India and Link Building
-
A client of mine has decided to work all Link Building through an India team that she's used for a few years. The problem that I'm having with this situation is that the link building list below contains quite a few 0/10 PR websites, spam websites, and websites that have no direct relation to the client's industry. Am I wrong in thinking that link building should be done to high PR, authoritative sites that are related the the client's industry?
The link below will take you to the Google Doc that contains all links built for this client. I would love it if someone could take a look at that list and tell me what they think. Is this recipe for disaster or great link building?
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4a0JOKKFu0SUFZRbFRBNUZJekE
Thank you so much!!!
-
This looks like exactly the type of link profile I am digging through all day long as I help webmasters deal with unnatural links penalties. The sad thing is that sites I am seeing that have a link profile like this actually were ranking well on the merits of these crappy links!
I believe that we've only just started to see the wrath of Google in regards to unnatural backlink profiles like this. Many sites have been hit with manual warnings and many by Penguin, but this is only the beginning. Link profiles like this are bad news.
-
This is definitely not 'great linkbuilding." It's spammy linkbuilding. Now, as the other commenters noted, spammy linkbuilding still works to some extent. The question is, how much is it working? Will it work at all by the end of the year? Given its limited benefit and the high likelihood that it will soon have no benefit whatsoever, is this the best use of your client's resources?
I'm a new in-house SEO at a company that has been doing something similar for years. It's still working, so we haven't stopped it yet. But I'm working on transitioning to the content-marketing model, so we'll survive the inevitable Penguin update that tanks it all. So educate your client about how outdated and spammy that kind of linkbuilding is, and make sure they understand that it's just a matter of time before it stops working. If they want to keep doing it for now, that's their choice. But they cannot afford to only do it. They also need to start a solid content-marketing plan ... and if they don't think they can execute a solid content-marketing plan, they need to think about shifting resources to other inbound marketing tactics like PPC.
-
Yes. It is a recipe for disaster. The problem is it's still working for some people, which is frustrating I know. You mentioned that she has been using this team for the past few years. What does the site have to show for it? My guess is that there's no proof that the site is benefiting from all these low level spammy links.
You need to find a way to show her proof that it's not helping. Has she been tracking her traffic and domain authority over time? Is there a correlation between those things and the link-building activities, either good or bad?
The other thing that I would do is show her an example of what happens to a site when all of that goes South. There are tons of examples of those.
If none of that works and you can't convince her that her business is too important to play games with, I'd maybe leave her to do the damage herself. You don't want that on your shoulders when you eventually move on to clients who do #RCS [Real Company Stuff]
-
I agree. They look damn scary. You can tell by looking at the list, they look like directory sort of links. Yes, definitely not a good idea...might might work really really short term but will haunt long term.
Provide some examples of how Google sent the un-natural links warning to hundreds of thousands of website owners. Link building / Off-page is always a bit tricky and the best bet is to build great content and if one out of 10 pieces of excellent, well researched, well written content ends up being loved, you get a ton of good quality, natural links, that money can't buy and your competition won't be able to achieve...easily.
-
The links from low authority, unrelated sites are not likely to help much. The anchor text (all keyword rich and targeting a couple of phrases) is scary. Warn the client about the Penguin mauling you expect when the client reaches the tipping point.
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
-
Can I include "commissioned" posts in my link building strategy?
