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.
Backlinks from Chinese Big sites
-
Hello,
I wish I know your position regarding backlinks from chinese websites. I am able to get a text link(from homepage) from a very big site in chinese. It has PR8 and over 10M users monthly. My site is in english. Will it help me ? Will I be penalised (my site is 5 years old, PR4) and some decent traffic(6-7k daily)
Thanks!
-
Will a home page link from a PR8 chinese site help me? Will my site be penalized?
Maybe yes, maybe no. If the link isn't devalued by search engines, then yes it will provide some help. What kind of devaluation can happen?
1. The link could be completely devalued if Google suspects the site involved is receiving or making a payment for the link
2. The link can be partially devalued if it is a footer link or otherwise not used in content (i.e. a list of links)
No one except a current Google or Bing employee who decides to break the company's NDA (non-disclosure agreement) can properly answer your question. In other words, we are guessing.
What we do know is Google is a very intelligent entity with some of the best minds on our little planet working to ensure their results are not manipulated. What makes sense is Google locates sites which sell links and then adds that site to a penalty list and devalues all of their links. This could have already happened for the Chinese website you are considering. None of the SEO tools you depend on such as Open Site Explorer have any idea if a link has been devalued, so you simply see a high DA/PA site.
My recommendation is instead of trying to manipulate the system with such an effort, why not put that same money towards legitimate efforts? Even if your link does work for now, it can be devalued tomorrow or a year later. When it happens you will wind up back on these forums asking "why did my site drop in rankings all of the sudden?" We see it all the time.
If you have money to burn and desire improvement, some suggestions are:
-
if you really want links, focus on the few accepted directories who offer links with value: BOTW, Yahoo, BBB, Dmoz. Also consider any niche directories for your industry.
-
spend the money on trust symbols which add value to sites such as Verisign, TRUSTe, organizations like GBB.org, etc. Also consider any niche symbols related to your site.
-
hire an SEO for a site analysis. Most sites have opportunities on page. Improve your site so it naturally ranks better. On page SEO is half the battle.
-
hire a quality content writer. Most SEOs agree "content is king". Even for those who disagree, they understand content has a big impact on your rankings. Look for "best of the web" content, not just average internet content
-
invest in graphics. Improve the look and feel of your site. Make it an award winning site to where it is discussed by graphic designers and other sites about how amazing your site appears. Create an infographic for your niche which others will naturally link to
-
create a useful widget which your site's visitors can use and will offer a backlink
-
hire an expert to write or officially review an article. Articles written by doctors, attorneys and other experts add credibility to your site.
-
hold a content and give away a prize. If the contest is performed correctly, you can gain a lot of social media and other attention.
-
create videos for your site. Quality, original media can make a big impact. This works for images as well.
You can pay a SEO to perform quality link building as well. Rather then hiring a permanent SEO, you may wish to hire a dedicated, intelligent college student who is capable of learning SEO basics and your niche. Let's say your site is a health food store. This link builder can then read the overwhelming number of health blogs and forums daily, offering comments and feedback as appropriate and occasionally linking back to your site with helpful information.
The list goes on but the point remains the same. There is a huge number of quality, white hat methods to grow your site in a sustainable way which provides real value and will last for years? It doesn't make sense to pay for links which may offer no value at all to visitors and may offer no value to you either.
-
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
-
What IP Address does Googlebot use to read your site when coming from an external backlink?
