Do the back-links go wasted when anchor text or context content doesn't match with page content?
-
Hi Community,
I have seen number of back-links where the content in that link is not matching with page content. Like page A linking to page B, but content is not really relevant beside brand name. Like page with "vertigo tiles" linked to page about "vertigo paints" where "vertigo" is brand name. Will these kind of back-links completely get wasted?
I have also found some broken links which I'm planning to redirect to existing pages just to reclaim the back-links even though the content relevancy is not much beside brand name. Are these back-links are beneficial or not?
Thanks
-
Hi VT,
Keep in mind that when page A is linking page B (either internally or externally) it is the first link to page B that shows up in the html of Page A that lends any link juice to page B. The rest don't count for anything as far as SEO. Often that link is in the menu or breadcrumbs, rather than in the page copy. That said, while it's nice to keep the anchor text to internal resources tight, the ultimate impact of that anchor text on internal resources isn't that great.
-
Hi vtmoz
In my opinion, anchor text is not so important in these days, brand / domain / image / visit our website are good anchors. What it's really important is to have some of the links with the exact or similar anchor of the keywords you want to rank, and the rest of natural anchors.
About the page content or context content, the more related it is to the linked page, better. If the content relation is very low, it could still be a good link depending on the reputation of the linking website. The more reputation the linking site has, you need less content relation from it to be a "good" link.
Obviously, the link will be better where it has more content relation and the linking site has more reputation.
About the broken links you are planning to redirect, I would have to see the links, but unless they are backlinks from spammy sites, they should not harm your SEO. Maybe they just have little positive impact, but you don't have nothing to lose doing this.
Hope that helps, best wishes!
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
-
Sub-directory pages must be optimised well?
Hi all, We have help pages as sub-directory which have been linked from our website pages (3 clicks depth). But these pages are not well optimised with minor issues like header tags, image alts, etc...Moreover some of these pages are dead-end pages. Will these things hurt us? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Relevant Link, but Low DA...good idea?
If a website has a low DA (not because of spam. Just because it's new or because there isn't a ton of content) but it is industry specific/relevant, then is that worth pursuing? I have read how relevancy is supposed to be a major portion determining a link's benefit, but I"m leery about about something with a low DA - like under 15 low. Thanks, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Duplicate content on a sub domain
I have two domains www.hairremoval.com and a sub domain www.us.hairromoval.com both sites have virtual the same content apart from around 8 pages and the sub domain is more focused to US customers so the spelling are different, it is also hosted in the states. Would this be classed as duplicate content ? (The url’s are made up for the question but the format is correct)
Algorithm Updates | | Nettitude0 -
Absolute Internal Links and their Affect on Rankings for Local Businesses
For many localized search terms (City + Profession), I'm noticing that OpenSiteExplorer is reporting high numbers of backlinks for anchortext from Absolute internal links from that same domain. Now, I'm familiar with the difference in relative and absolute internal links but am wondering if this type of linking may be carrying a lot of weight for rankings. It may be a correlation over causation situation if it's more that those companies that are including absolute internal links for terminology are just doing a better job (generally) with internal linking... but I feel like this may be something worth digging into. Everything I have read says that search engines view absolute and relative internal links essentially equally but does anybody have their own insight on the effectiveness for these two types of internal links in regards to small local businesses who otherwise are getting basically no links at all?
Algorithm Updates | | Kirch0 -
The risk of semi-hidden text, which only shows-up when page viewer clicks button.
Hello Mozzers! I'm working on a holiday accommodation website and there's an accessibility statement at the bottom of each of the (50 odd) accommodation types on offer. This only comes up on the page (the text extends on the same page as the accommodation type) when you click the button (although it's there in the HTML at all times!). My other concern is might this "hidden until button pressed" semi-hidden text be seen as potentially manipulative by Googlebot, although it isn't!
Algorithm Updates | | McTaggart0 -
Undertanding Google's PMD (Partial Matching Domain) policy...
Hi, If your business name contains keywords, is that an issue? Some companies, have keyword based brand names... So what is Google's policy regarding EMD or PMD? What happens when the company name has a keyword in it? If anyone could help clarify, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Ben
Algorithm Updates | | bjs20100 -
When to remove bad links.
Hi everyone. We were hit on the 5th Oct with manual penalties - after building some good links and building good content we saw some gains in our SERPS, not to where they were, but they are definately improving for some low competition keywords. In this case would people recommend still trying to remove bad links? We have audited our links and identified ones which seem spammy. We were going to go through a step by step process, emailing bad link providers where possible, and then sending a disavow for any links we were not able to remove. If we have started to see gains through other means is it wise in people's opinion to start contacting google? We watched Matt Cutts video on disavow usage and he states not to use it unless in extreme situations, so we don't want to 'wake the beast'. Many thanks. James.
Algorithm Updates | | Quime0 -
Affect in SERPs when moving footer links off the homepage
I have several pages that rank highly in the SERPs and these pages are linked directly to my homepage in the footer. I want to clean up my footer because I have too many site wide links but don't want to hurt the SERP rankings during the transition. Will removing these page links from the footer impact SERP rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | braunna0