Ok "Commissioned Posts" meaning industry influencers/bloggers etc writing about your brand, products or services and possibly "linking" to your website (in exchange for money, or not) a) I'm contacted by a blogger who wants to write a piece about our product and naturally links back. b) A blogger says, yes, we can write a fantastic article about your brand and link to you for $$$..$ - is this ok if not at scale? What is deemed as ethical? I want to make sure our link building campaign is done within Google's guidelines. Here is currently what we are doing, or intending to do; 1. We're producing unique content on our site and sharing this with key influencers organically on Twitter, Facebook and G+ communities. This so far is working well for a new start up. 2. Writing guest posts on authoritative sites (with only our author bio at the bottom, branded link to our site, social links) sharing knowledge or interesting content which readers will want to read. Sites like HuffPost, The Guardian would be great although we're starting on authoritative well maintained blogger sites within the industry to begin. 3. Reaching out to industry influencers who may like to review our products. Many of them have got back to me stating that they "can" run commissioned posts (normally requires a large fee) which carries a followed link, branded or unbranded. Although we may have initially contacted them, and money could be exchanged, in the eyes of Google wouldn't this appear as a natural post? Please let me know your thoughts on this? It would be great to gain more of an understanding exactly what I can or cannot do when it comes to developing high quality links for our business! Your feedback (sharing any examples if possible) would be truly appreciated. Thanks Gary
Link Building | | GaryVictory0 -
Link Building Recommendations Please
Hi - I am responsible for a small but growing number of websites for companies that serve the elderly population. I need help with link building for these websites and I'm looking for suggestions on finding one or two professionals to whom I can outsource that work. 1. Can you recommend anyone for this need, someone I can contact who you know to be qualified and professional? 2. Can you give me an idea of what such services should cost? Thanks!
Link Building | | tcolling0 -
Link Building: Just Great Content, Blog Comments, and Guest Blog Posts?
I love SEOMoz. It has motivated me to dive way more into SEO. I know all the shoulds. But what fascinates me about SEO is that shoulds don't always match up to what works. I'm looking at Open Site Explorer, specifically my site. I see a lot of links I got naturally. By having awesome content. So is there any point in emailing people asking htem to add my link? Or do I spend my time writing awesome content, sharing it on social media, and hoping someone comes across it and shares it? I know blog commenting, when relevant, can bring me new visitors. I'm sure it helps SEO too. Maybe I just need to reach out and write guest blog posts for grabbing some links? Its just as Google wants it! OMG, how white hat. Is that it? or should I be even more active? I.E. emailing people and saying "hey, I have this awesome website, your readers would find it useful" sort of thing? Love to hear your opinion!
Link Building | | endlessrange0 -
Continue Building LInks After You Reach Position
Hi All, Ive been slowly building links to some of my inner pages. Ive finally reached page 1 for a specific keyword search. Should I continue building links to this page so I dont lose position? I have a campaign setup through seomoz to keep track. Thanks!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
Internal Link Building
How important is internal link building? What is the right way of doing it, and what is the wrong way of doing it?
Link Building | | sansonj0 -
Outsource Link Building?
Currently we are in the process of creating a new ecommerce website. The site is not live yet, but we have done all of the planning and brainstorming and now are just doing all of the dirty work to get things ready to go live. We are devoting a lot of time on merchandising and developing the site, but currently do not have the resources to put together a good link building campaign in house. Does anyone have any recommendations for outsourcing the link building? The last thing we want is to hire someone that submits to bad neighborhoods and only directories. Is there a good, better, best scenario we should be looking at for pricing, ect? Obviously, like most who are starting a new site, cost is an issue at least until the site gives some sort of sign of life. Also, we are in the Pittsburgh area. We don't need to go local with this, but if there is someone particularly good in the area it would be nice. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Outsourced link building?
My company is looking at outsourcing part of our SEO - some supplementary link building to boost some deep links. What does the SEOmoz community think of outsourcing link building? Every company that I've researched seems to employ very low quality techniques, which ends up with a bunch of spammy/sidebar/links page/comment links. Are there companies that specialise in high quality link building? We would definitely be looking for people that would do things like write engaging guest posts, etc, rather than spamming our brand across the internet. Are there any lessons that you've learned that you can share with me?
Link Building | | AlecPR0 -
Should I optimize/link build all my pages at once?
I'm currently starting to optimize about 30 area specific pages for a property maintenance company and was wondering, what's the best way to link build multiple pages at once? Should I link build for all of the 30 the pages at once, or maybe focus on 5 individual pages - get them ranking well, then focus on the next 5 and so on?
Link Building | | guy_andrews0
