Do bad links to a sub-domain which redirects to our primary domain pass link juice and hurt rankings?
-
Sometime in the distant past there existed a blog.domain.com for domain.com. This was before we started work for domain.com. During the process of optimizing domain.com we decided to 301 blog.domain.com to www.domain.com.
Recently, we discovered that blog.domain.com actually has a lot of bad links pointing towards it. By a lot I mean, 5000+.
I am curious to hear people's opinions on the following:
1. Are they passing bad link juice?
2. does Google consider links to a sub-domain being passed through a 301 to be bad links to our primary domain?
3. The best approach to having these links removed?
-
Kyle,
Appreciate the response and your insight. The subdomain was set to 301, which made me nervous about the bad links. However, there has been no warning in GWMT. I am curious where the threshold lies for GWMT to flag your link profile. And if a poor link profile can affect your site's authority before you cross that line in GWMT.
I highly doubt a straight answer exists for that question, but I'd be curious to here yours (and others) experiences with the matter.
Thanks again!
-
1. Are they passing bad link juice?
Yes, if you 301 redirected a website/page you bring over both the good and the bad link equity with it.2. does Google consider links to a sub-domain being passed through a 301 to be bad links to our primary domain?
Refer to question 13. The best approach to having these links removed?
Have you received a unnatural links warning in GWT yet? If not you maybe safe with waiting it out. If you are trying to cut it off before that happens i would start with running a LinkDetox report (only $50 and totally worth it). They will define the toxic links, from there i would disavow them.Hope this helps!
- Kyle
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
-
Redirect 'keyword-url' to improve ranking?
I was wondering if a good url, with a keyword in it, can help you improve the position of that certain keyword by redirecting that url to your website. To make it clear: We run the website www.terello.nl, and have the possibility to let the url www.iphonereparatie.nl (translation: iphonerepair) redirect to our website. Would this help us to rank for the keyword 'iPhone reparatie'? I hope that I made myself clear this way:) Otherwise i'm more than happy to clearify myself!
Technical SEO | | Jan-Peter0 -
Internal Link Rank Flow
I've read in many articles that pages can "pass" rank to other pages internally. Is anyone aware of any well done internal linking case studies which confirm this? If my homepage has the strongest Page Authority, would linking to another page deeper into my website from my homepage boost my rank for the deeper page in Google (more so than linking to the deep page from a page with lower page authority)?
Technical SEO | | poke10 -
Can I redirect a link even if the link is still on the site
Hi Folks, I've got a client who has a duplicate content because they actually create duplicate content and store the same piece of content in 2 different places. When they generate this duplicate content, it creates a 2nd link on the site going to the duplicate content. Now they want the 2nd link to always redirect to the first link, but for architecture reasons, they can't remove the 2nd link from the site navigation. We can't use rel-canonical because they don't want visitors going to that 2nd page. Here is my question: Are there any adverse SEO implications to maintaining a link on a site that always redirects to a different page? I've already gone down the road of "don't deliberately create duplicate content" with the client. They've heard me, but won't change. So, what are your thoughts? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Rock330 -
Disavow everything or manually remove bad links?
Our site is likely suffering an algorithmic penalty from a high concentration of non-branded anchor text that I am painstakingly cleaning up currently. Incremental clean-ups don't seem to be doing much. Google recommends I 'take a machete to them' and basically remove or disavow as much as possible, which I am now seriously considering as an option. What do you guys recommend, should torch the earth (disavow all links with that anchor text) or keep it on life support (slowly and manually identify each bad link)?
Technical SEO | | Syed_Raza0 -
Redirect non www. domain to WWW. domain for established website?
Hey guys, The website in question has been online for more than 5 years but there are still 2 versions of the website. Both versions are indexed by Google and of course, this will result in duplicate content. Is it necessary to redirect the non-www domain to the www. domain. What are the cons and advantages? Will the www. links replace the non-www links when it comes to keyword rankings? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | BruLee0 -
Nofollow link passing link juice
Can a link which is nofollwed pass link juice ? Please see the discussion at - http://www.seomoz.org/q/if-multiple-links-on-a-page-point-to-the-same-url-and-one-of-them-is-no-followed-does-that-impact-the-one-that-isn-t
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Are sub domain names a good idea
Hi i have read some info that says that sub domain names help with increase traffic but i am not sure if this is true. I would like to know if i should use a subdomain name to increase the size of my website and increase traffic. I have also read that it is a good idea to put a blog on a subdomain name. Can anyone share their experience and let me know if they have found that sub domains are a good idea
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Using hyphenated sub-domains or non-hyphenated sub-domains? What is the question! I Any takers?
For our corporate business level domain, we are exploring using a hyphenated sub-domain foir a project. Something like www.go-figure.extreme.com I thought from a user perspective it seems cluttered. The domain length might also be an issue with the new Algorithm big G has launched in recent past. I know with past experience, hyphenated domains usually take longer to index, as they are used by spammers more frequently and can take longer to get out of the supplementary index. Our company site has over 90 million viewers / year, so our brand is well established and traffic isn't an issue. This is for a corporate level project and I didn't have the answer! Will this work? anyone have any experience testing this. Any thoughts will help! Thanks, Rob
Technical SEO | | RobMay0