WordPress Plugin Backlink?
-
When developing a WordPress plugin, is it OK to include a dofollow backlink with the name of the source site as the anchor text? Or would Google consider this spammy?
-
Taking a hit for manipulative tactics is usually something of a percentage game, one you don't want to play. The competitor may have an older domain and a stronger backlink profile. Sooner or later, even the larger brands get hit.
It was was a few years ago, almost to the day, that JC Penney was outed by the New York Times. This prompted a manual action. Your competitor may well fall to the next Penguin filter.
I've seen manipulation in a number of industries, sometimes it just takes time. Other times it takes someone with a little more clout. Though we can likely count on Penguin becoming a part of the algorithm, and we will most likely see another Penguin filter.
-
That is funny how that worked out. I used to live in Far North Dallas when I worked with a previous agency. Feel free to drop a private message.
-
Hi JaBacchetta,
Matt Cutts is quite clear about follow and nofollow links in widgets - see attached YouTube movie. Why your competitor was able to do a similar kind of thing and didn't got penalised is always the question.Are you 100% sure he hasn't received a warning. Maybe your competitor states upfront very clear a link is included.
Also it is unknown when you receive a visit from a crawler. So could be your competitor was just visit before the plugin went live, and you were visit after it was just live. I would also advice to take out the follow link a use a nofollow version.
How you will recover is depending on to many factors as the algoritme changes every day / week. Good luck with it.
-
Travis, by the way, looked up your company in Grapevine, TX... looks like we live right down the street from each other. I'm in the Keller area.
Small world.
-
Thanks for the replies. I'm going to get a bit more specific...
If you look at this page, in the top right sidebar, you'll find our WordPress widget in action. It shows a "Quote of the Day" with a quote from our website, and then it links to our site using our site's name as the anchor text. My thoughts on this are that we're providing value to other publishers, and they're feeding our content to their site (which qualifies as an endorsement of the content that we offer, which in turn validates a dofollow link). We're also using our site's name as the anchor text, rather than a keyword-stuffed link. This technique is clearly white-hat, in my opinion.
But, apparently Google did not like the idea. Since releasing the plugin 10 days ago, our rankings have dropped significantly across the board.
We're using 97thFloor as our SEO agency at the moment. Initially they said they thought the plugin might be a good idea, but they called me today to tell me to nofollow all the links, since our total backlinks had tripled in the last week, which they believe caused the rankings to drop.
We updated the plugin tonight to include nofollow on the backlink.
Interestingly, one of our competitors in the niche released a similar plugin, seen here. And their dofollow link is actually black-hat, with the anchor text being "more Quotes". They have not taken a hit at all. Is this because they've already got an established backlink profile?
And, now that we've nofollowed our plugin link, is it likely that our rankings will improve back to their original positions?
Appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks!
-
Very. Bad. Idea. This is exactly the kind of manipulative linking process that Google punishes with the Penguin part of their algorithm. At best, use a nofollowed link, but I'd be very reluctant to do this at all if these will be sitewide links and will be a really large proportion of your total backlink profile.
If you stop and think about this for a moment, you'll see why this is so risky. Certainly many who might use your plugin have quality sites. But many more of the sites that will be linking to you are likely to be questionable or downright spammy. Plus, almost none of them are likely to be related to what your site is about.
All these things combine to create the very definition of unnatural linking in Google's eyes.
Hope that helps?
Paul
-
That likely falls into the Link Scheme category. I wouldn't recommend it.
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
-
High Rank and Traffic of low DA and Backlinks
Hi guys, is a pleasure being a part of this community, hope in learning a lot with you guys, i just started a year learning about SEO and it been a big journey. I was looking at some competition of some websites that i been optmizing, and i found a website that called my attention and i cant figure out whats going on, it haves huge traffic but in terms of technicall SEO is really week, and not just this but also in terms of DA and backlinks (most of them spammy - 20 backlinks), the domain in question is bhnews.com.br I notice that doesnt have any social media, not analytics, etc. The only thing that i notice is that there is a website or a company called "BH news" (televesion), but its not related with it, since the type of information that bhnews.com.br presents is "lottery" results. So this kind of situation confuses me a lot, because is a lot of hard work in optmizing a website to rank in google, and than i come a across with this type of website with 20 backlinks (most of anchor or name of domain), and than haves like 2M visits per month and ranks for keywords related with the this type of sites of lottery. Can someone tell me if there is some kind of black seo, or something that is making this rank so high? regards
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jogobicho0 -
I have very good backlinks but not showing in search console?