Hi All, I'm trying to find more information on what IP address Googlebot would use when arriving to crawl your site from an external backlink. I'm under the impression Googlebot uses international signals to determine the best IP address to use when crawling (US / non-US) and then carries on with that IP when it arrives to your website? E.g. - Googlebot finds www.example.co.uk. Due to the ccTLD, it decides to crawl the site with a UK IP address rather than a US one. As it crawls this UK site, it finds a subdirectory backlink to your website and continues to crawl your website with the aforementioned UK IP address. Is this a correct assumption, or does Googlebot look at altering the IP address as it enters a backlink / new domain? Also, are ccTLDs the main signals to determine the possibility of Google switching to an international IP address to crawl, rather than the standard US one? Am I right in saying that hreflang tags don't apply here at all, as their purpose is to be used in SERPS and helping Google to determine which page to serve to users based on their IP etc. If anyone has any insight this would be great.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MattBassos0 -
Redirect old image that has backlinks
Hi Moz Community! I'm doing an audit of a website and did a backlink analysis. In the backlink analysis, there is an image that has 66 backlinks but the image doesn't exist on the website anymore (it was on a website that was created in 2011 - 2 web launches ago). I don't believe a 301 redirect will work for an image that doesn't exist anymore. How would I redirect the image URL (it's WordPress so we have a specific URL that other websites are linking to but get 404 errors) without going to each individual website and requesting they change the URL link? Any advice or recommendations would be great. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BradChandler1 -
Using the same image across the site?
Hi just wondering i'm using the same image across 20 pages which are optimized for SEO purposes. I was wondering is there issues with this from SEO standpoint? Will Google devalue the page because the same image is being used? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seowork2140 -
Splitting One Site Into Two Sites Best Practices Needed
Okay, working with a large site that, for business reasons beyond organic search, wants to split an existing site in two. So, the old domain name stays and a new one is born with some of the content from the old site, along with some new content of its own. The general idea, for more than just search reasons, is that it makes both the old site and new sites more purely about their respective subject matter. The existing content on the old site that is becoming part of the new site will be 301'd to the new site's domain. So, the old site will have a lot of 301s and links to the new site. No links coming back from the new site to the old site anticipated at this time. Would like any and all insights into any potential pitfalls and best practices for this to come off as well as it can under the circumstances. For instance, should all those links from the old site to the new site be nofollowed, kind of like a non-editorial link to an affiliate or advertiser? Is there weirdness for Google in 301ing to a new domain from some, but not all, content of the old site. Would you individually submit requests to remove from index for the hundreds and hundreds of old site pages moving to the new site or just figure that the 301 will eventually take care of that? Is there substantial organic search risk of any kind to the old site, beyond the obvious of just not having those pages to produce any more? Anything else? Any ideas about how long the new site can expect to wander the wilderness of no organic search traffic? The old site has a 45 domain authority. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Bit.ly backlinks
Hi all, what experience do you have with Bit.ly links? Can I use it for backlinking management?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tormar3 -
On 1 of our sites we have our Company name in the H1 on our other site we have the page title in our H1 - does anyone have any advise about the best information to have in the H1, H2 and Page Tile
We have 2 sites that have been set up slightly differently. On 1 site we have the Company name in the H1 and the product name in the page title and H2. On the other site we have the Product name in the H1 and no H2. Does anyone have any advise about the best information to have in the H1 and H2
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CostumeD0 -
Multiple Ecommerce sites, same products
We are a large catalog company with thousands of products across 2 different domains. Google clearly knows that the sites are connected. Both domains are fairly well known brands - thousands of branded searches for each site per month. Roughly half of our products overlap - they appear on both sites. We have a known duplicate content issue - both sites having exactly the same product descriptions, and we are working on it. We've seen that when a product has different content on the 2 sites, frequently, both pages get to page 2 of the SERPs, but that's as far as it goes, despite aggressive white hat link building tactics. 1. Is it possible to get the same product pages on page 1 of the SERPs for both sites? (I think I know the answer...) 2. Should we be canonicalizing (is that a word?) products across the sites? This would get tricky - both sites have roughly the same domain authority, but in different niches. Certain products and keywords naturally rank better on 1 site or the other depending on the niche.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMHC0 -
How To Best Close An eCommerce Site?
We're closing down one of our eCommerce sites. What is the best approach to do this? The site has a modest link profile (a young site). It does have a run of site link to the parent site. It also has a couple hundred email subscribers and established accounts. Is there a gradual way to do this? How do I treat the subscribers and account holders? The impact won't be great, but I want to minimize collateral damage as much as possible. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AWCthreads0