Info on paid links and damage they can do?
-
I'm kind of new to SEO and have the following question.
If you're say a wedding supplier and are looking to get listed on some of the many online weddings directories out there, for example: http://www.thebridalfile.co.uk
Most of these sites charge for an ad with a link, would this come under the banner of paid links and therefore be damaging form an SEO point of view? Nearly all wedding directories generate a substantial part of their revenue from these types of ads. Obviously the ad itself will generate traffic but I'm wondering whether the search engines will see these as paid links which will be penalised?
or is this different to simply paying someone to get your links on their network of sites which, as I understand it, is the issue that google have with paid links?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
-
Thanks for all the responses! Very helpful.
-
+Julian, hit the nail on the head. If the directory is actually quality Google will not see it as a directory and you will not get penalized for it.
Remember when finding content like this, you have to ask yourself does it add value to people? If it passes that test, more than likely you will not get penalized for it.
-
If you only have 50 links and all are from paid directories it won't looks good or natural.
-
directories have paid links, its fine in general. don't worry about it too much.
-
The way I see it is this... if the directory is quality and charge not for inclusion but for the editors time to review your site then its not a "paid link".
Check out this video from matt cutts: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/matt-cutts-explains-how-google-handles-paid-directories-video/40511/
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
-
Disavowing Links
I need some advice... I've noticed our link profile has increased with many comments links --- something I certainly have not pursued manually. I'm new to disavowing links. However, before I go ahead and disavow them, I'd like to ask how harmful these links are and would you recommend this is something I can do myself (relatively novice SEO) or if you'd recommend someone who could do this for a reasonable cost. In one instance, the link from this comment thread is with the anchor text, "porn"... Certainly not something we want to rank for, haha! I look forward to your advice
Link Building | | LukeBTDT0 -
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 -
Spammy links
Hi I was reviewing a clients link profile and found a lot of the links they have pointed at their domain have the anchor text "Buy Viagra" or "buy viagra online" and similar. Now the website has absolutely nothing to do with this kind of business so no doubt these links are spammy. To my knowledge the website has not been penalised by Google so far. Is it best to disavow or just leave alone? Kind Regards
Link Building | | TheZenAgency0 -
Getting a sitewide links from one domain as oppsed to few links from certain pages, a good, bad or horrible idea?
Hello, I have a website that is performing really well in Google for country specific Real Estate Website. I have had this site for just about 2 years and I have 4600+ indexed pages, and about 50 of my main keywords appear in top 10 results on Google. I have now started a second site with a brand new domain, its only about 2 months old. This one is a Travel website and again its country specific (same country that real estate website is performing well in) and since its still building up the content and has barely a couple of backlinks, I am thinking of adding a linkback to it from my Real Estate Site. Is it a good idea to add a site wide link back from header section of the real estate website to my travel website? Both sites has same country and most of the keywords in both relate to this country. Or will I be better off adding a few text links from few pages with best Page Authority? Or - do you suggest that I do not link the two at all? Both sites are hosted on different servers, with different IP's and one is on windows server created in asp.net while another is a magento site. Any advidce / insight will be much appreciated and thank you in advance.
Link Building | | waituk_sanjeev0 -
Is there a software to help me check whether the sites that i give link to, also place my link on their site (reciprocal link)?
When i exchange links with others, i usually put their link on my site hoping that they'll do the same. Since it's impossible to check all sites whose link i have placed on my page to see if they have put a link back to me, i was wondering whether there is a kind of software to help me do that!
Link Building | | isidora0 -
My site has more than 1,341,796 total links but only 500 external links after months of SEO. Please help me ,not sure what went wrong.
My site has more than 1,341,796 total links but only 500 external links after months of SEO. Please help me ,not sure what went wrong.
Link Building | | rsethia1230 -
Great idea to get back links in short order; however the links would be unrelated. . Is it worth the effort . BTW, it's a white hat method. Should I proceed?
I have come up with a very creative way to get some great back links using white hat methods. The problem is that the back links to the site would be to an interior page or external promotional website which then have links back to the main website. What kind of value for the main domain would this potentially achieve. What are peopLes thoughts on this idea?
Link Building | | FidelityOne0 -
Acquiring a link
once I get a list of links from ontolo or the link acquisition assitant here on seomoz what is the next step? do i email that site? what do i actually do to get acquire the link? thank you for answering this! I am new to link building and so new that I dont actually know the steps and need help from someone. thank you VIjay
Link Building | | vijayvasu0