Will getting backlinks to landing page from low quality sites negatively affect SEO?
-
I've recently started an initiative at my company to get our customers to publish a blog post about our company and to include a link to a landing page which sits on a subdomain attached to our main domain. The reason for directing visitors to the post to a landing page is to help with conversion.
I've recently been thinking that couldn't the backlinks to this landing page from our customers' blogs (generally small sites) have a negative impact on the overall SEO of my companies domain?
Thanks in advance.
-
Thanks for the advice Kurt and I'll make sure to be careful. It doesn't look like we will invest too much more in this strategy as it is quite resource intensive.
-
Thanks Dennis. I have a close relationship with these customers so I make sure the anchor text is fine. Thanks for the help.
-
Thanks for the help George. We aren't buying these links, just speaking to our customers and trying to convince them to write about their use of our service. I think we will be fine.
-
I would differentiate between low quality sites and small sites without much authority (yet). When I hear low quality, I think of a spammy site that doesn't have quality, original content. There are plenty of small blogs out there which aren't extremely popular, but do put out quality, original content. Getting links from small sites that produce decent content is perfectly fine. Getting links from a bunch of spammy sites, could eventually hurt you.
As to your strategy, you'll want to be careful. If you are offering incentives for people to post about your site, those links are technically considered paid links and are unnatural. According to the Google guidelines, those links should be nofollow. If they aren't and you are trying to gain link authority through these posts, you're playing a game of whether your way of buying links is something Google will be able to figure out (or your competitors will report). If Google does figure it out, those links may be devalued and your site could be penalized. Just be aware of the risks.
If you just want people posting about your site and sending traffic, then ask them to nofollow the links when they publish the posts and you'll be within Google guidelines.
Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com -
Definitely not something Id be worried about, as long as you set the proper rules and restrictions on what they can post/how long it is/how they link
Main thing I'd worry about is anchor text so just set proper choices for them.
-
Hi Justin,
Personally I think you'll be fine as you've described the initiative working. Google doesn't expect every link to a website to be from a high authority, otherwise it would look unnatural. In reality, there will be a mix of high and low authority pages/domains that link to every website. However, if the blog posts are being spun out on blog networks, or if your customers sites have been penalised by Google then it probably isn't going to help you much.
What isn't clear is whether you're effectively buying these links, and whether they will pass PageRank or not. I encourage you to read Google's guidelines on this: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en.
George
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
-
In this situation, should I consolidate two pages into 1 for stronger SEO?
Hi, I have a site that has a categorized structure and products like this:
Technical SEO | | DGAU
/categoryA
/categoryA/product1
/categoryA/product2
/categoryA/product3
/categoryB
/categoryB/product1
/categoryB/product2
etc. The category pages have a list of the products within that category.
At the moment the category pages perform strongest SEO wise - ie these pages:
/categoryA
/categoryB Sometimes I get down to only having 1 product in each categotry like this:
/categoryA
/categoryA/product1 My Question:
Q: In this case is it a good idea to direct / redirect all traffic to the single product page - ie /categoryA/product1 ? BTW these are my reasons for thinking this this might be worthwhile:
• UX - User gets to the product page quicker with one less step
• Merging 2 pages with similar content together might somehow combine/consilidate the SEO strength and perform better in SERP. thanks in advance0 -
Search Console Indexed Page Count vs Site:Search Operator page count
We launched a new site and Google Search Console is showing 39 pages have been indexed. When I perform a Site:myurl.com search I see over 100 pages that appear to be indexed. Which is correct and why is there a discrepancy? Also, Search Console Page Index count started at 39 pages on 5/21 and has not increased even though we have hundreds of pages to index. But I do see more results each week from Site:psglearning.com My site is https://wwww.psglearning.com
Technical SEO | | pdowling0 -
Static or dynamic category pages for seo
Hi, I'm developing an accommodation site with a limited number of properties in 8 categories. I had been looking at making the properties blog posts and then using category function to show lists but its going to require a lot of customisation and I have seo concerns about the dynamic content as the category page is crucial. As I don't have a lot to add and listings will remain the same my latest thought was to create all as pages. However if I create a page with a list of 12 properties on a category page is there anyway of adding some sorting criteria to that page (would be 7 options - swimming pool, near beach, on site creche, budget, mid-range, luxury) Thanks for any tips Neil
Technical SEO | | neilhenderson0 -
Number of index pages in web master is different from site:mydomainname
Google says one to discover whether my pages is index in Google is site:domain name of my website: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34444?hl=enas mention in web page above so basically according to that i can know totally pages indexed for my website right:it shows me when type (site:domain name ) 300 but it says in Google web master that i have 100000so which is the real number of index page 300 or 1000000 as web master says and why i get 300 when using site:domain name even Google mention that it is way to discover index paged
