Can too many high PR links can hurt SEO
-
I recently accuired about 10 PR 4- 5 for my website after getting mostly PR 1-2 for the past 6 months.
After a couple of day my rankings not only didn't go up, but actually went down really drasticly for many keyphrases that i used to rank at the top 3.
Should i keep building those high PR links in the same fast pace, should i slow down?
Or maybe i should even those out with some low PR link?
-
I am often amazed at the rankings that can be obtained from only a few good links.
-
Absolutely. You're spending time doing low quality links and you're spending time getting high quality links. One of these two is a valuable investment of your time, the other one isn't. Perhaps it's time to stop link building and work on content a bit?
-
I agree... I think that google is looking at your overall "link profile". If that profile is made up completely of link drops on blogs, low-value directory submissions and links that look like they are "paid"... then your rankings are on risky ground.
I would rather have a dozen good natural links than 1200 low-value links from spamming and automatic directory submissions.
-
Your risk is not in PR itself but in your link building style. I would avoid buying links from known link sellers, blogrolls that go out to totally irrelevant topics, paid editorials etc. Natural link growth is characterised by both high and low quality links at the same time and in different proportions.
Having only high PR links that look like they were purchased can hurt you if you get manually reviewed by a member of Google search quality team.
-
I'm pretty new to all the SEO process (about 6 months..)
EGOL, you understood the situation
I also forgot to mention that those links had a link in a post and a blogroll link..
When i checked it out with yahoo site explorer i found out that those blogroll link are from EACH PAGE of the site which makes a one link in a site to hundreds, even thousands of links from every page that site has!
Should i try and delete those links?
-
If you have a great blog post or new article that is successful at Reddit, Slashdot and other community sites you could naturally get a lot of high PR links in a single day.
However, when I read your post I see..... "Should i keep building those high PR links in the same fast pace, should i slow down?".... That statement sounds like you might be getting unnatural links which to Google could be seen as manipluative - and run the risk of being devalued. That will be a loss in the time required to acquire them and possibly the cost if they are purchased.
So, maybe your better question should be... "Will this high PR links be a long term asset to my site?"..... vs... will they be a spend that brings zero value.
-
As long as these links are acquired in a natural and valid way, I wouldn't worry too much about them.
If you had acquired a couple hundred links in a short time, when your website had only ten before, that looks unnatural, which isn't good. If you already have thousands of valid backlinks, a couple hundred extra won't hurt you as this fits the natural pattern. Besides, PageRank isn't a great metric to base any decision on these days anyway as it seems (http://www.finishjoomla.com/blog/33/why-pagerank-lost-its-value-for-seo/).
In regards to the rankings: I personally think these are either natural swings or there is more at play than just a handful of new and naturally acquired backlinks.
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
-
Internal Links - How to Increase them, Categories not being considered as Internal Links
Hi All: As per my understanding, Internal Equity Passing Links is a metric defining PA. Now my website has around 65 internal links while few of my competitors have more than 180 links. I am unable to understand how to increase the internal links passing equity on my website, because I can see, more number of links on my website than my competitors but opensiteexplorer does not show that. I am really confused. Please help out if anyone knows something about this issue. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | sidjain4you0 -
Do links from the second page of an article pass link juice?
I have been writing for some sites with a high overall page rank and the articles are being viewed as quality by search engines as well. However, they usually put a link to my site at the very end of the article and then break the article down into two pages to increase ad revenue. It seems that I'm not getting much credit for that link even if the page has a high SEOmoz/PR score. I want to know if I am getting the benefit from these links. If not, how do I make sure I get the most bang, even if my link is on a second page of the article? Here is an example of what I mean: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/08/22/kanban-for-customers-how-to-increase-transparency-in-your-business/
Link Building | | LawrenceWatkins0 -
SEO Link building from zero in a practical world
Hi, I'm a web developer with good knowledge of SEO friendly web development etc. When it comes to link building Im not quite sure where to start. I have read heaps of articles about building links, but can you guys please tell me how to start building links from 'zero' in a practice world? Im not even sure whether I have anyone who can link to my website or my client's website either 🙂 Thanks heaps.
Link Building | | Uds0 -
Can I start SEO before finishing my website?
Hi, I'm new to SEO and websites. I'm slowly building a website at the moment. I was wondering if I could set up a blog at the domain name I will use for my final website and begin doing SEO. Eg. I set up a blog using a CMS like Squarespace and begin blogging at domain.com/blog (with links to the domain.com/blog from the domain.com home page) and inbound links point to the domain.com 'front page'. And then add the design of the 'front page' of the website using Squarespace at a later stage eg. domain.com. Is this a good idea? Will it work? I'm anxious to get started on SEO. Thanks!
Link Building | | doblstp0 -
Can Off-Topic Guest Posts on Quality Sites Hurt You?
Based on recent changes in Google, do you think that an off-topic guest post on a high quality domain will help you or hurt you or have no effect. An example would be if you published a guest article on SEOMoz about SEO but your website sells basketball shoes.
Link Building | | ProjectLabs1 -
What are the new ways of Link Building which will get quality links?
Hi We are doing following kinds of Link Building: 1. Article marketing 2. Directory Submission 3. Guest Blogging 4. Press Release submission 5. Infographics (Viral Marketing) I know blog commenting and links from discussion forums are considered as greyhat / blackhat by google. So I want suggestions on some other ethical(Whitehat SEO) ways of Link Building to get quality Links. Also suggest me some Free article submission sites which give " dofollow-links" Thank You
Link Building | | Virrtuo0 -
How Many Outbound Links Should I Maintain
I continue to get link exchange invitations. Apart from the fact that the links I connect to should be relevant, is there an ideal no. of outbound links that I should maintain - or maybe a ratio or something? Should I even consider their page ranks - and do I have that right when mine is not that high (the last question may be stupid but I still want know). Thanks.
Link Building | | haekel0 -
Can anyone recommend a great link building firm?
I'm looking for a reputable firm that builds high quality links to a high quality site. These links should be located on a page with high Page Rank/Page Authority and should also have high quality links pointing to the page. I am not looking for forum posts/blog comments or directory listings. Can anyone recommend a firm that they use personally who specializes in this? I've had a look through the SEOMoz directory, which is great, but if anyone could provide some recommendations to go along with that, it would be appreciated! Thanks.
Link Building | | torontojon0