Spammy Link Profile Questions. What do you think?
-
I'm trying to dilute the link profile for a website. But have a couple of questions on the best way to achieve this.
Current link profile, www.mysitename.com
- Keyword 1
- Keyword 2
- Keyword 3
- Keyword 4
- Keyword 5
- Keyword 6
- Keyword 7
- Keyword 8
- Keyword 9
- Keyword 10
- Keyword 12
- Keyword 13
- Keyword 14
- Keyword 14
- Keyword 15
- mysitename.com
Desired link profile, www.mysitename.com
- mysitename.com
- www.mysitename.com
- http://www. mysitename.com/
- My Site Name
- http://mysitename.com
- Click Here
- my site name
- More Info
- mysitename.com/
- www.mysitename.com/
- Keyword 1
- Keyword 2
- Keyword 3
- Keyword 4
- Keyword 4
- Keyword 5
Questions
1. Do you think Google looks at this on a domain level? Or do you think this needs to be done with every page on the site?
2. What would be a good way to build links fast to the pages, need to build lots of links to be able to dilute the profile. I was considering Dripable, or a similar service, but decided i really don't want to create more spam.What would you do?
3. What would you say the % threshold for anchor text is, i have read on different sources that at least 40% - 60% of links should be branded, url, or generic anchor links. Do you think this is accurate?
-
Hi there!
First of all, you should definitely be aiming for branded anchor text links, as well as generic links such as 'click here', etc. so well done for putting yourself on the right track.
To try and answer your questions:
1. I think it's generally on a domain level, but if you have a specific page that has a particularly high volume of direct match keyword anchor text links, then you may struggle to rank that page, so you should aim for deep-linking and well as home page linking during your link acquisition campaign.
2. I would aim for content-based link building, as this is (in my experience) the best way of building lots of links that are natural, rather than using manipulative methods or adding more crap to the online space. Try using infographics, I push them quite heavily in general as it's my agencies speciality but we have had some phenomenal results in terms of link-building using high quality infographics. Here's two of my SEOMoz posts that might help you in this regard:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/indepth-guide-to-content-creation-with-infographic
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/getting-the-maximum-number-of-links-from-your-infographic
3. I always aim for at least 50% of a backlink profile being branded, URL and/or generic links, and I would usually want somewhere closer to 60-65%. That's what we aim for with our clients.
All my own opinion and personal experience of course, but hopefully it helps you : )
-
1. Do you think Google looks at this on a domain level? Or do you think this needs to be done with every page on the site?
Google definitely looks at both URLs and domain as a whole, but more importantly they look at the individual links. You can't simply dilute out bad links except in extreme cases (ie: big brands). Penguin is a machine learning program - it looks at far more signals than just percentages. A combination of enough of these signals can result in lost rankings.
2. What would be a good way to build links fast to the pages, need to build lots of links to be able to dilute the profile. I was considering Dripable, or a similar service, but decided i really don't want to create more spam.What would you do?
You will probably have trouble attracting natural links to the old pages, especially if they are just product or service listings. I would consider creating new pages that have very valuable, evergreen content. Promote those pages via social media, press releases, and more main-stream marketing that builds a healthy link profile. Then 301 redirect your current less-than-savory pages to these.
**3. What would you say the % threshold for anchor text is, i have read on different sources that at least 40% - 60% of links should be branded, url, or generic anchor links. Do you think this is accurate? **
If you really must insist on using a %, then that % should be based on the sites that are already ranking for those terms. Your best bet would be to choose the industry leader in your space and see what their link profile and percentages look like. In most cases, you will be surprised to see that they tend to have much lower thresholds than the others. Bear in mind, though, that your best bet is to probably scrub out bad links wherever as possible - they represent not just potential rankings losses, but a stain on your brand.
At a more general level, you should expect that the majority of your links to any "optimized" page should be greatly varied, brand and navigational heavy, and only use exact anchor text sparingly. Think of anchor text as merely an external validation of your relevance to that term. You don't need to sprinkle many in for Google to get the picture.
Hope that helps!
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
-
Unanswered questions in forums
What should be done with forum questions that go unanswered for a long time (i.e. year or longer)? Are these types of questions valuable content? Should we opt out of having these types of pages indexed? Since these pages are just one sentences doesn't seem like it is adding value to the site.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nandaMesa0 -
Links to external site (hotels link)
Hello, I am currently designing the webpages of my website and I am wondering if I should link externally or if it going to hurt me ? I am in the travel industry and for example in the France in the Loire valley, I want to list hotels that people can stay at in pre and pods trip. Is it ok to link to maybe 10 of those hotels websites or can it hurt me ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Link Building for Ecommerce
I need help - I'm trying to boost the rankings of a competitive category page - Leather Office Chairs First I'm thinking I need earned links - but for something like leather office chairs thinking of interesting, unique content people would love to read & share is proving difficult. I am struggling - can anyone help?!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey1 -
Google WMT/search console: Thousands of "Links to your site" even only one back-link from a website.
Hi, I can see in my search console that a website giving thousands of links to my site where hardly only one back-link from one of their page to our page. Why this is happening? Here is screenshot: http://imgur.com/a/VleUf
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
To recover from Penguin update, shall i remove the links or disavow links?
Hi, One of our websites hit by Penguin update and I now know where the links are coming from. I have chance to remove the links from those incoming links but I am a little confused whether i should just remove the links from incoming links or disavow the links? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rubix0 -
Should We Link To Our News?
We just started an "In the News" section on our webpage. We are not sure what would be the best for SEO purposes. Should we link to the news websites that have the stories about our company, even if they have no link bank? Or should we just take screenshots of the news article and only link to articles that link back to us (this is what we a currently doing)? Here is our news page, http://www.buyautoparts.com/News/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joebuilder0 -
Measurement of Link Value
Over the past few months I have encountered webmasters who claim to be using instruments far better than open site explorer but they will not disclose what they are. Are there better ways of determining the value of a link than OSE? Is "link juice" more important than page/domain authority where the link resides? Or vice-vesa. Any help understanding this would be appreciated. I do not want to offend other webmasters but I also do not want to be fooled by them either while negotiating a link exchange with them
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | casper4340 -
How do I link a profile picture to my search results?
How do you get an icon which links to a google profile to display in google search results? Link this.... https://skitch.com/edwardrobertshaw/f12f8/central.ly-google-search
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ed1234560