hi, i have some editorial links from some sites, they are appearing in google search results even when i select verbatim, long story short-when will they show up in search console. are they indexed by google? if they are showing in search results , does that mean they will also show up in search console? i am confused.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Sam09schulz0 -
Strange backlinks
I'm a dentist and I keep getting my images turning up on pages where there are hundreds of images of dental procedures, linking out to dentists all over the world. It's not -ve SEO I don't think. There's just not enough of it to be that. The images are linking back to me with follow links (but worthless) and the pages are indexed with low to moderate 10-30 DA (that's old DA) and the new link explorer is showing them as worthless - so well done new link explorer! I'm not worried they are harming my site because I'm sure they're being ignored by google. But is there some evil black-hat scam going on that i'm not aware of? Should I disavow? I don't care that they're using our images. They are watermarked and they are linking back to us. I just don't understand the point of such a site either? Is it a precursor to something more malevolent or spammy? **So my question is - is this harmful or should I just let the crazy internet be crazy and not interfere? 🙂 ** I'm always wary of disavowing.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Smileworks_Liverpool0 -
Search Console Incorrectly Identifies WordPress Version and Recommends Update
Howdy, Moz fans, Today I received four emails from Google Search Console recommending I update WordPress. The message reads, "Google has detected that your site is currently running WordPress 3.3.1, an older version of WordPress. Outdated or unpatched software can be vulnerable to hacking and malware exploits that harm potential visitors to your site. Therefore, we suggest you update the software on your site as soon as possible." This is incorrect, however, since I've been on 4.3.1 for a while. 3.3.1 was never even installed since this site was created in September, 2015, so the initial WP Engine install was likely 4.3. What's interesting is that it doesn't list the root URL as the problem source. The email states that it found that issue on a URL that is set up via WP Engine to 301 to a different site, which doesn't use WordPress. I also have other redirects set up to different pages on the second site that aren't listed in the Search Console email. Anyone have any ideas as to what's causing this misidentification of WP versions? I am afraid that Google sees this as a vulnerability and is penalizing my site accordingly. Thanks in advance!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jmorehouse0 -
Virus on wordpress second time PLEASE HELP
hello Mattew i have a big problem on the web is the second time that a virus attacked the wordpress of my web. That is why i am being very busy trying to solve it fisrt time i upload a backup before the attack, but now if infected again All de webs that are positioned on google for ejemple if you look for anithing on google "estetica of propdental.com" it redirects to page http://medicaresue.com can you help me please is the second time and i am losing lots of traffic and positions on google thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Subdomains vs. Subfolders Wordpress Multisite
I am in the process redesigning my organization's website using wordpress multisite. I am currently planning on creating subdomains for each of the locations, as I thought that having a keyword saturated domain name would provide the best rankings. So the Omaha office would look like this: omaha.example.com Would it be better to go with example.com/omaha? Things to consider: Google adwords is currently a huge source of our traffic. Despite having very good organic rankings, we receive most of our traffic from pay-per-click sources. The "display URL" has dramatic effect on our CTR, so I want to avoid subfolders if possible. (example OmahaEmergencyDental.com receives far more click thru's than EmergencyDental.com) Each location currently has it's own domain and website (omahaemergencydental.com) these sites/pages have been in place for several years Thanks in advance!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LoganYard0 -
Switching existing website to a Wordpress Site and afraid of losing top spot
I am going to be switching my current site from a standard html site to a wordpress site. I'm kind of paranoid of losing my top spot for the keyterms. If I keep the content the same, and keep the same amount of image alt tags, the same anchor text etc, nothing should change right? Grateful for any advice. Thanks Will
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | willie790 -
Do backlinks with good anchor text from bad sites help?
Hi, In the Netherlands, the SEO competition for terms like loans is very competitive. I see a website in this industry that seems to be doing very well based on links with good anchor text from sites that seem quite worthless to me, such as: http://www.online-colleges-helper.com/ and http://www.alohapath.com/ My question is: is it worth pursuing this type of links? I assume these must be paid links, or am I wrong? I'd really rather not go down this route but I don't want to be outranked by someone who is using these types of links... Many thanks in advance for any type of insight! Annemieke
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AnnemiekevH0