Can bad backlinks harm your website?
-
Hi,
This has been discussed to death over the web on many forums, some discussions are even very heated arguing both sides.
So... from what I have read on seomoz the answer to this question is... YES.
And if one was so inclined to build bad backlinks to a competitor it would have a negative effect.
Agree?
-
Lots of people (philosophers) have an idea about how they think google "should" behave. Then you have people who know what they are talking about and philosophers who are unwilling to believe that they are wrong.
Finally, just because we see something happen doesn't mean we know what caused it.
-
Thanks for the replies,
I would never go down this route, as both of you have said the time/money spent would be better spent on white hat for my own site, plus I just don't agree with it.
But the question had to be asked for my own knowledge as a lot of people state it doesn't have an impact. A lot say the only way to be hit is by linking out to bad websites, which is obv not true.
-
Of course below is just my opinion... But it seems highly plausible...
Everything we do leaves a footprint, that footprint is analyzed by the algorithm - The algorithm has flags both ways with unnatural links. Either done by you - or against you...
I think this has always been one of Google's biggest challenges,not always necessarily how to penalize site owners and SEO's who are actually using Black hat - but how do you filter that against having black hat done against them algorithmically ?
The reason some claim it work, is I am sure there ARE ways to do it... But as ipositions **excellently ** points out.. This money could be much better spent employing strategies that not only help your search positioning, but your overall brand perception and marketing in general. Opposed to just hurting someone else to make yourself look better (sounds like politics!)
Shane
-
"And if one was so inclined to build bad backlinks to a competitor it would have a negative effect"
There is a whole branch called Negative SEO specialised in destroying your competitor' SERPS and though you will find loads of sites promoting that they do this in a "Completeley legal" I urge you not to succumb to the temptation of trying it.
The time and money you would spend trying to negatively impact others would be better spent on optimizing your own site, and think about it: If suddenly anyone above you starts dropping in rankings and your site is the only one that ascends don't you think someone is going to wonder why?
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
-
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 | | tunguyen1108940 -
How do I get rid of sites that backlink with lots of irrelevant or spammy links to our website?
This site http://herwigphoto.com/bs/ and other like it have thousands of similar links containing the word adidas We are not in the sports shoes business, therefore the links are irrelevant and many and can hurt our rankings, correct? | Page Title/URL of Linking Page | Link Anchor Text | Page Authority | Domain Authority |
Link Building | | Madlena
| Christopher Herwig Photographer » Soviet Bus Stopshttp://herwigphoto.com/bs/ | adidas Yeezy Boost 750 Grey For Sale | 48 | 47 | Below are some links to our geographics.com website that have URLs that are not ours. They will redirect to our homepage. How do we remove these links and how do we deal with the websites that send such links to us? There are thousands of inbound links to our website with anchor text containing irrelevant keywords such as these: yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap or adidas-yeezy-boost-750-light-grey-sale; pirate black sale, etc Page Title/URL of Linking Page Page Authority LRDs Total External Links HTTP Status http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap.html 46 120 1800 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-350-pirate-black-sale.html 44 106 1829 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-gum-brown-sale.html 42 114 181 -- --- --- --- ---0 -
Spammy backlinks are working?!
Hello, fellow MOZers. I just read this article of this guy (not myself, I promise 🙂 ) I never heard before: http://stream-seo.com/churn-burn-backlinks-case-study/ According to him SUPER spam is actually helping, and, according to him again, google punguin didn't knock it down either. It looks and sounds all very shady and salesy for all those tools he is mentioning (actually, not just mentioning, but linking to). At the same it looks impressive if it's true. My thoughts are that it's falsified/buttered article, otherwise, if everything he says is true, we would see direct correlation between ranking position and number of backlinks (linking domains). I've been struggling to resist the temptation to try some spammy techniques to get backlinks to see what happens, but, at the same time, my brain says not to be an idiot.
Link Building | | seomozinator1 -
Partner links - is this bad?
I have been looking at whys to get natural links, another SEO company said that instead of doing Guest Blog Posts there now adding single links to partner pages on websites which have a follow link. To me this sounds like basically a links page rebadged as a partners page. Is this a dangerous practice? or does this carry some weight with the search engines?
Link Building | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Clean up over optimised backlink profile
A little while back a whole heap (around 5000) of exact match anchor text links showed up in my GWT profile. Now over time quite a few of them have dropped away, but according to Remoovem I've still got a 73% link percentage score for this particular anchor text (which is my main keyword), along with a 55% root percentage. Obviously this is a Bad Thing. What would be the best way to combat this over optimised profile?
Link Building | | schitz011
Disavow the links? Leave them be and work on more exact match links? When I look at some links listed in GWT, I can't find the link to my page anywhere in the source code. Can I ignore those domains or should they also go into a removal program? I've not received any manual penalty or notice in GWT, though I did see a drop of traffic last year around the early may 'Phantom' update. From which the site has never really recovered.0 -
What backlink is better?
Hi Guys I recently helped out a friend with some marketing advice and to do me a favour back he said that he'll put a link on his site back to my website. Just some background on the site, it is very high quality with DA of 71 with each blog post/inner page having roughly PA of 45, it's been online for 15 years and has nearly 4,000 indexed pages and 10,000 links. Anyway my question is would it be better to get a sitewide link in a sidebar that is displayed on every page of his website or would it be better to write a blog post on the site that links back to mine? Thanks
Link Building | | jackalancurtis1 -
How can I find all the outbound links from a website domain?
I want to find all the outbound links (basically whatever comes in <a>tag) from a domain (say www.abc.com) as well as all the subdomains under it (say abc.com/a etc). Open Site Explorer provides the inbound links from a website but does not provide any functionality to get all the outbound links from a website. Is it possible to do?</a> <a>Thanks in advance. Deepak Jain</a>
Link Building | | Deepak_Jain0 -
How Many Backlinks Per Day
I am starting to do some manual back-linking for a medium competition word with high traffic. I plan to start back linking with like niche blogs with non spam comments, like niche directories, like niche forums, and guest blogging. My domain is over 3 years old and ranks for multiple keywords, but I'm going to concentrate specifically on this keyword, but need to know how many links to back-link a day. Again none of these will be spam, but will be of real quality. I was thinking 10-20 a day, but unsure.
Link Building | | treeoflife0