External link

[extrememarquees]

Hi guys!

You must get many questions about external links... This is mine.

If I get an external link with good authority ranking in google, but it is not relevant to the site (for example, my site is about marquees, but we could get links from schools, which are our main clients, or any type of client) Does that affect negatively somehow to the rankings? or there is good value on it even is not related?

Thanks!

Adriana

[extrememarquees]

This reply was very useful, because it tells me that even if it does not help me with a particular keyword, it helps us with the domain authority. They are legitimate business... So, it should be fine...

[extrememarquees]

Thanks!. There will not be any mass link manipulation, I believe that if we create a system with the clients we already have encouraging them to link us if they are happy with the result, could bring good results. And the amount of links pointing at us will increase. then, I will not need to chase links or anything, I believe that SEO should be handled inside the company, and should be somehow part of the marketing strategy. If we could achieve that, I believe time will increase our authority.

[extrememarquees]

Thank you for your reply. It is something we are planning to do, but because the variety of clients is so wide (banks or clubs or schools) I got a little concerned about how to relate them to what we do. But thanks!

[CPU]

Getting links from seemingly unrelated businesses will not negatively affect your ranking unless as mentioned below you suddenly gain a lot of links from dubious sources.

There is value in an authorative link even if it isn't relevant so i would recommend that you ask the schools that are your clients if they can link to your site. As well as the SEO value, someone may see it who needs a marquee for their organisation or event.

[Dan-Petrovic]

Any link will help relevant or not, just on a different level.

Note: If you start making "clever schemes" and mass link manipulation you may get in trouble if reviewed by Google.

[RyanOD]

From the way you've described your situation, yes, there is good value in the links you are getting.

What you want to be concerned about isn't one particular site linking to you and whether they are or are not related to your product / service. What you want to be concerned about is low quality sites that are highly associated with dubious content such as spamming, link buying and selling, cloaking, keyword stuffing, porn, gambling, etc. It is highly unlikely your clients are involved in any of these activities.

All that being said, Google understands site owners have limited control over who links to them. If you have an opportunity to get a link from a high quality site, count yourself lucky. Even more so if the link is truly authentic and is placed within copy that is related to what you do. In fact, I would go so far as to recommend you start asking your clients for a link to your site if they are happy with your service.