Technical SEO | | Jamalon0 -
Discontinuing a site & Redirecting Traffic to an Internal Page
We are wondering the best way to redirect the traffic from a site that will no longer exist. The Scenario:
Technical SEO | | TopFloor
Our client wants to discontinue this website http://www.animalcarepackaging.com/. We’d like to redirect the traffic from this site to an internal page on our client's other website: http://www.glenroy.com/packaging/. This internal page is the most appropriate to the content that appears on animalcarepackaging.com (as opposed to just the entire site glenroy.com). Possible Options We Are Considering:
Option 1: Keep hosting animalcarepackaging.com and add a 301 redirect for all pages to glenroy.com/packaging/. Our concern with this option is that Google/Bing will see animalcarepackaging.com as a gateway, which could hurt glenroy.com. Option 2: Keep hosting animalcarepackaging.com and add a 301 redirect so all pages are sent to glenroy.com/packaging/; AND file a change of address with Google and Bing. We believe this will allow people who have bookmarked animalcarepackaging.com to go to glenroy.com/packaging/; while people searching for animalcarepackaging.com will go to glenroy.com's home page. We would augment this by posting a message on the homepage of animalcarepackaging.com notifiying users that the site will be discontinued and info will be found at glenroy.com/packaging. Option 3: Do a change of address with Google/Bing and send all traffic to glenroy.com (rather than an internal page). Post information on the homepage of animalcarepackaging.com that the site will be discontinued on X-date, and info about animalcarepackaging.com will be able to be found at glenroy.com/packaging. Looking for feedback on our options and suggestions on how this can be handled.0 -
NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW - Any SEO benefit to these pages?
Hi I could use some advice on a site architecture decision. I am developing something akin to an affiliate scheme for my business. However it is not quite as simple as an affliate setup because the products sold through "affiliates" will be slightly different, as a result I intend to run the site from a subdomain of my main domain. I am intending to NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW the subdomained site because it will contain huge amounts of duplication from my main site (it is really a subset of the main site with some slightly different functionality in places). I don't really want or need this subdomain site indexed, hence my decision to NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW it. However given I will, hopefully, be having lots of people link into the subdomain I am hoping to come up with some sort of arrangement that will mean that my main domain derives some sort of benefit from the linking. They are, after all, votes for my business so they feel like "good links". I am assuming here that a direct link into my NOFOLLOW,NOINDEX subdomain is going to provide ZERO benefit to my main domain. Happy to be corrected! The best I can come up with is to have a "landing page" on my main domain which links into parts of my main domain and then provides a link through to the subdomain site. However this feels like a bad experience from the user's point of view (i.e. land on a page and then have to click to get to the real action) and feels a bit spammy, i.e. I don't really have a good reason for this page other than linking! Equally I could NOINDEX,FOLLOW the homepage of the affiliate site and link back to the main domain from there. However this also feels a bit spammy and would be far less beneficial, I guess, because the subdomain homepage would have many more outgoing links than I envisaged for my "landing page" idea above. Also, it also looks a bit spammy (i.e. why follow the homepage and nofollow everything else?)! The trouble, I guess, is that whatever I do feels a bit spammy. I suppose this is because IT IS spammy! 🙂 Has anyone got any good ideas how I could setup an arrangement like I described above and derive benefit to my main domain without it looking (or being) spammy? I just hate to think of all of those links being wasted (in an SEO sense). Thanks Gary
Technical SEO | | gtrotter6660 -
Does adding a YouTube video to a page decrease site speed?
If you embed a YouTube video on your page, does Google count that as part of their site speed calculation. Since it is in a iFrame, I would think that it is not counted.
Technical SEO | | ProjectLabs0 -
Will rankings for my micro site rank better if I 301 redirect it to my main site?
This is my first time asking so I will try to be as clear as possible. Ok, I have a micro site that is an (exact match domain) and the domain is a couple 3-4 years old and ranks very well for several search terms. The main two terms it ranks for are like this. houses for rent in XXXXX XXXXX homes for rent (XXXXX equals a city name) The issue is this site has no backlinks, zero advanced SEO, I only did basic optimization to it when i set the site up. Even site structure, url structure all are not good.
Technical SEO | | Robbie8299
The only page I have ever even seen rank is the main root url. But with all that the site does really good in the top 1-2 results for key search terms. Now, I have a main site that is a very big site that has steadily been climbing in search terms every month with great backlinks, optimized for the city and all.
It currently ranks on second page for the listed search terms listed above. What I want to do is 301 redirect this microsite to my city page on my main site that is much better optimized for the key city terms.
The 301 redirect would point this "root domain" (mymicrosite.com) to my city page that looks like this. www.mymaindomain.com/city/XXXXXXX If I do this will Google rank my main URL city page as well as it ranks this microsite with zero links, seo, etc, etc. What happens if it does not? Will I be able to turn off the 301 redirect and keep the microsite rankings? My main reason for wanting this is I want this city page to rank well and I only want to optimize one site instead of both. Any help would be great!0