Do links on Reference.com and Ask.com count as backlinks?

[Clojobobo]

Hi there

Just had a quick question about links on Reference.com or Ask.com.

I have been looking at my competitors link profiles to get ideas of who and where I should/could be linking from. One of my main competitors seems to have links on Reference.com and Ask.com which are being listed in there profile. Reference.com are dofollow. Our site is also appearing on these sites, but the links are being listed under our profile. We have been up and running for more that 3 years now. The obviously have high DR and I think must be a contributing factor to their rank, having looked at other links in their profile.

It seems strange because I thought these sites are effectively search engines and therefore wouldn't count towards your backlink profile?

Can anyone explain? Would be most grateful if someone can.

Many thanks in advance.

Clojo

[Clojobobo]

Hi Martijn

Thanks for your response. That's really useful and makes a lot of sense. I will aim for more relevant links.

For a legal website (no win no fee solicitors - specifically employment) would you have any suggestions? I am relatively new to this and find that with it being a fairly mundane niche, I am struggling to find legitimate links. We have published interesting content and posted youtube videos, but getting the links is proving a tricky task. Completely appreciate that this is tricky for everyone, but if you have any advice I would be really grateful.

Many thanks in advance.

Clojo

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Clojo,

Just like any other backlink the links from Reference and Ask.com will have value but I doubt for your competitors they will make the actual difference in your rankings versus their rankings. As you've noticed their Domain Authority is very high but in the end they also link to hundreds of thousands of other sites which will eventually also decrease the value of a link from them. What I would be focused on is getting more links from relevant sources and I wouldn't consider these two sites one of them although it would be a nice to have to get them.

Martijn.