Why don't some external links "count"?
-
A car-dealer client advertises through DexKnows, and the entry includes a link to the client's website. That link is not listed as a linking domain through OpenSite Explorer for the client's site. A competing car dealer also advertises through DexKnows, but that link is counted as a linking domain for the competitor. Why the difference? (I'm new and still learning -- linkbuilding appears to be my weakness.) Thank you!
-
Thank you thank you thank you! I think something SEOmoz has does that, too, but in my brain-overloaded state, it didn't occur to me how to use it. I feel so enlightened -- you have made my day!
-
Good question!
I use a browser extension in Firefox called SEO for Firefox. It's free and one of the many things it will do is highlight "followed" and "no followed" links in different colors so you can quickly see which is which. I highly recommend it. It also will catch broken links. It's very handy!
-
That helps a lot! Thank you! Do you mind me asking, how did you know that Dex links are "no follow"? Or is that one of your trade secrets?
-
Hi again. I did a little further investigating. It appears that nearly all links that go out to business Websites from DexKnows are "no follow." This means you aren't going to benefit from them as inbound links. However, I discovered that the links to a company's Website inside the company's Mobile site profile are followed. It appears your client's competitor has figured out where the followed links are. There may be other places, but there is definitely that one.
Does you client have a mobile site and have they completed their Mobile site profile in DexKnows? If not, I'd recommend it so they can get that inbound link.
-
Thanks for the answer! I did check it, and the link from Dex goes right where it's supposed to.
-
Hi The Optimizer, Have you checked your link at DexKnows to make sure they set it up right? The reason I asked is that you made me curious. So, I went to DexKnows for Tacoma, WA, clicked on the "Auto Dealers" link (http://www.dexknows.com/local/automotive/vehicle_sales/auto_dealers/geo/c-tacoma-wa/) and was taken to a page listing a bunch of dealerships. I clicked the "Website" icon for the very first dealer on the list (Austin's Pro-Max Automotive Repiar Centers)and I received a 404 error. Either their link wasn't set up right, or they don't have a Website.) If your situation is similar, this would explain why your link isn't showing up in your reports.
I hope this helps!
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
-
Backlinks on sites that aren't relevant, how does google determine relevancy?
I have a competitor who I've talked about on here before about how they passed us in ranking for our main keywords and that they were a new site ( less than 6 months old ). Well after further digging a few things were found out: Our site seems to have a penguin penalty causing our keywords ( a group of synonyms as well ) from ranking better than rank 30. As well our competitor has been using this weird backlink tactic of using SEO sites ( a friend? ), a parent site to prop it up ( footer links and others ) as well has links inside articles that aren't relevant as in having a commercial niche page inside a lawyer site page talking about phone dialing. Then the low DA directory sites. I'm curious as to if penguin algo will catch them once it comes out, if not penguin a manual review would certainly catch their tactics, but this site is doing everything else other than proper SEO. What do you think?
Link Building | | Deacyde0 -
When we use 'link:' for who get the link, how come google show us the same domain as a link.
the search result show the domain of its own. what is is? and is it meaningful as a link?
Link Building | | onedaykorea0 -
When buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? OSE not showing links
when buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? Sometimes the open site explorer doesn't show any links to the domain, especially if the domain is parked. Obviously a domain for sale with 1000 domains linking to it has lots of SEO Value right? Thanks mozzers!
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Any benefits to having Wikipedia links now they are 'no-followed' (apart from traffic and natural link prof.)
I see that Wikipedia outbound links are all no-followed, is there any benefit (aside from the traffic) for having links here now ? For example is their co-citation and co-occurance benefits. I know there is without the links since from seeing previous Moz content about this saying Google getting good at connecting brand/s and topic mentions on a page (without any links) so appreciate Wikipedia is still good for that sort of thing. And a no-followed link is obviously good for the potential traffic. But is there any additional SEO benefit to having a no followed link on a wikipedia entry/stub too ? (aside from its contribution to your no-followed links which in turn contribute to a natural looking link profile) Cheers Dan
Link Building | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Why aren't my blog links counting?
In our blog posts, we frequently include links to our product pages on our official site. However, the blog root domain is not showing up on Open Site Explorer for any of these product pages. In other words, why isn't Google counting our blog as a unique root domain? If it helps, here is the link to the blog: http://jampaper.wordpress.com/ Thanks for your help!
Link Building | | jampaper0 -
Why aren't my backlinks showing up?
I've recently switched hosting my site on www.vamospaella.com to www.vamospaella.co.uk (using a 301 redirect) and I've been building backlinks. According to Majesticseo, vamospaella.co.uk has 38 backlinks with 8 referrring domains and vamospaella.com has 15 external backlinks from 11 referring domains. Some of these backlinks date back a month, while others have shown up in the last week. However, I have seen no improvement in my Google rankings for my keywords. Why is this?
Link Building | | RMelly0 -
Searching for Quality "Follow" Back Links
I'm in a highly competitive national market where the top sites have links from between 325 and 1300 unique linking root domains, therefore, you have to have an aggressive approach just to get on the map. (I'm at 317) If we were talking about needing 50 good links, I could take the time to cultivate relationships, get to know people, and get 1 or 2 great links from each webmaster, but the scale of the challenge is out of control. My competitors, and myself, seem to all be getting links in the following ways: Hoards of directory links. Some high quality paid links from industry sites ($2,400 per each link per year) and hundreds from 9-$49 per year. At the bottom of the list of most all my competitors, there appears to be some links from their early beginnings that were reciprocal linking arrangements. Blogs where they submitted articles and have good links back to their sites. Paid ads on sites all over the internet that link back with their specific key words. Some from relevant sites, but mostly from sites that would give them a good deal and have high enough traffic and/or page rank. Blog comments with a link back to their site; sometimes with good anchor text and sometimes you're forced to have to use your web site address as the anchor text or even your name. (Does that even do any good?) My dilema is where to find 1,000 good places to get links and I don't do black hat? I can write good quality comments on blogs from a wide variety of industries, but most are now eliminating the possibility of using my anchor text other than my web site and my name. As I scour the playing field, it almost appears that it has become a "pay to play" proposition as far as getting links everywhere other than writing good blog articles, but then what good does it do to have 500 blog articles coming from a handful of linking root domains? You're just stuffing the ballot box! As for me, I'm in the teens with all the high value phrases I need and must come up with a better strategy for the home stretch. In all the other varied statistical measurements that I see on SEO Moz, I'm no lower than #5 out of the top 10 competitors in any of them except Alexa rank. So, I'm close but it seems so far away! Would appreciative and be grateful for some wisdom from the community! Lowell
Link Building | | lwnickens1 -
How can I check a website to see if it is "nofollow"?
I'm a little new to SEO, so maybe this is obvious to some . . . I'm attempting to build backlinks by submitting articles, posting on forums etc. I just wrote my forst article for ezine and submitted it. I was feeling pretty good about myself until I mentioned it to someone trying to sell me their SEO services and he said that ezine articles are considered "nofollow" on all their links. Well, that was pretty frustrating to hear! It got me wondering, how many of these other sites have all their posts and blogs listed as "nofollow"? Is there a way for me to figure it out ahead of time? Obviously, there are only so many hours in the day and I would rather focus on posting on sites that will actually help me build backlinks! Thanks for your help in advance!
Link Building | | damon12120