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
-
Moz API Spam Score - Backlinks
Hi, everyone I am trying to get my website DA up. I have analyzed my competitors and thanks to Moz I have idea and insights of how my competitors get backlinks. But, some of them are old school techniques. Also my website has some PBNs no follow backlinks does it affect my website ranking? Their spam score is 10-40. But other competitors has them as well. Does anyone know indepth on this topic?
Link Building | | RejinKayastha1 -
All backlinks not showing on my website
hey folks, i am fairly new to SEO and i have noticed that i have backlinks that tools like ubersuggest or SEM rush are nothshowing my product is lazyapply.com. -> It's an automated job search application can anyone suggest me what should id do ? PS - for example i have backlink from crunchbase.com but my website is not showing me that
Link Building | | viveklazy0 -
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 -
Backlinks through dofollow commenting
I'm interested in building backlinks to my photography business site by leaving good, engaging comments on other photographers' DoFollow blogs. Is this a good idea? Is it worth the effort? Through a little research, I've managed to locate more than 40 dofollow photographer blogs that have a domain authority of 35+. The idea is to take an hour or so a week to leave 10-20 comments on their blog posts. Would you consider this a good strategy? I rank on the first and second page of most of my keywords that I'm working on, but I want to rank 1st or 2nd on them. I used the keyword finder tool on google adwords to find the keywords that are the most searched for in my area. Surprisingly the competition is not large, so I'm fairly comfident I can get there. I've already optimized my site substantially and I'm looking into link building. Thoughts?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Homepage Vs. Inner Page Backlink Building?
If I'm trying to rank multiple inner pages, when does strengthening the homepage become more productive than strengthening the inner pages themselves? Is there a strategy to this? For example, maybe you build up a few dozen backlinks to each inner page, and then focus all your efforts on the homepage? Because, from my understanding, strengthening the homepage will go a long way towards helping your inner pages rank. Is that correct?
Link Building | | JABacchetta0 -
How can I find all the outbound links from a website domain?
I want to find all the outbound links (basically whatever comes in <a>tag) from a domain (say www.abc.com) as well as all the subdomains under it (say abc.com/a etc). Open Site Explorer provides the inbound links from a website but does not provide any functionality to get all the outbound links from a website. Is it possible to do?</a> <a>Thanks in advance. Deepak Jain</a>
Link Building | | Deepak_Jain0 -
Creating Backlinks On Behalf of Client
I'm on my first SEO project with a law firm. I'm at the stage where I am doing competitive backlink research on other law firms that my client gave me. I saw a blog site called typepad. It has a high domain authority so I was going to recommend to my client that they set up an account and blog away! Since it's a law firm, I am not qualified to start blogging on behalf of my client and I know they are extremely busy so now I have to "ride" my client to get busy and start creating content. I feel like I want to do more for them on the blog side to keep things going but not having a law background, probably not doable. Question: Do most SEO's do the blogging for their clients, farm it out or keep pushing their clients to do it? I also want them to sign up with articlebase but the same thing is going to happen. I have to push them to write articles. I guess this is my job? -Bob
Link Building | | Czubmeister0