Reciprocal links with guest posts bad?
-
I'm curious do you think Google would fault you or you'd get less link power if you made a page (on your website) of your guest posts from across the net and linked out to them?
-
A viable solution, but I don't want to be too covert about it.
-
Ben, can you host the page somewhere else and call it in an iframe maybe. Or a Javascript Modal window the contents of which are stored in a folder which is denied in robots.txt or Just deny the bots access to this file. If I were you, I would post it anywhere but on the same domain.
Just my 2c. Think about it.
-
Solid answer, I didn't even consider no-indexing the page, it'd primarily be for users anyway.
-
I like your idea of posting them on a Facebook page. I think that's a great compromise in this situation.
-
I know there are 5 other responses so far and mine is the 6th one. Honestly, I would not link out to them. I would not create a connection between all your guest posts and you...it does sort of a web-ring which used to exist over a decade ago. These will clearly get seen as reciprocal links. If I were you and I had domain authority, I would not do it. If you want to, why not share them on your Facebook page. Tweet them. Whatever else makes sense...except linking directly from the site where all those guest posts are linking to.
Some people may disagree....but I would rather have those links be as one-way links instead of reciprocal links.
-
Okay, so my response may have seemed flippant, but really, after everything we've learned in the last year I can't believe the discussion still is all about "what Google likes" and no one is talking about "what my readers like."
Ben, I went and looked at your blog and I think it's awesome. It's full of great content. If you have loyal followers, and they like your content, why on earth would it be a bad thing to say "Hey guys, I know you like my content, so here are some links where you can read some of the posts of written elsewhere." I think that's a cool idea. If you want to, make them "no follow" - I don't think it matters. Google is smart enough to see that you are an author referencing your other work. Readers love that. What's the first thing you see when you open up a book? You see a list of other books by the same author. Is that only self-promotion? I don't think so. You are making it easier for people who like your stuff to find more of it.
-
I would not link out to the pages you are getting links from! Let Google try to figure out that you are doing guest blogging to get incoming links and boost your rank for keywords, why make it easier on them?
-
As the current state of Google lies right now, I'd say no, it wouldn't hurt you. I (ashamedly) admit that up until a few days ago, I still had a page that had a long list of links from link exchanges--I know; I know--bad. But my point is, even with that in place, every algorithm update thus far has benefited us. Considering the fact that the next Penguin refresh is supposed to be major, impactful, and "jarring", I've since removed this page of links, even though it means some of those sites will find out and remove their links to us as a result. OK, I realized I've done nothing to answer your question and have just provided you with a random anecdote, so I guess my question is: why do you want to have this list of guest posts? Is it for the purpose of displaying your work so others can read it?
I do like Oleg's suggestion of noindexing the page. Then you won't even have to worry about what Google thinks of it.
-
Great question.
I think for powerful sites, you don't need to worry about it. If you are a new site, this could be seen as a reciprocal linking scheme. I'd recommend linking to them with a nofollow to be on the safe side. Once your site is well established, remove the nofollows.
To danatanseo's point, if you visitors would like it, you should definitely do it. But if you are really worried about G's interpretation of the page, you can always noindex the page and/or nofollow the links.
-
Forget about Google. Would your readers like it? I bet they would.
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
-
Worried About Broken Links
In Wordpress, I'm using a plugin called Broken Link Checker to check for broken links. Should I be worried about/spend time fixing outbound links that result in: 403 Forbidden -Server Not Found -Timeout -500 Internal Server Error -etc. Thanks for your help! Mike
Technical SEO | | naturalsociety3 -
How does link juice flow through hreflang?
We want to use the hreflang tag on our site (direct users searching for the Spanish version of spanishdict.com to spanishdict.com/traductor). Before doing so, we were wondering how link juice flows through hreflang? Any insight or resources on this would be very helpful. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | CuriosityMedia0 -
Referencing links in Articles and Blogs
Hi I am wondering if the <sup>tag in html is picked up by google as a reference point?</sup> I.e when you put a superscript in word it puts a small number next to your sentence. Then you have a list of reference at the end of the blog/article does google recognise this?
Technical SEO | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Link profile
Hi All, I am doing a link profile audit I have few questions 1. Should i stop worrying about backlinks that i once had and now the websites is down or page is 404 2. The link is nofollow Also i have 60% of my site links few root link and many articles/blogs links pasted in sites without any anchor text, should i worry about them? Thanks
Technical SEO | | mtthompsons0 -
Correct linking to the /index of a site and subfolders: what's the best practice? link to: domain.com/ or domain.com/index.html ?
Dear all, starting with my .htaccess file: RewriteEngine On
Technical SEO | | inlinear
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.inlinear.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://inlinear.com/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.html
RewriteRule ^(.)index.html$ http://inlinear.com/ [R=301,L] 1. I redirect all URL-requests with www. to the non www-version...
2. all requests with "index.html" will be redirected to "domain.com/" My questions are: A) When linking from a page to my frontpage (home) the best practice is?: "http://domain.com/" the best and NOT: "http://domain.com/index.php" B) When linking to the index of a subfolder "http://domain.com/products/index.php" I should link also to: "http://domain.com/products/" and not put also the index.php..., right? C) When I define the canonical ULR, should I also define it just: "http://domain.com/products/" or in this case I should link to the definite file: "http://domain.com/products**/index.php**" Is A) B) the best practice? and C) ? Thanks for all replies! 🙂
Holger0 -
Internal Linking
Hello there, I own a "how to" website with 1000+ articles, and the number of articles is growing every day. Often some articles are easier to understand if I link a certain step to an article that was written before, because that article explains the step in more detail. Should I use "read here/read more" or the "title of the article I'm referring to" as anchor text? When is internal linking too much? Should I use nofollow?
Technical SEO | | FisnikSylka0 -
How much effect does number of outbound links have on link juice?
I am interested in your thoughts on the effect of number of outbound links (obls) on link juice passed? ie If a page linking to you has a high number of obls, how do you compute the effect of these obls and relative negative effect on linkjuice. In the event that there are three sites on which you have been offered the opportunity of a link Site A PA 30 DA50 Obls on page 10 Site B PA 40 DA50 Obls on page 15 Site C PA 50 DA50 Obls on page 20 How would you appraise each of these prospective page links (ignoring anchor text, relevancy, etc which will be constant) Is there a rule of thumb on how to compare the linkjuice passed from a site relative to its PA and the number of obls? Is it as simple as page with 10 obls passes 10x juice of page with 100 obls?
Technical SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
Is this a good link?
Found a .gov link to my website www.kars4kids.org. The url it links to is http://www.nyc.gov/cgi-bin/exit.pl?url=http://www.kars4kids.org/ which does eventually redirect to kars4kids. Will search engines see this as a link?
Technical SEO | | Morris770