Avvo.com: Are links in the contribution area bad for SEO?
-
Hello all and thank you for taking the time to read my question.
I am struggling with a client of mine. I have done just about everything that I can think of that has worked on other sites. Banging my head up against the wall here.
He is VERY active in the contribution area of Avvo.com (answering questions and making guides). His site use to rank very well but now it can't be found at all. One of the things that caught my attention is the way he would leave his citation in his answers for AVVO. He would leave a direct link to his website. Since his rankings have dropped I have advised him to stop. Do you think Google is treating them as spam? His link profile is small >1000 links but half of them are from AVVO
I was wondering if anyone else any experience with this?
Thanks in advance
-
No, you cannot edit Avvo answers. I suppose you can ask the folks at Avvo to just remove all of client's answers. No idea whether they will do it for you. I have had them remove an answer or three for me, so it can't hurt to ask. Not sure how your client will feel about you doing that, of course.
-
Agreed. Its gonna be a long night. Thanks
-
Thanks for the reply. The links are set to nofollow but as you mentioned I am still skeptical. There is no way to edit the answer from what I can tell so far. Not sure how I can eliminate the links now.
Pass the coffee... I am gonna be here a while.
-
Avvo provides only one follow link, and that is in the person's profile. Links in answers are nofollow. As a result, answering questions on Avvo should not harm a site.
I answer a lot of questions on Avvo and it hasn't hurt my firm's site. I often put relevant links in the link section of my answers. For example, if I am answering a question about medical malpractice, I might put a link to a page I wrote on the basic requirements for a medical malpractice case. However, I do not put links to my firm in every answer. I only use links when I think the person might be a potential client for my firm and I would like to guide him/her to my firm's site.
I agree with irvingw that your client may well be doing this sort of thing all over the web, which might be the source of the problem. In addition, if your client is adding a general non-useful link back to his website, he might be violating Avvo's terms of service.
I see a lot of disavowing in your future.
-
If the links are set to NoFollow, it shouldn't have any impact. However, many SEO's feel that excessive links can set off a a spam trigger even if they are set to Nofollow. If the links are set to follow, than I would certainly be concerned if you had money keywords as your anchor text links. I would edit all the articles and eliminate all the links. Avvo lets the lawyer link to their website so adding these links in their answers isn't necessary at all. I suspect that this lawyer probably utilized this same linking strategy across other web channels. Good luck cleaning this all up.
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
-
Google showing different links in SERPs
Google search results are showing my site links in both URLs, "mydomain.com" and "https://mydomain.com". However the one with https is showing a favicon, and the other one is not. So i wanna keep the https one and remove the other one. I went to GSC to submit "mydomain.com" for removal and it said that URL will be deleted in ALL of its variations.So how do i delete the "mydomain.com" links? Should i just index the ones with https again? Would that work? Someone suggested me to do 301 redirect on all pages that are being displayed twice. But i am not sure if i need to do that since i am using squarespace, and both of the links lead to the same page?
SERP Trends | | winter22330 -
Are there any clear, significant differences between Google SEO and Yahoo/Bing SEO?
I have a client who is very focused on getting ranks in Yahoo! Convincing him that focusing on Google is much more important isn't going to happen. He uses Yahoo! He ranks very well in Google, and his site is relatively well-made with no glaring on-page issues. His backlink profile is also not an issue. I'm trying to find ways to rank specifically for Yahoo! since we're ranking well in Google and the client cares a ton about Yahoo! I know Yahoo! uses Bing's algorithm, but results aren't identical in the two engines. Does anyone know of big, glaring difference in the two algorithms that would result in great Google ranks, but almost non-existent Yahoo! ranks? I have him in Bing webmasters, his local SEO and citations are good, his backlink profile is good, and his on-page is decent.
SERP Trends | | WilliamKammer0 -
Best way to prevent "Duplicate Content" for different links
We are working on job portal domain. As we know jobs going to be expired day by day. I will give you my question by example. Example: I have two links [mysite.com/Jobs-In-Cincinnati and mysite.com/Jobs-In-Atlanta]. Before month I had too many jobs on both the links. Jobs were expired one by one after two/three months I don't have any jobs on both the links.So I got same page content on both the links like "please refine search". Google consider these two pages as duplicate content issue. Will you please suggest which is the best way to come out from it? Thanks in advance.
SERP Trends | | Shanil1230 -
Google crawled "Cross Domain" links. Is this an issue? if yes then how we can remove it?
We have two sites. One site for US (site.com)and another is for India(site.co.in). Redirection is working based on ip address and location.So if I write US(site.com) site link in India location then it will automatically redirect to India site(site.co.in). We have given a link in the header of the site which will be used to open another country site. Example : Currently India site open in my browser so it contain US site link. and US site open in my browser so it contain India site link. We check on google web master and we found back links of cross domains so Is it an issue?
SERP Trends | | Shanil1230 -
What options are there for local SEO when no physical location exists?
I work for a automobile transportation company that provides services in several different cities throughout the US. Our headquarters (and physical location) is in San Diego, California, however we have drivers stationed in several different cities throughout the nation. The problem is, we don't have physical locations in those other cities - our drivers essentially work from home. What local SEO options are available to us, if any, for those cities where we don't have an actual brick and mortar address? Listing the home address of our drivers is, for obvious reasons, not ideal. Thanks for your help!
SERP Trends | | SEOAspirant0 -
Most Important SEO Factors / Methods
What would you consider to be the most important factor / method of SEO? In my opinion; Competitive Research Identifying Keywords / Phrases with high Search Volume URL selection Link Structure Link Building Meta Information What's yours?
SERP Trends | | entourage2120 -
What is everyones opinion on links form site like Updowner
I have gained 273 links from Updowner over past few months, good or bad? I have not doen these myself but they have juyst appeared. What are peoples thoughts?
SERP Trends | | babski0 -
My customer has about 50 domain names they own, what can I suggest they do with them to increase SEO?
This customer has purchased about 50 domains over the years and has them all redirecting to their main website. What could I suggest they do with all of these domain names to increase SEO? Any ideas are greatly appreciated... Thanks!
SERP Trends | | jboddiford1