Link over-building?
-
Hello all.
One of the first things we do for our clients is to claim their local listings, include them on a set of selected directories (8-10), and blog directories (5), if applicable.
Since they will all be linked to the client site, could doing all of this at once run us into problems with unnatural link growth?
Thanks!
Frank
-
For local results they can be worth the effort. However, in my opinion, you would be better off investing the time and money into content or usability testing.
-
could doing all of this at once run us into problems with unnatural link growth?
The problem here could be one of "unnatural links" rather than "unnatural link growth".
-
Hi
So are you saying directories (even top-end ones such as Yahoo, BotW and Business.com) have NO benefit for organic search rankings? -
A couple years ago directories used to be a decent technique for improving your rank, but have since been devalued through algorithm changes. SEOMoz probably maintains them because they can have an impact in local results as some of them can count as citations.
-
If directories are so devalued, why does SEOMoz publish a directories list?
Serious question. -
In the first month of a new client I go on a huge citation building spree, and I've never encountered an issue. Some of the citations are directories, so I would say that you should have no problems. Just make sure you just use the companies name in the directories, and don't try getting any keywords in there. The links aren't worth much at all, like Jesse said, and trying to keyword stuff will just end up hurting your efforts.
-
Thanks Jesse.
We have done research on the directories we use, and try to focus on sites with high DA and Pagerank, and a few within our vertical. I agree that the majority of directories have no value, and tend to cause a negative effect. We do take care of the social links, but many of our new clients do not yet have a social presence, so it must first be created and built out before we link to it. That pretty much negates my main concern.
Frank
-
Potentially. Depends on the directories. Directories in general carry little-to-no value and most end up hurting more than helping. Especially blog directories. Google doesn't like these sites and generally it's my least favorite method of grabbing links for SEO. Local listings is important, however, and there are some directory sites that are decent enough to warrant grabbing links from but I'd say there aren't many more than 5 in all of the internet galaxy.
To dumb it down, if your question is simply "will building 20 links in one day get us a penalty?" the answer is most likely "no." However if the links are poison and this pattern continues, expect a penalty to be imposed eventually.
Hope this helps.
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
-
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 during link removal
We were advised by out outsourced link removal vendor not to build any links while they are removing links pointing to our site. I am worried that our site will lose significant traffic if we dont build any new links while waiting for them to remove links that caused our site to be penalized. What are your thoughts?
Link Building | | WizardOfMoz0 -
Domain extensions and link building
Hi, If you were trying to rank your website for a search term in Google UK, would it be more beneficial to build links from .co.uk websites then any other? I have read on Hubspot if your targeting UK rankings then link building from .co.uk domains will have a good impact on UK rankings? Thanks
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Please give me some ideas on my link building campaign
Hello everyone, My website is on Pharmacy schools. I just sell leads to universities. Well, I am unable to find sites which are related to my niche. Can i get links from Unrelated sites like Health? and other educational sites (other than pharmacy)? I can see all .edu and gov sites when i type in Google. Ofcourse, they wont sell any links to my low quality sites. Help me out in finding those sites which sells advertising spots and 100% related to my niche 🙂 thanks.
Link Building | | artemmin0 -
Page Rank, Domain Rank, Link Building....Oh my!
Hi Everyone, So I am looking into a couple of sites that we can use for press release distribution. Naturally, I am looking for sites that will improve our SEO (sites that have a high domain authority). I guess I am just trying to wrap my head around the whole domain/page authority and how it effects our SEO. So for example, I am looking at prlog.org. They have an overall domain authority of 91...sweet! Is this all I should be looking at when I am looking to place a press release, which will include targeted links using appropriate anchor text? If I drill down even further to the actual section that the press release will live on, which will be the security section of the site, the page authority is a 49. Is this what I should be looking at? Do I have to drill down even further and look at the page rank for the actual URL that my press release will actually live on? I am assuming since it will be a totally new page that the page authority will be very low. Is this correct? Should I be looking at a combination of the two? The page authority of 49 is pretty low but the domain authority is very high. What does this mean for my SEO and my links? In a nutshell I need to know what I should be looking at for SEO purposes, is it domain authority, is it page authority of the section the site will live on or is it the actual page that my press release lives on. Is it a combination? What would you do in this situation? Also, could you give me a little more insight into when a low domain/page authority can actually hurt you. What the threshold where you get no link juice or are actually penalized? Do you have any insight in the domain/page domain number that is considered not worth it? Thanks all! Pat
Link Building | | PatBausemer0 -
Link Building Contracting
I am about to launch a new site and I am looking for someone for link building in the real estate industry with proven track record. I would be interesting in discussing terms and strategy.
Link Building | | Bucky0 -
A few questions about link building?
1. Is it worth gaining more then 1 link on a website when link building, for example if I did a guest post on a blog, is it worth doing another guest post on the same blog linking to the same website? So 2 guest posts on 2 blogs, or 4 guest posts on 4 blogs? 2. When building links through guest blogging, you have two options, a link in the byline and a link in the content. Will a link in the content have more benefit then in the byline as its surrounded by relevant content? 3. Does having a link higher up the page have more benefit then one lower down?
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Building Links to Exact Match Domains
What are the pros and cons having exact match domain and how can you create a brand name and build backlinks? Say we have a domain personalizedbirthdaygifts.com We are quite stuck with what anchor text we need to use and how do we vary it? I've heard that we have to stay away from using commercial keywords as anchor text heavily. We have to also use our brand name. And here we get stuck as we don't have a brand name. In this case Our brand name should be personalized birthday gifts but this is also commercial keyword. I have seen before similar websites droped from ranking because they have commercial keywords in their domain and most of their backlink anchor texts are commercial. If I had a website called twentyfive.com selling birthday gifts it would be a lot easier. But when you have a website personalizedbirthdaygifts.com and trying to rank for personalized birthday gifts and birthday gifts it's tough. OR isn't it? I hope I explained it well and didn't confuse anybody... Thanks
Link Building | | Jvalops0