Linking Out To External Sites
-
Hi, All
If I have created a (website, logo, email campaign) for a client and written an article about it with screen shots on my website and link to them with a (do-follow) link how does Google see the (do-follow) link?
Regards to the sites they have one link in the footer on the home page, which is a (do-follow) back to our site. Also, the websites are not in my Niche.
-
Hey Chris,
Don't get me wrong, I am with you in leaving behind the high risks, my frustration comes more from Google's SERP results and behavior on spam sites than what you say, but I dont think a footer link for a web design company produce any sort of threat or places a site on a "churn and burn" status or even high risk. Then again I bring MNS, quick cash in, affiliates and spam in mind when I see "churn and burn" so it might be me.
-
Yiannis, I agree with you that anchor text has a lot to do with tripping the filter and that some industries are cesspools of spam. But, as a replay to a new SEO practitioner's question, I'll stand by what what I said--it won't get anyone in trouble algorithmically. Yes, I know I sound like Jill Whalen (and Matt Cutts) but the longer I'm in this business, the less I have a problem with that and the more I'm willing to leave the higher risk stuff to those who still have a few sites they're willing to churn and burn.
-
Hi, Yiannis
The anchor text for linking out to the clients is either (visit brand name or visit the website here) . For linking back to my site it is (website by brand name).
-
Hi, Chris
What you said makes sense and if I am reading your post correctly I am better of making all the sites I build (no-follow) back to me because as you said it is a link I am in control of and if I had 100 sites that is 100 (do-follow) links, which if they gain trust and Authority, could make up a part of my link profile.
In theory is this manipulating the search result having links from my clients as a (do-follow), because I am gaining a (do-follow) link with the only purpose of helping my site and in my control?
Also I will make all my internal links (no-follow) to my clients.
-
Sorry to break the Matt Cutts buble here but while I agree with you Kered, this is more theory than practise...or to be precise, it leans more towards the exception than the rule.
For me it always depends on the keyword, the niche and which keywords you target. i have seen industry sectors (for example: "web design" related keyphrases) where indeed what you say is true and others (such as "pest control" related keyphrases) where black hat, 2003 SEO and corruption are present to such an extend it makes me sick. And I am not talking about sort term, unless sort term is 1 year and 7 months I am monitoring this industry and counting, on a sector where top 10 makes thousands of dollars per month.
I wouldn't nofollow any of the links or if I had to I would nofollow the link I send to the client web site. I would keep the footer link and bear in mind 2 things. 1) If you use anchor text you play with the keyword % ratio so be careful or put your brand name there 2) its a footer link, thus not much value.
but nofollow it? No i wouldnt.
-
Hi, Martijn
So I am better of making all links to my work (no-follow) from my website and just leave the link in the footer of the sites I build as a (do-follow) or (no-follow)?
-
Kered,
Just nofollow them and you'll be OK. Don't look at links that you control as an option to help you build your domain authority. Agencies, tend to lean heavily on the sorts of links your talking about because they're so easy to acquire over time. But let me tell you, I've seen hundreds of agencies briefly rise to the top of the search results on the strength of back links from clients, only to fall off the cliff once some threshold has been passed.
You're not going to get dinged for the kind of link you're talking about if it is a singular occurrence or if they make up a small percentage of your total link profile. The problem tends to be though, that one leads to two; two leads to four; four leads to eight and eventually they outweigh all your other links and then, boom, you take the fall.
-
It probably will be seen as a low quality link back to your site and to their site as it probably will be seen as reciprocal. Not sure for what kind of advice you are looking here.
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
-
Creating Tables with Multiple Links
Hello, Is Creating Tables with Multiple Links and using schema markup bad SEO? For example I have a real estate website which I have a hierarchy of home page -> County pages -> city pages-> blog posts.. However at the bottom of the county pages I list the city pages i serve under a table with links..
On-Page Optimization | | sqc0 -
Company name in Site Meta description?
Ok. So I know that you should have your company name in the site title, but is it all that important in the site description? The reason I ask is because I am competing with another company for the #1 position (I was number 1, now #2) that has an 8 character name and mine is 22 taking away from a great deal of real estate in my 150-160 character site description in which I could provide additional information describing my company. Should I remove my name in the site description enabling me to use more descriptive keywords and actionable text such as (Find, research, contact, professional, info) etc. Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | photoseo10 -
Site Duplicated despte redirect
Buon pormeriggio from I can smell Whaler Chips Through the window Wetherby,
On-Page Optimization | | Nightwing
When you Google Thakray Medical Museum 2 sites appear in the SERPS, yikes! Now the .org site is no longer hosted & point to the .co.uk site when clicked on but in a nutshell I wantto get rid of the .org site
as illustrated here: http://s216.photobucket.com/user/zymurgy_bucket/media/two-versions-same-website-yikes_zps182e6e12.jpg.html Actions taken so far:
1: Wembaster tools re index request for the .co.uk site
2: Redirect configured to point .org site to the .co.uk What else is left apart from updating the xml site but ultimating i do not want to see the the .org site but it doesnt exist (well id did a few month back but is no longer hosted so i am told) Any insights welcome,
GRazie tanto,
David0 -
Webmaster Tools - How your data is linked?
This may be an easy questions, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere and I never really looked into it before. In google webmaster tools, in the dashboard there is the section that says "How Your Data Is Linked". What does that refer to? Is that just using internal link anchor text, external link anchor text or a combination of both? I am pretty sure that it is a combination of both, but I just want to make sure before making some internal link changes so that the most common anchor text is no longer "Prices" and "Sign up". Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | rayvensoft0 -
Should I link my 3 E-Commerce sites?
Good Morning, I have 3 E-Commerce sites that all sell the same products, but have unique content on them (unique text, unique urls, same products).... Up until now, I have not put any links from one to any of the others... I just started to wonder about that since these are all related to the same industry, and are owned by 1 company, what would be the downside to linking them... Does anyone have any advice on if I should link to each site from the other 2 sites? Also, if you think I should be linking them, please advise how you would do it (on which pages, how many links, anchor texts, etc...) Thanks a lot!
On-Page Optimization | | Prime850 -
Site wide 301 or canonical links.
Hi guys, I'd like add code to my header file to specify www. as opposed to just http:// for the canonical links across my entire site. How can I do this? I'd like it to be site wide code that I can just add to my header.php file which is included across the site.
On-Page Optimization | | absoauto0 -
SSL sites and SEO
I'm seeing a lot about how SSL sites can negatively affect SEO from the analytics perspective, but if duplicate content issues are addressed and load times are OK, what else is there to worry about? Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | PerfectPitchConcepts0 -
Too many links
Hello, sorry question 2! I run the report it says we have 120 links roughly per page. I know this is bad however I have question about an oscommerce site. I identified some links that can be deleted for example Product picture is a link then the title and then its says details (so I can delete the details and that should save about 15 links) Now I really can only delete the breadcrumb for example car>>ford>>spareparts>>engine If I delete the breadcrumb I would lose four links would you say thats a good idea? or leave the breadcrumb due to the seo benefits. Many thanks for your help. Sonja
On-Page Optimization | | reallyitsme0