
There are many other types of manipulative links based upon anchor text.
Although it appears that spam-made links with keywords as anchor text links are an effective way to drive, if you have a lot of those types of link your website will stand out to Google's algos and you could get a Penguin problem. Lots of people who have Penguin problems have lost their rankings for about two years. Google keeps saying... "we are going to run the Penguin update soon" and the owners of these sites have been tormented by the numerous and lengthy delays.
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
-
100 Links Warning
Our website is GarageFlooringLLC.com. We rank relatively well for our main keywords but I am always looking to rank better. The 100 links question has been discussed to no end but I believe our website provides a great example of why a small business might have more than 100 links and IF we need to drop below that. User Experience vs Rules I think it is fair to say that if customers cannot find what they are looking for, it does not matter how well you rank. Our menu is designed to get people to the page they want to be on in a single click. So What Now? Do we remove items from the menu and only link to categories adding an extra click or two to the customers UI or do we leave well enough alone
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GFLLCCO0 -
Keywords in URL
I have an ecommerce store and i am using moz to get it into the best seo situation... my question is this..... I want to know how important it is to have the targeted keyword actually in the product page url.... I working on meta title and description which is good, but if i start changing all my product urls, it has major impact on the work i have to do since i would have to redo all my product links in ads, and all my product urls in emails, etc. So how much of a part do the urls play in seo?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bkhoward20010 -
OK to change the anchor text of a link?
I have built a link on behalf of a ciient in a long, well-written article on a reputable website that accepts contributor accounts. I therefore control the link. I have since realised that the anchor text of the link could be optimized much better than it currently is (while still only being a partial match). Would I be punished by the algorithm for going in and changing the link? I know it's not 100% "natural," but then we're SEOs, and i don't think it's too implausible that a website owner may go in and do the same... Maybe if I add some text as well, it would make things look more natural?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zakkyg1 -
Using rel="nofollow" when link has an exact match anchor but the link does add value for the user
Hi all, I am wondering what peoples thoughts are on using rel="nofollow" for a link on a page like this http://askgramps.org/9203/a-bushel-of-wheat-great-value-than-bushel-of-goldThe anchor text is "Brigham Young" and the page it's pointing to's title is Brigham Young and it goes into more detail on who he is. So it is exact match. And as we know if this page has too much exact match anchor text it is likely to be considered "over-optimized". I guess one of my questions is how much is too much exact match or partial match anchor text? I have heard ratios tossed around like for every 10 links; 7 of them should not be targeted at all while 3 out of the 10 would be okay. I know it's all about being natural and creating value but using exact match or partial match anchors can definitely create value as they are almost always highly relevant. One reason that prompted my question is I have heard that this is something Penguin 3.0 is really going look at.On the example URL I gave I want to keep that particular link as is because I think it does add value to the user experience but then I used rel="nofollow" so it doesn't pass PageRank. Anyone see a problem with doing this and/or have a different idea? An important detail is that both sites are owned by the same organization. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ThridHour0 -
App "Review" Website with DA of 58 - Good or Bad Link?
Hi, We have a web app. All our competitors are on http://www.appappeal.com. We can suggest ourselves here http://www.appappeal.com/contact/suggest. If we get reviewed and the link is a follow link is this a good thing or a bad thing. They call themselves a directory and you can pay to get a "priority" review. Should we avoid or is it a good link as the DA is 58?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Studio330 -
Google showing me a 404 link from an external source?
In my list of 404 errors from Google webmaster I have one with the "linked from" section showing an external link. This seems like a broken link (which obviously I will try and fix to get the link juice) but why would Google recognize it as a 404? From Google: | URL: | www.broken URL | | | Error details | In Sitemaps | Linked from | | <colgroup><col></colgroup>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | theLotter
| http://externalwebsite.com |
| | |0 -
Two Pics, one bit of Text single anchor link?
Hi thereGurus, sorry Aspirants ;-), I have a really nice looking menu used in my standard page template that has some SEO issues now due to possibly causing 'too many onsite links' penalty/downgrade on some of my bigger pages going >120 links. Wanting to keep the nice menu, I want to work around the issues if possible. The menu is comprised of 7 buttons with various keywords pertinent to the site. On the menu, hovering over the keyword in a button eg 'Technology' causes this button with word inside to do an animated slide down and a picture representative of 'Technology' to appear where the button was with the original button directly below it, which then a side menu slides out of to the right to reveal 5 anchor links that represent the 'Technology' menu category. The first option in this sub-menu is supposed to have the same anchor link as the description image and the button/button text that being it is like a category description. Trouble I am having is that the slide out menu requires a separate div for javascript reasons. I have one anchor covering the button and the pop-up image, but then I need a second anchor for the first line of the slide out menu (otherwise fails W3C). This is adding 7 duplicate anchors to the page on a e-Commerce page that already has too many anchors IMHO. I read in HTML5 you can have an anchor holding a div inside, but how about an un'd div? The next four items on the slide out menu go to other anchor links so it first anchor needs to end prior to these, hence halfway through a div. Is there another way of making multiple items (across div boundaries etc) only go to/count as one single anchor link? Thanks for your help, Brad
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BM70 -
Optimize short tail keyword by optimizing long tail keyword
Many SEO's said that if i have a keyword suppose 'coat stand' that is very competitive and second keyword is 'cheap coat stand' that is less competitive .If we promote long tail keyword (cheap coat stand) than ranking of 'coat stand' will improve.Is it true?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alick3000