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
-
Value of EDU Links?
Greetings: We are considering hiring a firm specializes in developing .EDU links. Is the ROI on EDU links better than non EDU backlinks from reputable domains? Will obtaining EDU links results in greater domain authority and improved ranking for search engine results? Thanks, Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan10 -
Proximity of keywords in text
In content, does the proximity of semantically related keyword matter ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Top hierarchy pages vs footer links vs header links
Hi All, We want to change some of the linking structure on our website. I think we are repeating some non-important pages at footer menu. So I want to move them as second hierarchy level pages and bring some important pages at footer menu. But I have confusion which pages will get more influence: Top menu or bottom menu or normal pages? What is the best place to link non-important pages; so the link juice will not get diluted by passing through these. And what is the right place for "keyword-pages" which must influence our rankings for such keywords? Again one thing to notice here is we cannot highlight pages which are created in keyword perspective in top menu. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
How fast to change keyword rich anchor text
Hello, A client of mine has a site with almost all keyword rich anchor text, The problem is on on a bunch of little blogs and some (mostly sitewide) paid links. We are working to move into 100% white hat SEO, but we're doing it slowly. My question is, how fast can we change the anchor text on all of these links? I'm worried that if I do it too fast that it will be a red flag. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Will an inbound follow link on a site be devalued by an inbound affiliate link on the same site?
Hey guys, quick question I didn't find an answer to online. Scenario: 1. Site A links to Site B. It's a natural, regular, follow-link 2. Site A joins Site B's affiliate program, and adds an affiliate link Question: Does the first, regular follow link get devalued by the second affiliate link? Cheers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ipancake0 -
Is linking to search results bad for SEO?
If we have pages on our site that link to search results is that a bad thing? Should we set the links to "nofollow"?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
Should I build links to the home page or a url containing the keyword?
I run an IT company and the company name does not contain the key word I am trying to rank on. I also have a bunch of pages with page rank that containing the actual keywords, for example: http://www.mycompanyname.com/tech-support/locations/brighton My target keyword is "Tech Support Brighton" My Home page is PR4 and my location based pages are PR3. My plan was to build 3 or 4 location pages for the locations we provide tech support for and target location based keyword Anchor text to these URL's e.g "Tech Support Brighton" and then for the home page build links that have the anchor text "Tech Support". Does this sound sane? Many Thanks, K
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOKeith0 -
Solving Keyword Cannibalisation WITHOUT exact match internal links
Hi guys, I have an ecommerce client I'm working with (they are a tour operator). The client has multiple variations of very very similar tours which has created a keyword cannibalisation issue. I've read this blog from Rand on the issue, and I understand that I need to use internal links to show the bots which page I want to rank for which term. Problem is, I cant use exact match anchor text as it wouldn't adequately describe the tour from a user's perspective. eg I want a single page to rank for 'Los Angeles Tour' however, because the tour also takes in san francisco, I cant use the exact match anchor text 'Los Angeles Tour' because it doesn't give users a realistic indication of the page that they are going to. My solution... Is to use the internal linking structure eg 'San Francisco & Los Angeles Tour', This has the keyword phrase I want to optimise for within the anchor text. Does this have the same effect as using the exact match anchor text? I cant really see any other solution, so I'm guessing that s the right course of action Your thoughts would be much appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jamesjackson0