Links from local.com after Penguin
-
I have been doing some research on where some competing links are getting their links from and I see that a decent number seem to be getting some juice from local.com.
My question is- have the panda & penguin updates rendered these useless- or even worse can links from directories like this now harm my SEO?
-
@AWCthreads: given how hugely damaging it would be to local.com to fess up to getting penalized, I'm guessing your chances of a straight answer from them are slim. Agree, though, that going to the parent newspaper would be a good possible route.
For everyone, an example of the kind of directory we're talking about is here: http://directory.journal-advocate.com/alexandria+va.z.html
-
Hi Peter. Thanks for weighing in. Please let us know if you find something definitive.
I've still not heard back from local.com and have not tried in a couple of days. I'm curious if I can handle this at the news station/ newspaper level. Perhaps those outlets have some influence on how the content is fed.
-
We're doing similar research on behalf of a friend who was hit hard by Penguin. A prior SEO had run a link building program that resulted in more than 50% of their total links coming from various repeats of the local.com directory. We're unable to pinpoint anything else that would have caused a precipitous fall in rankings. We've tried some other searches of the local.com directories using the methodology someone on SEOmoz suggested (i.e. searching for exact title tags) and those searches would indicate that local.com was, in fact, penalized.
On the surface, local.com would not appear to be one of the cheesy directories that Penguin aims to devalue, but I'm wondering if that fact that the content gets duplicated so many times (as a directory for multiple newspaper sites) might be part of its devaluation. A service business in North Carolina that shows up in a local directory in Oregon isn't really a quality directory.
We're still in the hunt but have growing conviction that local.com got hit.
-
A timely question. We've got a bunch of local.com backlinks that just showed up. All are no followed and the anchor text is "website." How nice.
Our domain authority dropped a couple of points (perhaps associated with this - who knows), so I called local.com several times about the backlinks. Still haven't heard from them.
I don't know if Google frowns on a littany of no followed backlinks from local.com with a bunch of spammy looking anchor text, but apparently, SEOmoz frowns on it.
My intent is to ask local.com if they can at least use our store name for anchor text. If they can't, I'd just as soon they give us 2 or 3 no followed links with our store name in the anchor text.
If they can't do that, then I'd be fine if they just get rid of the backlinks altogether. If they're going to give me some directory love, do it right. If they're not going to do it right, don't do it.
-
Matt Cutts recomened local or relevant directories, so i would not be concerned
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
-
Linking Between Sites
Hi everyone, Hope you are all doing well. If a company owns several different websites that are supposed to be different brands but are part of the same niche/sector is it OK to link between them? Or would this be seen as violation? Thanks
Link Building | | National-Homebuyers0 -
Is there an extra SEO benefit for linking to pages that link to you?
Currently working on a link-building strategy and have gotten a few mentions. Just curious if there is any SEO benefits of linking back to the pages my site was mentioned and linked on? Would love to hear your thoughts, thanks!
Link Building | | Derrald0 -
Getting Links Removed From ArticlesFactory.com?
I've tried to contact the staff through the online form at http://www.articlesfactory.com/contact.html but never got any reply. Any idea?
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
Backlinking post penguin
Does anyone have any effective strategies about how to backlink for a new website. I'm just really cautious of this new penguin update and don't want to submit to too many directories or do anything that will get penalised, seen as the website is new.
Link Building | | AAttias0 -
What are the pros and cons of using a link builder? Can link building be outsourced?
Hi, I have great content on my website which I would like to build external links to from other websites. I am told this will increase my domain authority and ultimately help search engine ranking positions. I have very limited time in my hands and now thinking of outsourcing the link building component to a specialist. Is this a good way of doing it? Could you recommend professional link builders?
Link Building | | Saunders18650 -
Outbound links
Hi there, i know inbound links are what hold the main value in terms of link building but if i have an inbound link from a big company such as ITV or BBC and they have put an article on their site linking back to mine, would it be beneficial if i made a comment on my site and then link back to their article or will this not really help? Sorry as you can tell im very new to seo! thanks anthony
Link Building | | anthonybriant0 -
.edu links
Hi mozzers, I've had some great success reaching out to many .edu webmasters. Often they are professors and such. My question is, i'm guessing during the summer holiday period, reaching out to these webmasters won't be so fruitful. I'm not in the US and was wondering when the US Summer holidays are for universities over there? Also, does anyone have experience outreaching to these webmasters over the holidays? Peter
Link Building | | PeterM221 -
Nolo.com or bbb.org for link building?
Has anyone used nolo.com's directory and do you think it is worth it for link building? How about bbb.org I run www.musillawfirm.com thanks in advance
Link Building | | musillawfirm0