Should I ask sites that link to me to update links that redirect?
-
I have found some links to my site that go through a single 301 redirect to get to my site.
Should I contact these websites to ask them to update the link, or is that not worth the time?
-
I'm going to agree with Dana and say "it depends". I wanted to add as well that a 301 redirect still passes somewhere between 95-99% of the link equity, so if this were my site I wouldn't bother unless there was a huge number of links that came this way. The exception would be if the site is doing a redirect to a page that is blocked by robots.txt and then redirecting that page to yours. If that happens then you don't get any of the link equity and yes, I'd want it changed. But then again, if someone is doing that, it would be on purpose and they probably wouldn't want to change it.
-
My answer would be "it depends." If the authority of the linking site is really high, and there's reliable contact information, I'd say "yes, go for it." Ultimately, it's better not to have those 301s. However, if it's a small blog and the owner isn't adept with SEO, they may not even know what a 301 redirect is. If you start speaking in terms they don't understand, it could erode trust. I'd play it by ear. If you think you've got a good contact that can get it done pretty easily go for it, otherwise, leave them be. Hope that helps even though it's not a cut-and-dried answer!
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
-
Asking a site to remove a "nofollow" on a link to our client
Hello, We created a good infographic for a client of ours and a large tech site (DA 86) picked up and ran a story on it. We didn't contact this company asking them to feature it, they have just picked it up through other shares around the Web. I understand that, at the end of the day, it's their prerogative whether to "nofollow" their links or not, but surely they should be giving our client some credit as they have clearly deemed the graphic newsworthy and felt that it would appeal to their readership. I've emailed said tech site, but to no avail. Does anyone have any advice on this? Or is it just a case of they can do what the heck they want? I know that our client will still benefit from the additional referral traffic, but a follow link would have been nicer! Cheers, Lewis
Link Building | | PeaSoupDigital1 -
Sitewide link to a sister site question
I own two websites that are somewhat related. On Site A, in the nav bar below the header I had a link to Site B. The nav bar shows on all several hundred pages. A few weeks ago I got nervous about this as I was doing some reading about sitewide links. Not exactly sure if they were a bad thing or not in this specific case, I decided to change the nav bar so that the link to Site B only showed up on Site A's home page. Well, within a week or so my site started dropping from its long-held #1 position for its main, high-volume keyword, slipping a bit every few days. Today it is #4. My question is, would the removal of the sitewide links and replacement of them with just a link on the homepage cause something like this to happen? And, I'm thinking about putting the sidewide menu link back in -- is this a bad idea? Note: the ranking on Site B is very important, with double the RPM of Site A.
Link Building | | bizzer0 -
When placing content on external sites, what are some best practices for back links?
Hi there, I am working on a content strategy that includes placing content (i.e. bylined articles, how-to's, guest blogs, etc.) on other web sites and embedding links back to our site. In some cases we're very limited to what we can do with our bank links (i.e. just a company url), and in other cases we are free to place multiple anchor links within the content. In cases where we have no limitations, what are some best practices for implementing back links? I understand it's important to link to deep pages (not just our home page), have diverse anchor text, and make the anchor links relevant to the surrounding content. Are there other things I should be thinking about in order to maximize the SEO value of such placements? For example, is it better to have just one anchor link per placement? Or should I aim to embed multiple anchor links within a single placement? Any advice would be much appreciated! Sincerely, Debra
Link Building | | Cherwell-Software0 -
Do I get any link juice from a PHP header redirect from another site?
For example would: www.site-A.com/click-tracking.php?site=www.site-B.com contain any link juice? Would a 301 redirect be the simple solution?
Link Building | | David_Viciedo0 -
How do you check to see if your site (site A) has already been linked to by another site (site B) when you have a large site with lots of links
There are some basics in SEO relating to finding out about who has linked to whom that I could use some help with.
Link Building | | hughman0 -
How to save links from an old website when building a new website even if the site map changes?
I have a client that needs a new website with better navigation, etc. The site has been up for a number of years and has backlinks that I would like to keep when building the new site in WordPress.
Link Building | | Doug_Hay0 -
Is it worth it to link to sites that link to you in guest posts?
Suppose you published a guest post on a quality site and you link to a previous guest post you have written for another site (which links to you). In theory you could send link juice to the page that links to you for a second order effect. Has anyone seen results from this tactic?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
Beaten to death but still have to ask, low comp area spammy directory links
I have a client that wants to rank for low comp local keywords (i.e. service + suburban area). Would several well written blog posts on relevant blogs be more effective than 100's of low level spammy directory links? I just want to give him an initial base of a few links, aside from submitting to the local search engines such as those in whitespark citation finder..... please keep in mind this would be a low competition area where on-page would probably rank in the middle of the 2nd page.
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0