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.
Googles stance on Back Links via a Badge/Form
-
Hey guys,
Does anyone know what Google's stance is on backlinks that come via a form, WordPress theme or badge. For example if I offer website security and provide badges for websites that are malware clean (with a back link to my website) and 100 websites sign up to my website will this be deemed as bad practice in Google's eyes?
Also if I create a free WordPress theme with a backlink to myself?
The second question sounds like I'm providing content for a link which seems okay but the first one can go either way.
Thanks
-
Thanks Travis!
-
Thanks Wiqas!
-
Hello,
This is more than tricky. I have witnessed websites that are ranking high doing the same practices (Most of Internet Marketing Companies, Web Design Companies, Themes, Plugins etc) but such link schemes have costed thousands and thousands of websites.
Here is example of one big brand victimized recently by such link schemes
There are hundreds of such examples. So if you like to move this way
- Use Non Money Anchor (May be Brand Name)
- Make sure to turn link into "Nofollow"
I strongly agree with Travis! Nice advice in deed!
I hope that this will help!
-
These would likely be deemed a link scheme unless the links are nofollow. We can bring up a number of examples where sites appear to get away with these tactics, but followed widgets and footer links are definitely high risk. If you genuinely want exposure for your site, nofollow the links and make sure they don't contain 'money terms'. (e.g. Free Malware Scan)
Both of these tactics have been done to death. A lot of sites have been penalized due to dofollow links in themes, widgets, plugins and badges. If you still want to do this, I would strongly suggest using a nofollow attribute on the link.
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
-
What are the best link-building strategies for 2024, considering Google's evolving algorithms?
Link-building remains a crucial part of SEO, but with Google's algorithms constantly evolving, many traditional techniques are becoming less effective. I'm interested in learning about the latest link-building strategies that are expected to be successful in 2024. What approaches or tools should we focus on to ensure our efforts align with Google's current best practices and avoid potential penalties?
Link Building | Nov 13, 2024, 11:40 AM | Ibrahim-Khuzam0 -
How long does it take Google to remove links after using disavow tool?
Hi guys, So we're currently in the process of removing some of the less useful and more suspect links from our profile, and used the Google disavow tool to do so. We uploaded the .txt file to the search console on 7th July this year, 2 months ago now, and according to our most recent site crawl, the suspect links are still showing up on our link profile. Do we have any idea how long this is roughly supposed to take? The ideas I've found online are conflicting - anything from 3-4 weeks to 6-9 months. Which is it? Is there any way of fast-tracking this process? Thanks!
Link Building | Sep 11, 2020, 6:09 AM | rawdog0 -
Are backlinks in the form of Footer or Sitewide links safe?
Hi There! Some of our competitors are using sitewide links in the header, footer or sidebar…is it ok to use these type of backlinks to increase overall backlinks. The site-wide links increase backlinks dramatically. Thanks Malik Zakaria
Link Building | Feb 25, 2018, 10:51 PM | mzakaria0 -
Back link from site with DA of 72 to a website domain. Clicking on the link redirects to our website not the attended one.
Hi,
Link Building | Jan 6, 2017, 7:06 AM | JIMBO16
I've ran a back link check and discovered a good back link to a site which then gets redirected back to my company's website. I have a feeling that an old SEO agency has purchased a small website which has a decent link back from a relevant organisation with a high Domain authority and then redirects the domain to our website to get the link juice. What are your thought on this? Is this really bad practise and possibly damaging? Thanks, Jim0 -
Links from PRWeb press release violate Google's quality guidelines?
My site has had a manual action performed on it by Google indicating that I have inbound links that fall outside of their quality guidelines. I did my own research, found what I thought was the issue, had the links removed and requested reconsideration. Google's response surprised me in that they highlighted two specific pages with links that were the direct result of valid press releases and a publisher picking up our release off a wire service. Has anyone else seen this occur? Anyone had a case successfully reconsidered? I realize that I don't need to do anything at all as the manual action is in effect and will stay that way, discounting those links, but I would rather a) not have any manual action against my site and b) know for the future so this doesn't happen again. Also, is this applicable for guest blog posts, which effectively create the same type of backlinks? Thanks
Link Building | Sep 18, 2013, 10:50 AM | barberm1 -
Do footer links pass less link juice?
One of my best inbound links for PA and DA happens to be a footer link, curious if it's less valuable or has any value at all.
Link Building | Jun 26, 2013, 2:50 PM | Theskimonster0 -
Link Detox and Link Removal
I have a question about which links to remove after running a link detox from Link Research Tools. First a little back story. I had had an SEO company link building for one of the websites I own. But I have recently stopped working with them. In the last month my rankings have near dropped off the charts. I have just recently gotten access to Google webmaster tools and noticed an unnatural link warning from back in March. So yesterday I ran link detox and it reported 19 toxic links, 120 suspicious links, and 24 healthy links. It's rather obvious that I should remove all of the toxic links. They all from sites that have been deindexed by google. But my question is a about the suspicious links. What should my criteria be for removing them? Am I better off removing them all and leaving my site with only 24 healthy links or should I personally comb through them and remove only the worst of the worst so that I leave my site with a few more links? I'd really like to get the site ready to resubmit to google as soon as I can. Thoughts? yyCOf.png
Link Building | Nov 19, 2018, 8:31 PM | CobraJones950 -
How many links per week is too fast in link building?
For a new website/blog how many links per week looks suspicious or hurt the rankings?
Link Building | Aug 29, 2011, 7:37 PM | aaran1