External Keyword Anchor Links - Always Bad?
-
1) I've been told that other sites linking to my site with keyword-rich text are bad.
2) But Google Console / Analytics shows that we rank extremely high for random, pointless phrases loosely tied to the topic of our site. Like "dht blocker". (its a hair loss site)
3) This week I began analyzing our backlinks. Guess what I found? Literally hundreds of bot-created spammy trackback and pingback text links around the phrase "dht blocker"
It seems to me that keyword rich anchor text on external sites is NOT a bad thing. In fact its an outstanding way to rank better for your desired keywords. Obviously the "bad" is the spam element. Probably the high quantity. On unrelated websites. But guess what? It worked. _We are ranking extremely well for these pointless phrases, thanks to these spam bots. _
Obviously we will be disavowing all these sites. But I want to start building quality links via legitimate, honest means.
So here is my question:
If I begin a legitimate honest link building campaign with other websites, and request that they put the HREF around our most coveted keyword phrase - is this inherently BAD? Or is it actually possibly GOOD? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts?
-
Keyword rich anchor text on external sites will help your search rankings. But it's also against Google's rules. If an unnaturally high percentage of the links to your site have the same anchor text, you run the risk that Google will ignore their value or will penalize your site. My suggestion would be to get some links with keyword rich anchor text but also get a lot of other links that don't have keyword rich anchor text so your overall link profile looks natural.
-
If you write to me and say... hey.. would you consider adding my new article to your news feed. I would look at it and add it, only if it was outfreekingstanding and highly relevant to my audience.
However, if you write to me and say that you want specific anchor text, then I am going to delete your message and all future messages, I don't care if the Pope is writing for your site. Why? Because you are trying to manipulate the search engines and I don't want to have anything to do with your site because I don't want to be linking to anything that Google will count as spam.
-
I think you want me to give a palatable answer.
If you ask for the anchor text it is manipulative. If the person with the website determines the anchor text then it was not manipulated by you.
-
I feel like you're still not answering my question.
Going by your logic, any link building at all is "Manipulative". Technically, isn't it? Yes.
My question, once again, is whether links containing anchor text are inherently bad.
That was the question: Are they INHERENTLY bad.
I gave two options based on the question:
1) They are inherently Bad
2) They are possibly GoodI posed my question in a very deliberate way. I will repeat the original post so maybe its more clear what I am saying: I have been told that ANY ANCHOR TEXT LINKS ARE BAD.
Any. All.
But I found an example of obvious spam using anchor text links, and we rank well for those.
Therefore: Is ANY (ALL) Anchor text linking bad? (Yes / No)
Since you haven't said a simple yes or no, Im going to go with "NO" anchor text links are not inherently bad and in fact seem to be a very effective way to rank well ... IF ... (this was obvious, and a given) its used responsibly and in moderation.
-
That method is manipulative. The anchor text is being placed to manipulate the search engines.
And, if you get a high number of keyword rich anchor text links you might have a Penguin problem.
-
So the direct answer to the question in bold above, is ........?
-
These are descriptions of manipulative links based upon anchor text that are quotes straight from Google (here).....
" Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links."
"Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites."
There are many other types of manipulative links based upon anchor text.
Although it appears that spam-made links with keywords as anchor text links are an effective way to drive, if you have a lot of those types of link your website will stand out to Google's algos and you could get a Penguin problem. Lots of people who have Penguin problems have lost their rankings for about two years. Google keeps saying... "we are going to run the Penguin update soon" and the owners of these sites have been tormented by the numerous and lengthy delays.
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
-
Link externally from destination pages
Hello, From my destinations pages, is it beneficial to have a link going externally to the hotels my clients are staying in ? In other words is it beneficial to my website or will it hurt me to link external from all my destinations pages to all the hotels my clients are staying in ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
What link would be better?
Hi Guys, Just wondering what would be better in this instance: finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article or creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article Creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Both naturally link out to the page you want a link too. To me, number 1 as the page already has authority but then again number 2 since Google might place some weight to recency. Any thoughts? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spyaccounts140 -
Which links to disavow?
I've got a new client that just fired their former SEO company, which was building spammy links like crazy! Using GSC and Majestic, I've identified 341 linking domains. I'm only a quarter of the way through the list, but it is clear that the overwhelming majority are from directories, article directories and comment spam. So far less than 20% are definitely links I want to keep. At what point do I keep directory links? I see one with a DA of 61 and a Moz spam score of 0. I realize this is a judgement call that will vary, but I'd love to hear some folks give DA and spam numbers. FWIW, the client's DA is 37.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rich.owings0 -
"Null" appearing as top keyword in "Content Keywords" under Google index in Google Search Console
Hi, "Null" is appearing as top keyword in Google search console > Google Index > Content Keywords for our site http://goo.gl/cKaQ4K . We do not use "null" as keyword on site. We are not able to find why Google is treating "null" as a keyword for our site. Is anyone facing such issue. Thanks & Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
Fix broken external links on noindex, follow pages no one visits?
Would you take the time to fix external links on your site on pages that are noindex, follow on pages that no one ever visits? The only reason to do it would be to present a tidier site to Google, but would it really care if those pages are noindex/folllow? The thing that makes it a non-trivial amount of work is that there are hundreds of these on a large site. Do you think Google cares, if they're noindex/follow? I know the safe answer is always fix everything, but really it has to get weighed against the likely benefit and other projects with a limited amount of time to work with. Best... Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Removing Canonical Links
We implemented rel=canonical as we decided to paginate our pages. We then ran some testing and on the whole pagination did not work out so we removed all on-page pagination. Now, internally when I click for example a link for Widgets I get the /widgets.php but searching through Google I get to /widgets.php?page=all . There are not redirects in place at the moment. The '?page=all' page has been rated 'A' by the SEOmoz tool under On Page Optimization reports and performs much better than the exact same page without the '?page=all' (the score dips to a 'D' grade) so need to tread carefully so we don't lose the link value. Can anyone advise us on the best way forward? Thanks in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jannkuzel0 -
Fading Text Links Look Like Spammy Hidden Links to a g-bot?
Ah, Hello Mozzers, it's been a while since I was here. Wanted to run something by you... I'm looking to incorporate some fading text using Javascript onto a site homepage using the method described here; http://blog.thomascsherman.com/2009/08/text-slideshow-or-any-content-with-fades/ so, my question is; does anyone think that Google might see this text as a possible dark hat SEO anchor text manipulation (similar to hidden links)? The text will contain various links (4 or 5) that will cycle through one another, fading in and out, but to a bot the text may appear initially invisible, like so; style="display: none;"><a href="">Link Here</a> All links will be internal. My gut instinct is that I'm just being stupid here, but I wanted to stay on the side of caution with this one! Thanks for your time 🙂 http://blog.thomascsherman.com/2009/08/text-slideshow-or-any-content-with-fades
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
Footer Link
Hello, Some of my hosted clients don't mind if I put a footer link on the bottom of their website. I would like to put a footer link that looks like Seomoz's - http://imgur.com/GrC8y Basically it would look like so: "Powered by "my company name". The world's #1 "keyword" provider (LOGO goes here) Here are my questions: 1. Would this hurt or help my rankings? 2. Should the logo be hosted by my clients so that a different ip is hosting my logo (where my image name will get picked up)? Or is it best to host it myself? 3. If my company name and keyword are getting linked, is that one link too many? 4. Is it a good idea to use a different keyword so that other keywords get picked up by SERPs, or should I set myself up on one keyword ? Thank you so much! Shawn
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Shawn1240