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.
Can Foreign Language Backlinks Be Valuable?
-
I've done a lot of searching on this subject, but I keep seeing conflicting answers.
Are backlinks from foreign language websites valuable?
For example, a travel website in English picks up a couple backlinks in Indonesian language (and other languages) from foreign sites that have a DA of 60-70 or higher.
The topic is partially related, but the language is totally different.
Would those links still be valuable for the English website's DA?
Has this ever been answered conclusively?
Thanks
-
@backstagecreat DA is not a direct correlation in terms of the ranking power of a backlink. I am afraid the above mentioned is incorrect.
-
@backstagecreat This is completely incorrect.
The DA score is nothing but a 3rd party measurement and is not a direct correlation of a backlinks SERP impact.
A website with a MOZ DA score of just DA20 can provide much higher rank impact then a MOZ DA40 backlink depending on many other factors.
The DA score in the light you have announced it is meaningless and bad advise.
The DA score or the "Higher The DA" has nothing to do rank power of a link.
The rank power depends more on the type of referring domain either that being the niche or domain trust.
This is explained further
You own a hairdressing website and you get a DA40 link from a lawnmower shop website.
You also then get a link from a different website. This website is DA10. But its actually another hairdressing shop that linked to you.
The DA10 link is going to give much large ranking impact than the DA40 link
DA is just a way to measure things. It is in no way a reflection of the ranking power of a backlink.
I hope this clears up the conflicting and incorrect information made in backstagecreat comment
-
@lynnpatchett Backlinks are a cornerstone of SEO. However, not all backlinks deliver the same value. Links that are higher on a page or from pages with a higher DA will help your website rank better in Google's search results. You can use this information to build higher-quality backlinks.
-
@abdoselim2050 I disagree. Not every backlink has actual value.
These include.
-
Links on noindex pages.
-
Links from noindex spam blogs
-
Links that Google will choose to totally ignore
-
Links from highly spammed and high OBL pages.
-
If a indexed nofollow link is on a page that's never visited
There are many useless hyperlinks out there on there internet some which I have not mentioned here due to he list becoming to long.
-
-
@david5675 Of course they are mate. Google does not care about the origin or language of the site you get a link from. They look first at the niche, the topical relevance and the domains overall authority and trust. As most optimisation pros are aware there is over 200 factors the major search engines base there algorithms on. Google automatically translates the content so it makes no difference in respect to the foreign language.
So can they be valuable. The answer is it makes no difference so yes they are. As long as language and topical relevance translates into the same niche and the page has a low OBL at not spammed to death your good to go.
Many foreign language sites have huge SERP impact. This is why I personally like to target some of my outreach to these sites due to the fact some of them are actually interested in getting an English point of view on certain topics. Furthermore, looking back at the 200 factors Googles evaluates a website with. Diversity is one of them.
-
That's an interesting question indeed. I never saw a conclusive study on this topic, however, it seems that the answer would be: unique, genuine, high quality links will always be of use, especially if the topic of the page is relevant (just like in the example with foreign travel communities linking to travel websites in English) even though it would provide less value because of the anchor and surrounding text being in other language. How exactly less, that's still questionable. I would not concentrate on acquiring such links deliberately, but would not fight against them as well.
-
Every backlink has value, nothing is without value
However, the earned value varies from one link to another
Get backlinks from more than one language - This increases his strength and chances of appearing in the first ranks -
Hi,
This kind of link is pretty common, especially in the travel/tourism industry where lots of foreign language sites discussing holiday destinations etc give links out to relevant sites that are not necessarily in the language of the original article. If it is a freely given link from a somewhat relevant page then it certainly would not hurt, if it is a link that you are outreaching for then I would personally concentrate on other options that are in the same language as your website, Hope that makes sense

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
-
My website DA is decreasing Day by Day
I am working on my site mbWhatshub http://mbwhatshub.com/ and I am worried because site DA decreased when I checked in MOZ and I am trying to find out the reason I failed please is there any bug?
Link Building | | anwarsahil00 -
How to handle pre-existing backlinks on new site.
Hi - We built a new site on a URL that had previously been used. We are noticing a lot of spammy backlinks pointing to our current site and ending up on a 404 page. Any recommendations on how to handle this?
Link Building | | JJKM551 -
Does backlinks in images equal naked backlinks?
I've discovered few backlinks in images came from websites points to my home page. What is the value of these links?
Link Building | | Eslam-yosef0 -
Trading Backlinks a good idea?
New to the "backlinking" party. Wondering if its 'good practice' to trade links with other websites within a like-industry. We've been receiving a lot of emails from other websites asking us to trade links. Is this a good link building practice anymore? Thanks!
Link Building | | asa-php0 -
Should I Use a Backlink Plugin
One of my clients recently asked me if he should use a Wordpress plugin to create backlinks to his website. He mentioned WP-Syndicator as an example. I just redesigned his website and I'd like to ensure that he gets a bit more traffic than he was before. Should I suggest that he purchase/use a Wordpress backlink plugin? If so does anyone know which is the best one? Not sure if it's necessary, but here is the website I'm referring to http://intouchhome.com
Link Building | | eddie_olivas0 -
How to remove backlinks?
Hey guys, With all this anti over optimization movement going around with Google, I decided to do a link building profile audit. I see some pages with PR 0 and some pages that expired. My websites are not penalized at this moment, however I do want to avoid this at all costs. What can I do? Could a backlink from an expired domain penalize my site?
Link Building | | nrv0 -
Changing backlinks anchor text
Hi, I've read a few blog post here that suggests the strength of building links using your brand as an anchor text. This supposedly gives the site authority. Currently a chunck of the back links to my homepage are on generic terms i'm trying to rank for which doesn't seem to be working very well. I was thinking of contacting the various webmasters to change the anchor text to that of the site brand name but wondering if this will signal a manipulation of links to the search engines and potentially could be flagged as paid links? Has anybody done this before and what is the danger of doing this? Thanks Duke
Link Building | | clickangel0