How important is the originating country of backlinks?
-
How important is it that you gain backlinks from websites in the same country you're targeting?
Scenario: You have a website targeting users in Japan. How important is it that backlinks to your website are from Japanese websites? Do you need a majority of links from Japanese websites to rank well, or will you do OK with 25% Japanese links and 75% links from other countries?
According to Majestic, sites for popular Japanese brands like tsutaya.co.jp and seiyu.co.jp get more links from US sites than from Japanese sites.
-
I agree with Tom. Backlinks can be from anywhere as long as they don't appear to be blatant spam. I tend to agree that a backlink serves a greater purpose than just link juice and may actually send relevant traffic and business to your company. I would try to target as many local links as possible, but branching out to a global mindset won't hurt at all.
-
It's by no means essential.
I've worked on a number of international sites and you quickly realise that while a website is setup with a geographical TLD and is fully served for that language's audience, the server is located in the US - where so much hosting is. Regardless, this has not stopped the site's ability to rank.
Similarly, evidence of links from a different country working can unfortunately be found in places like SAPE - the russian link network. I've seen countless of websites rank #1, #2 with links from these websites in Russia, Uzbekistan and so on - Google wouldn't be targeting these links if they didn't work.
However, my mindset has always been to acquire links from places that are going to send the most targeted and relevant traffic to your site. In the scenario you've given, this would most likely mean trying to earn as many Japanese backlinks as possible. Links from other places may increase organic visibility, but more often than not referring traffic from links you've earned can be far more qualified and convert more often - so I would aim to get them via links from the country.
Just my £0.02
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
-
What about a No-record backlink in the eye of Google
I have an uncertainty - when I make a backlink as a piece of SEO in some site when I reviewed similar couple of days after. It hasn't filed and I checked its robots record. It appearing Client specialist: Mediapartners-Google Disallow: User-Agent: * Disallow: However, is this make any backlink uphold or only this with the end goal of not ordering in google. I make it straightforward - "Is this sort of backlink creation my site Best Offset Smokers uphold my SEO action or Not?" In this No-record site. Flag Share
Link Building | | seotools1030 -
Backlinking and Redirect links
Can anyone please explain the real difference between backlinks, 301 links, and redirect links?which one is better to rank a website? i am looking for the help for one of my website lottery
Link Building | | murataft0 -
DA not increased as backlinks generated...
Hi,
Link Building | | p4pakao
I would like to discuss my issue as my site's some backlinks are generated but DA is still there. Can anyone make me understand the reason?0 -
Spammy backlinks are working?!
Hello, fellow MOZers. I just read this article of this guy (not myself, I promise 🙂 ) I never heard before: http://stream-seo.com/churn-burn-backlinks-case-study/ According to him SUPER spam is actually helping, and, according to him again, google punguin didn't knock it down either. It looks and sounds all very shady and salesy for all those tools he is mentioning (actually, not just mentioning, but linking to). At the same it looks impressive if it's true. My thoughts are that it's falsified/buttered article, otherwise, if everything he says is true, we would see direct correlation between ranking position and number of backlinks (linking domains). I've been struggling to resist the temptation to try some spammy techniques to get backlinks to see what happens, but, at the same time, my brain says not to be an idiot.
Link Building | | seomozinator1 -
What is the best backlink? Homepage or specific post?
I am working hard to get backlinks from other blogs by submitting deal tips. I am a deal blog so I am wondering - is it better to get a backlink to a specific post that will expire because it is a time sensitive deal or sale? Or is it better to get a backlink to my homepage? I focus on the best blog with PR of 7 and DA of 72 as well as others that are high up there. In case I am not being clear, which backlink is better? A. www.mysite.com B. www.mysite.com/awesome-sale-of-the-day Sometimes I won't have a choice but just wondering what I should focus on or if it even matters. Thanks!
Link Building | | dealblogger0 -
Do backlinks take effect as soon as they are crawled?
i have got 3 really good backlinks to a site of mine in the last month, however they have had no obvious effect yet. they are dofollow, all from county council websites, and I can see the backlinks in webmaster tools. does this mean that their seo affect has already been applied?
Link Building | | lethal0r0 -
Will Google penalize for backlinks on non-indexed pages?
Have a client who has a bunch of links from spammy sites that aren't even indexed by Google. Will Google penalize (i.e. Penguin) for backlinks from spammy sites that aren't indexed? I'm guessing "Yes, Google still crawls non-indexed sites and may penalize the sites linked to from the banned site." Anyone have any data or experience with this? Anyone have a non-indexed or banned site? Does Google still crawl it?
Link Building | | AdamThompson0 -
How to increase the backlink count?
Hi i am new to blogging and new to SEOMOZ so any one can help me how to increase my backlink count
Link Building | | Trendymobiles0