Inbound links – does the traffic matter at all??
-
So we know that links from highly ranked websites, pages with high DA, PR etc, matter. What about the traffic on these links? Do Google and others look at the traffic on the links and factor that into the algorithm? What do people think about this?
Just wondering about this as don’t see it talked about much….Thanks
-
To clarify - It's a popularity thing to me. It's not directly related to overall traffic, but if a site gets more traffic, it's going to be talked about more, linked to more, etc, which increases SEO.
That's what I was getting at. Guess I didn't make that clear
-
Haha...I didn't think it was that slow! But hey...maybe you are just really fast!
-
That's what happens when you type s l o w.
-
yes, thanks, I mean the traffic from specific links. e.g. How important is the traffic that flows down the links, or is the link itself all you need to worry about - even if there is Zero traffic from the link
-
I would think that this hasn't been answered yet, because no one really knows. The general consensus is that the traffic from these sites means nothing and I would tend to agree.
If traffic were a factor then it could be easily manufactured. And just because a site has traffic it doesn't mean it is good. One example would be a typo domain name. It may get lots of type in traffic, but a link from this site wouldn't likely be any good.
So, my vote would be to say that no, site traffic has no bearing on how much help a link gives a website.
EDIT (LOL! 2 people answered while I was typing!)
-
I have never read or heard anyone talk about Google counting the traffic that flows through a link. I wonder how well they can count it?
I would not bet very much money that this is a factor in the algo.
If you can get a link that delivers valuable traffic that is great. Very few backlinks deliver significant amounts of traffic. However, if you can get a link in an article on the nytimes.com website, or Slashdot.com or Wired.com the traffic flow can be amazing.
-
Of course they take traffic into account. The more traffic a site has the higher the likelihood is that it is going to move up in the rankings. Some traffic is more valuable than others. If a site is getting a ton of traffic, but it's all just bouncing back to the previous page or bouncing back to the SERP, then that traffic isn't going to be as valuable as traffic that flows through and interacts with a site.
Do you mean do they rank pages based on how much traffic is flowing through from each link? Perhaps you could be more specific with your question and exactly what you mean by do they "look at traffic".
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
-
Spam Links
Hi everyone, I've just joined the Moz community and after completing our first site crawl I've discovered that we have approximately 200 links with a spam score of over 50%. Should I just disavow all these links or is their a formula to deciding which links to disavow? Thanks in Advance Steve
Link Building | | StevenWalley0 -
Links from same server or not?
Hello, I make websites so every website I make has a backlink to my website. Currently all my websites are hosted on server A, but my OWN website is hosted on server B. I plan to move my website to server A too. This will indicate that all the backlinks I have currently are from a difference server, now all these links will come from the SAME server. Will this have any results on my positions? Is this something that you have to take into account? Jeroen
Link Building | | conversal0 -
No Follow Links
On my campaign report from SEOmoz I have noticed that all my 3 competitors have 99% followed links versus 1% no-followed links. Should I do the same? How can I check were are the no-follow links on my site? I have found some tool online but it shows me that there are only 2 no-follow links on my website which are both www.cloudflare.com while SEOmoz report shows me that I have 1031...where can i view this links?
Link Building | | VillasDiani0 -
Links in the Classifieds
We rent apartments. One way we use to find clients is to advertize these apartments in Classifieds. Generally, we use free ads. Sometimes, for very popular sites ( like Kijiji), we pay so our ads can be seen first. Could this be a problem with Google? Some sites send us clients, many of them never do. We keep putting ads there because of their PR. What is the worth of this kind of links? Thanks for your answers.
Link Building | | Caru0 -
Links and keywords
A rather simple question, If i have a paragraph and have the words cat, dog and bird would it be a good idea to have them all linking to the same url? or is better to have them all going to different urls?
Link Building | | Vetshopgroup0 -
Links on portfolio with nofollow?
Hey guys, everyone know that to get better PR you need quality one way links.. my question is should I put nofollow to the links to the websites on my portfolio? since those website have the link to my page? ideas?
Link Building | | onyx8080 -
New ways to get links (excluding on site link bait)?
Fellow SEOs, I’m looking for a new way to reach out to bloggers and site owners for links. There are quite a few link bait techniques to lure bloggers thanks to = amazing content, infographics,...but there are not so many articles on ways to contact bloggers/webmasters and ask for links... We all know that contacting site owners directly and politely asking then to place a link on their home page is as useful as a comb in Bruce willis’s hand. Link exchange is as dead as the Dodo and business partner links are usefull and easier to get but opportunities are often limited. I have been organizing contests for bloggers recently and it has been quite successful up to now, but I always like to have a spare trick up my sleeve. So if any of you have a decent method to reach out to bloggers/webmaster and get decent links please let me know, I will be forever thankful ; ) Cheers
Link Building | | ref.price0