Cross-Site Links with different Country Code Domains
-
I have a question with the penguin update. I know they are really cracking down on "spam" links. I know that they are wanting you to shift from linking keywords to the brand name, unless it makes sense in a sentence.
We have five sites for one company in the header they have little flag images, that link to different country domains. These domains all have relatively the same domain name besides the country code. My question is, linking these sites back and fourth to each other in this way, does it hurt you in penguin? I know they are wanting you to push your identity but does this cross-site scheme hurt you?
In the header of these sites we have something like this.
I am assuming the best strategy would probably be to treat them like separate entities. Or, just focus on one domain.
They also have some sites that have links in the footer but they are set up like:
For product visit Domain.comShould nofollows be added on these footer links as well? I am not sure if penguin finds them spammy too.
-
Thanks a ton. I do have one last question, well for know. I am not sure about the etiquette for Moz, so I don't know if I should ask it here. But I will anyway, live and learn.
Let's say I have a site with domain.com and a store on subdomain.domain.com
We want to link the main\subdomain back and fourth. Would this be a valid thing to do in the navigation since the point is to get the customer to the store? Or, do the spiders view subdomains as separate entities? I would rather put the store under a directory but it is hosted by a third party.I have read the following but I don't know the validity, "Each subdomain is considered a separate site for SEO and rankings. But links to within site sub domains are considered as internal links by Google."
I assume if that is true, I have nothing to worry about with concerns of nofollow on those links.
-
Thanks. Great point I neglected to mention in detail. !!
-
Absolutely. Probably your best bet.
On a sidebar note, try to keep your link count on any domain pages to a maximum of 100. Anything above and beyond that, are not counted on pages and usually the BOT won't follow anyways. The more links on a page, the less value can be attributed to them.
If you want to help the link profile of the site, decide which links could be <nofollow>and place those tags to help with improving the link quality on various pages. This also helps Google with trust as you are not trying to 'game' the linking profile of the site or structure to improve various pages SERP rankings.</nofollow>
-
I agree with Rob you would be best to place a nofollow on the links between your country level domains. By doing this you get to keep the links and convenience from a users point of view, but you are flagging to Google that you are not trying to pass authority between your sites by interlinking them. Essentially you are waving a flag that says you are not trying to manipulate your rankings by creating your own link network.
-
So essentially, avoid, and remove, repetitive links that are found across sites in the header\footer\sidebar areas and focus on getting, or placing, fewer links in relative content.
Correct?
-
Hey there,
Are you linking these domains just form the main level TLD (homepage), or all the product pages from within each company/country site.
If yes, absolutely! Use <nofollow>on any of the domain/brand or country level TLD's to avoid any kind of penalty. Penguin being as picky as it is, you would want to stay away from any of that to in a 'safe' zone. I would stear clear and use these best practices for interlinking cross country domain sites and products. </nofollow>
Work on building your outside links to the site through content development and social media/mentions, while using the <nofollow>links within the site at the brand and product level. </nofollow>
Thanks, Rob
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
-
Domain SEO
Hi, May I know for the keyword "engagement rings" which domain is the best in term of SEO perspective? www.engagement-rings.com www.engagementrings.com 3)www.engagement_rings.com Thank you
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | KINSHUN1 -
Disappearing Links Black Hat ?
I have seen reports of Black hat spamming with dodgy links but we have another issue with a clients site. The site had a small number of solid following links about 60 which had been in place for years and in the past few weeks all but those directly under their control have ceased to link. At the same time a very aggressive competitor has entered their market which is owned by the officers of an SEO company. Could it be that they have somehow disavowed the links to the site to damage it how do we find out? there are now just 10 following links?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Eff-Commerce0 -
Thousands of links - Am I being sabatoged?!
It seems that I am being sabatoged. I have been disavowing links every month because there seems to be more and more spam links that are popping up on my site and I'm not doing ANYTHING to allow that to happen. Does anyone have any insight? A. do you think I am being sabatoged? B. Is there a way to find out who is doing it?!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Veebs0 -
Spam linking site how to report
I have a spam linking site that is generation thousans of links to my site. Even if i have a good link background, this is the only spammy i have, each week number of links comings from it increases by 500 , i know have 3000 links for that site and 1800 for other sites, but that one keeps growing What should i do, i dont want that link it is imposible to remove as webmaster does not respond
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Does having the same descrition for different products a bad thing the titles are all differnent but but they are the same product but with different designs on them does this count as duplicate content?
does having the same description for different products a bad thing the titles are all different but but they are the same product but with different designs on them does this count as duplicate content?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Casefun1 -
Internal Link Structure
Hello Everyone, I'd be grateful for a little feedback please; This is my site, the home page
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TwoPints
of which is targeting the phrase jobs in **** (I'm sure you can fill i the gap
:)) I've made a few changes recently which has included having the
Contract jobs in **** | Permanent Jobs in **** | Temporary Jobs in **** & Today’s
jobs in **** links added to the homepage... Perhaps foolishly and impatiently, I did all of these at the
same time, whilst also changing the sites internal link structure, specifically
for all links to the homepage, which previously were like <a<br>href="/">Home and have now been changed to <a<br>href="/">jobs in ****</a<br></a<br> Meaning that I have 4500 internal links with the anchor text
'jobs in ****' But rather than seeing an improvement n my SERPs ranking, I have
gone from page 2 of Google to page 6, and falling...... Apart from being inpatient, what have I done wrong? Many thanks0 -
How is this different than Go Daddy Spam?
Out of boredom, I googled up "SEO Company". #1 result is qualifiedimpressions.com. Taking a look at their link profile it seems they are utilizing anchor text on all their clients' websites. Moreover, it appears they have multiple sites for each of their phrases (which they cross link). Qualified Impressions - SEO Company WeBuildRankings.com - SEO Service VisibilitySquad - SEO Companies Some of their clients are rocking multiple anchor text links. How is this not any different than what Go Daddy did recently?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ErikDster1 -
Too many links... OOPS
So I made a big mistake. I know it was dumb. I took a chance and got screwed. I've been researching one of my competitions back links and found that about 7000 of their 12000 links came from one site. Upon further investigation that site is a page rank 7 and the link looked bought. My competitions page rank is 6 which I thought was largely because of this one link. I e-mailed the linking sites webmaster and they bought the link pretty cheap. So I thought... Hey!? Why not! About two weeks later, today, google webmaster tools finally found the link and my links went from 100 to 7100. Now that I really think about it, I know it was a stupid move. I just figured if they got away with it, I could. I'm a white hat seo'er from now on. I've learned my lesson. Wake up today and find that all 400 keywords I am attempting to rank for, which 60% used to be in the top 3, are now not in the top 100. Luckily I am still indexed in Google though, I'm just not ranking for anything significant. Now I e-mailed the linking sites webmaster and had him remove the links. He was pretty quick about putting them up, so I figure they'll be down today. Is it just a matter of Google realizing that they're gone until I'm back in the SERPS? Or am I screwed for good? This is a little scary, I depend on Google for my entire livelihood. Yeah, I know not something I should be gambling with then. I only spent $125 on the links, but every month of traffic is worth about $3k to me. Ouch. If I lose a few months I'm at least looking at a $10k hit. Please give me some good news 😞
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | bjenkins240