Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Link Building
    4. What are the SEO implications of high quality backlinks from US-based websites to UK-based websites?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    What are the SEO implications of high quality backlinks from US-based websites to UK-based websites?

    Link Building
    4
    4
    1084
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • GoUp
      GoUp Subscriber last edited by

      Hi everyone, quick question I hope someone could help me with:

      We're representing a client based in the UK. As part of their overall strategy we've been linkbuilding.

      At the moment, about 80/90% of the links we've gained come from UK-based sites, with 10/20% coming from US-based websites.

      The US based websites are very good (think New York Times and genuine, relevant blogs with good readerships).

      An external search analyst/consultant has contacted the client to say that the US links will be harming the site, because the links are from websites in the US and not the UK.

      We believe that if 80/90% of the links were from the US this could indeed cause harm as it could indicate to search engines that our client is in the US when it's not (which might compromise their chance of ranking in .co.uk versions of search engines) however because it's only 10/20%, and because the linking sites are very good, we believe that they will getting all of the benefits of the positive metrics without any meaningful negatives.

      We just wanted to get a few opinions on this to see if people think that we're mistaken, and would be glad to hear any opinions contrary to our own.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • DonnaDuncan
        DonnaDuncan last edited by

        I'm not an International SEO expert. This is just my opinion.

        I agree with Thomas that links from high-quality destination sites are going to help your rankings regardless. Just to confuse things, I also agree with you that you need to strike a balance when it comes to just how many of your links come from other destinations.

        If, for example, you want to rank for SEO in the UK and your website has a majority of incoming links from the UK, I would expect those links reinforce and help boost your UK rankings because Google knows people prefer to shop locally. If, on the other hand, you are trying to rank globally, then you'd want (and benefit from) inbound links from other destinations as well.

        So I think your assumptions are good. Reputable inbound links from other destinations are helpful so long as they don't confuse Google about which audience you're targeting. I guess you could use other international SEO techniques like hreflang tags, your URL structure, geo-targeting in GSC, and localized content to reinforce that if you were worried.

        I don't know of any case studies on this topic.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GoUp
          GoUp Subscriber last edited by

          Thank you very much for your responses. I would be interested in getting a few more responses as well? Does anyone know of any articles that relate to the question? It is such a strange question- never really heard it put out there before, so would not be surprised if there was no literature on it! But if there is then please point my way... or indeed if anyone else has any feedback on it, whether it confirms or opposes our opinion, all opinions are welcome!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ThomasHarvey
            ThomasHarvey last edited by

            If they're from relevant pages (topics) from within your clients niche to your client, regardless of where in the world you shouldn't have a problem. The idea that where in the world two different sites are based has an impact on link value to me does not make sense. A post that's on a specific topic would have global value, an example would be architecture, they could be a UK based company who have done some great work, a newspaper in the US covers the opening of the building and links to the architect. The fact that they are in different companies is almost irrelevant. I have seen no case studies to show that anything else would be the case.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • 1 / 1
            • First post
              Last post

            Got a burning SEO question?

            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


            Start my free trial


            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.

            • See all categories

            Related Questions

            • viveklazy

              All backlinks not showing on my website

              backling issue backlinks backlinkaudit

              hey folks, i am fairly new to SEO and i have noticed that i have backlinks that tools like ubersuggest or SEM rush are nothshowing my product is lazyapply.com. -> It's an automated job search application can anyone suggest me what should id do ? PS - for example i have backlink from crunchbase.com but my website is not showing me that

              Link Building | | viveklazy
              0
            • tunguyen110894

              Test my website

              I have a website. I need to test this  onpage. I do not know where to start. Please help me! My web site: United Airlines Thanks you!

              Link Building | | tunguyen110894
              0
            • wcksmith1

              Nofollow backlinks - are they worth it?

              As we all attempt to get backlinks for the sites we manage, I have to wonder if it's worth it at all to get a nofollow backlink.  Does Google give and positive credit for a link to a site if it is a nofollow link? Obviously, the follow links are worth pursuing.  I'm just trying to gain some perspective. Thanks,  Wick

              Link Building | | wcksmith1
              0
            • offilery

              How to Reduce the spam score of the website?

              My website is www.naturesouq.com,it is a E-commerce Portal and Moz shows a spam score of 8,may i know why my site spam score is high and how can i reduce it,after all it is a dubai store portal.

              Link Building | | offilery
              68
            • poke1

              Rankings Dropped After New Backlinks.

              I have a low-traffic website (under 100 unique visitors per day) and I've encountered a strange issue started yesterday morning. I acquired three back-links, one of these back-links is contextual and the other two are site-wide. The site-wide back-links are from PA 40+ blogs. It looks like the back-links are already indexed by Google. Despite these new back-links, my rankings across multiple keywords have dropped several positions. I'm new to SEO, but I would assume new back-links would improve my rankings. None of these back-links are low quality links, they are from real established blogs with high domain and page authority values. Could anyone give me insights into why my rankings may have dropped with new back-links?

              Link Building | | poke1
              1
            • jkosarek

              Media Kit for SEO?

              I am working with a company that gets a significant amount of press, but often we do not get links from these articles or the articles do not have the best anchor text. Any suggestion, tools, or articles that help optimize this exposure to for seo benefits?

              Link Building | | jkosarek
              0
            • ITVSEO.COM

              How to add website to Dmoz?

              Hello all, i'm a webmaster, i need add my website : http://itvseo.com to dmoz, before i add some website to dmoz but unscuccessfull, please help me thank all

              Link Building | | ITVSEO.COM
              0
            • shaz_lhr

              Should we BackLink to Guest Post ?

              Hi, I have been actively doing guest blogging for last few weeks . But the page authority , moz Rank and moz Trust of my guest posts appear 0 as those posts have their own pages on blogs  with snippets of posts on home page.  I wanted to ask if i should backlink to my guest posts to increase the authority, mR and mT of pages. Those posts are already appearing as backlinks in webmaster tools but if i backlink to my posts to increase mR and mT, then will it also increase the juice passed by backlinks in those posts to landing pages on my site ? Thanks,

              Link Building | | shaz_lhr
              0

            Get started with Moz Pro!

            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

            Start my free trial
            Products
            • Moz Pro
            • Moz Local
            • Moz API
            • Moz Data
            • STAT
            • Product Updates
            Moz Solutions
            • SMB Solutions
            • Agency Solutions
            • Enterprise Solutions
            • Digital Marketers
            Free SEO Tools
            • Domain Authority Checker
            • Link Explorer
            • Keyword Explorer
            • Competitive Research
            • Brand Authority Checker
            • Local Citation Checker
            • MozBar Extension
            • MozCast
            Resources
            • Blog
            • SEO Learning Center
            • Help Hub
            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
            • How-to Guides
            • Moz Academy
            • API Docs
            About Moz
            • About
            • Team
            • Careers
            • Contact
            Why Moz
            • Case Studies
            • Testimonials
            Get Involved
            • Become an Affiliate
            • MozCon
            • Webinars
            • Practical Marketer Series
            • MozPod
            Connect with us

            Contact the Help team

            Join our newsletter
            Moz logo
            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
            • Accessibility
            • Terms of Use
            • Privacy

            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.