Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Can Foreign Language Backlinks Be Valuable?
-
I've done a lot of searching on this subject, but I keep seeing conflicting answers.
Are backlinks from foreign language websites valuable?
For example, a travel website in English picks up a couple backlinks in Indonesian language (and other languages) from foreign sites that have a DA of 60-70 or higher.
The topic is partially related, but the language is totally different.
Would those links still be valuable for the English website's DA?
Has this ever been answered conclusively?
Thanks
-
@backstagecreat DA is not a direct correlation in terms of the ranking power of a backlink. I am afraid the above mentioned is incorrect.
-
@backstagecreat This is completely incorrect.
The DA score is nothing but a 3rd party measurement and is not a direct correlation of a backlinks SERP impact.
A website with a MOZ DA score of just DA20 can provide much higher rank impact then a MOZ DA40 backlink depending on many other factors.
The DA score in the light you have announced it is meaningless and bad advise.
The DA score or the "Higher The DA" has nothing to do rank power of a link.
The rank power depends more on the type of referring domain either that being the niche or domain trust.
This is explained further
You own a hairdressing website and you get a DA40 link from a lawnmower shop website.
You also then get a link from a different website. This website is DA10. But its actually another hairdressing shop that linked to you.
The DA10 link is going to give much large ranking impact than the DA40 link
DA is just a way to measure things. It is in no way a reflection of the ranking power of a backlink.
I hope this clears up the conflicting and incorrect information made in backstagecreat comment
-
@lynnpatchett Backlinks are a cornerstone of SEO. However, not all backlinks deliver the same value. Links that are higher on a page or from pages with a higher DA will help your website rank better in Google's search results. You can use this information to build higher-quality backlinks.
-
@abdoselim2050 I disagree. Not every backlink has actual value.
These include.
-
Links on noindex pages.
-
Links from noindex spam blogs
-
Links that Google will choose to totally ignore
-
Links from highly spammed and high OBL pages.
-
If a indexed nofollow link is on a page that's never visited
There are many useless hyperlinks out there on there internet some which I have not mentioned here due to he list becoming to long.
-
-
@david5675 Of course they are mate. Google does not care about the origin or language of the site you get a link from. They look first at the niche, the topical relevance and the domains overall authority and trust. As most optimisation pros are aware there is over 200 factors the major search engines base there algorithms on. Google automatically translates the content so it makes no difference in respect to the foreign language.
So can they be valuable. The answer is it makes no difference so yes they are. As long as language and topical relevance translates into the same niche and the page has a low OBL at not spammed to death your good to go.
Many foreign language sites have huge SERP impact. This is why I personally like to target some of my outreach to these sites due to the fact some of them are actually interested in getting an English point of view on certain topics. Furthermore, looking back at the 200 factors Googles evaluates a website with. Diversity is one of them.
-
That's an interesting question indeed. I never saw a conclusive study on this topic, however, it seems that the answer would be: unique, genuine, high quality links will always be of use, especially if the topic of the page is relevant (just like in the example with foreign travel communities linking to travel websites in English) even though it would provide less value because of the anchor and surrounding text being in other language. How exactly less, that's still questionable. I would not concentrate on acquiring such links deliberately, but would not fight against them as well.
-
Every backlink has value, nothing is without value
However, the earned value varies from one link to another
Get backlinks from more than one language - This increases his strength and chances of appearing in the first ranks -
Hi,
This kind of link is pretty common, especially in the travel/tourism industry where lots of foreign language sites discussing holiday destinations etc give links out to relevant sites that are not necessarily in the language of the original article. If it is a freely given link from a somewhat relevant page then it certainly would not hurt, if it is a link that you are outreaching for then I would personally concentrate on other options that are in the same language as your website, Hope that makes sense

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
-
How i can Reduce Spam score of my website
Hi everyone, I'm reaching out to the community for some advice on improving my website's spam score. I've been using the Moz Spam Score Checker and my website, sngplbill.pk, currently has a score of 7%. While this isn't exceptionally high, I'd like to take steps to bring it down as low as possible, ideally under 1%. One factor I've identified that might be contributing to this score is a number of backlinks pointing to my site has a much higher spam score (over 80%). (screenshot attached)sngplbillscore I'm wondering if the community has any recommendations for how to address this situation. Here are some specific questions I have: Does disavowing the backlinks from spamy site seem like the best course of action?
