Should receiving dozens of legitimate links make you nervous?
-
Hi all,
Google has made it clear that it considers links built through press release sites as manipulative link building and one can assume that they refer in this context to press release sites that exist only for SEO reasons.
But it is also possible to receive a link in a press agency dispatch such as Reuters, afp etc. In this case, a site might receive dozens or even hundreds of links that have many characteristics of spammy links because
- they are from pages with identical content
- they have identical anchor text, which might even be a money keyword
- there are usually no canonical tags on the referring pages
- they appear in a matter of hours or a few days
On the other hand of course, the links will appear on very reputable sites, as these are regular media sites.
Do you know any case studies that look at this issue? Did you experience it yourself?
It just happened to me. I got even two links (both to my site's homepage) in a dispatch
- the first link has a four word expression as anchor text that is not really related to the topic of my site. The linked page now is search result #24 for this expression
- the second link has my brand name as anchor text, which does include a money keyword
No warnings in Webmastertools so far.
Should I worry or even go as far as disallowing these links?
Thanks for sharing your experience and opinion!
-
Hi Frank,
Don't rush to disavow or worry about these links as Google will look at the types of sites where you are featured.
On the other hand of course, the links will appear on very reputable sites, as these are regular media sites
This is what matters in cases like this. The sites are reputable and that is a big plus. If you had an article spammed across 50 random blogs, then it might be a different story.
Without seeing everything for myself, it's a little hard to say with 100% certainty, but from what you said, it sounds OK.
-Andy
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
-
Disavow links from legit sites but have spammy link profiles?
I'm currently doing a backlink audit for our site with a LOT of backlinks. Some of the linking sites are legitimate business websites in our industry who have linked to us for a totally legitimate reason (we have good content!). However, these businesses themselves have a spammy backlink profile—that is, the only sites linking to that site are obvious link farm sites. Here is an illustration: spammyseolinks.com; payforseo.xyz; blackhat.ru ==all link to==> legitbusiness.com ==links to==> mysite.com Should I disavow this backlink? I guess it's not really giving me much SEO worth since it surely been branded a spammy junk domain, but then again, it's a real website that we've earned a link from because we're doing stuff the right way. Is it hurting or helping me?
Link Building | | THandorf0 -
Grr SEO linking.. I am not understanding why I wouldn't have lots more links.. Please help. Thanks
I have done the whole moz open exploer and I am not understanding why my site wouldn’t have more links registering to my website.. I have lots of sites(directorys and 3rd party) with my website domain in them. The only one that is linking to my site is BBB.com and my advertsing with saint paul press. www.somerersetautodealer.com But if I have links with all kinds of automotive directories why wouldn’t they register? I am sure this a simply answer or that I am not understanding something. Thanks for your help! Scott
Link Building | | Scott12340 -
Link from a directory
Hi, im submitting a clients website to some directories. They are a dental practice and I'm adding them to this website http://goo.gl/Tvyabd Once i added the business to its directory it asked me to add a link (in so many words) back to its website from my clients website. Is this ok to do or is it seen as spam? Im confused about this as sometimes directories are free and sometimes they ask for a fee for it to be fast tracked to put it on the website. I always check the Domain authority of the websites and make sure they are relevant to the industry that I'm working in but again not sure if this would be seen as "paying" for links. Thanks Ade
Link Building | | popcreativeltd0 -
Will short linking to my site affect SERPs attribution of inbound link?
Some brand partners are using their short links to link back to our site (like bit.ly but they have their own). They have a high domain authority and trust so we want that link back to be read by Google. When I downloaded all inbound links from Moz, this brand's site was not listed, making me worried that the inbound link isn't being seen or considered! Haven't been able to find any info on this...
Link Building | | PAC31350 -
Linking between properties
I own 3 domains. One is my blog, one is my photography business site, and one is my graphic/web design site. They are all hosted on the same VPS account. I link between each site. Also, since the links are either in the nav, footer or sidebar, all pages from one page link to the homepage of each other. Is this an issue for SEO? Should I not be doing this? Would it be beneficial to use a no follow link instead if I'm to keep them?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
How to decide which links to remove.
I manage the seo for a bunch of different websites. We currently have a problem with links from low quality sources.... way too many of them and then way too much exact match anchor text. We have a lot of sites that we basically linked together (blog network) and we are in the process of correcting this. We know we have a lot of links we need to remove and/or anchor text we need to rewrite. My question is how do I know which ones to remove and/or edit. I know that having some links from low quality sources isn't bad, or links from some other sites you own, or having some exact match anchor text. I know this isn't all bad, and some of it is expected but we have a LOT of this going on. So basically I need to make decisions on each and every link as to whether we want to keep it, edit the anchor text, nofollow it, or delete it. I'm just not sure of what the best action is that should to be taken for each link. Any help would be really appreciated. http://jesus.christ.org/ If you browse around on there you will see what I'm talking about with the low quality links, or if you run it through open site explorer you will really see what I mean 🙂 Thank you, I hope to get some responses soon.
Link Building | | ThridHour0 -
Reciprocal links
I've heard that reciprocal links don't count anymore. If i stop linking to a person that links to me, will that link to my website start counting? Do reciprocal links count at all in google? Anchor text? anything? Thanks in advance! Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
"gimme links" = easy to fill out profile/personal reputation links that offer a do-follow anchor text flexible link
I'm doing some SEO for small niche service sites...and aside from niche directories and some light article marketing and local search directories (yelp, etc) there really isn't a budget for content generation. I really only have a budget for profile/submission links. What are some sites where you can quite easily fill out a personal profile with an anchor text variable link that may not be THAT juicy but will stick (i.e. not a spam/fake profile type of link, but something like Linkedin). I'll start with giving away 1 www.istockphoto.com Any others that aren't obvious?
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0