Link Building | | Faizali.786
Are there any other potential reasons why my website might have a spam score, even with these backlinks?
What general strategies can I implement to improve my website's overall SEO health and reduce its spam score?
Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!0 -
Do You Risk A Penalty From Local Paid Directories in 2022?
Hi there, I have a client who wants to advertise in a local directory along the lines of "find your nearest plumber". The directory only has paid listings and they are follow links and they also mention your site or generated landing page may get a nice bump on google. Is there a risk that they may get a penalty for using this directory? The client wants to use it regardless of if it gives them an SEO boost but obviously wants to avoid any penalties at all costs. Thoughts on this? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | Scottlinklater0 -
Should I disavow these links?
Hi all, I have a ski website that I am currently performing a toxic backlink audit on. I have noted that a lot of the links being flagged as toxic/spammy by the tool I am using seem to be the same/similar sites with different URLs. The sites are vaguely related to skiing (relating to helicopter travel options for travelling to ski resorts) but it is concerning me that there are so many of them and they are being flagged as so toxic.
Link Building | | SolveWebMedia
Do you think it is worth disavowing these? Or contacting the owner to ask them to remove the link? I have included an example of some of the links below. https://www.cannes-helicopters.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://nice-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://monaco-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5 Slightly different site but same favicon icon:
https://monaco-helicopter.co.uk/index.php?menuopen=21&showcontent=5
https://www.whitetracks-holidays.com/Helicopter_Transfers_Villars_Switzerland.htm Thanks in advance for any advice / help!0 -
Backlink Transparency with SEO Agency
Hello everyone. I recently started working with an SEO agency and today they gave me an updated keyword report which showed some increase in rankings. I was not aware that any backlinks had been created yet so I asked for a report of the links. Their response is below and I am just wondering if this is normal practice being I have not worked with any type of SEO agency yet. "
Link Building | | wonderd24
Hey Daniel, We release a small report on them which the guest blog team will do soon. We don't reveal all backlink sources unfortunately because people have tried to bother the webmasters we have and basically steal our techniques. But rest assured you will be ranking at the top of the pack with our methods 😃
"1 -
Sudden spike in backlinks - should we disavow?
A kitchen remodelling firm in Australia has noticed a big increase in spammy backlinks to their website since April this year. Majestic shows that referring domains and backlinks during that period have gone up from 400 domains (10,000 links) to 1,070 domains (47,000+ links). About 100 are sitewide links. The vast majority are "follow" links directed at image files on the site - ending in .jpg. Ahrefs now shows the number one anchor text (23%) is a period (full stop) "." Most of the links come from .us domains, eg: cowboysr.us
Link Building | | Adab1
blackphoto.us
alldpic.com Google Search Console isn't showing any of these links, there's no penalty on the site and there's been no noticeable change in rankings (if anything organic clicks went up over May, June, July) ... so we're wondering what action - if any - should be taken. Are these links likely to have a negative impact on the site and homepage? Should we disavow these links? Appreciate any advice. Thanks.0 -
Top 20 sites for backlinking
My security jobs website was doing very well in Search engines until the penguin got hold of me. I don't profess to be at pro at SEO however seem to have a knack of getting sites to rank well. I think I made some basic mistakes with the original security jobs website, to many links to soon, so I have started again and will build up slowly the backlinks quality rather than quantity this time. My questions is what are the top 20 or so sites that are good to backlink from?
Link Building | | SecJobs0 -
Having a link from a foreign site
I just ran an OSE on a competitor of ours that they have a few links from this website, http://www.tz-online.de/ would this not damage there site?
Link Building | | ScottBaxterWW0