Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Googles stance on Back Links via a Badge/Form
-
Hey guys,
Does anyone know what Google's stance is on backlinks that come via a form, WordPress theme or badge. For example if I offer website security and provide badges for websites that are malware clean (with a back link to my website) and 100 websites sign up to my website will this be deemed as bad practice in Google's eyes?
Also if I create a free WordPress theme with a backlink to myself?
The second question sounds like I'm providing content for a link which seems okay but the first one can go either way.
Thanks
-
Thanks Travis!
-
Thanks Wiqas!
-
Hello,
This is more than tricky. I have witnessed websites that are ranking high doing the same practices (Most of Internet Marketing Companies, Web Design Companies, Themes, Plugins etc) but such link schemes have costed thousands and thousands of websites.
Here is example of one big brand victimized recently by such link schemes
There are hundreds of such examples. So if you like to move this way
- Use Non Money Anchor (May be Brand Name)
- Make sure to turn link into "Nofollow"
I strongly agree with Travis! Nice advice in deed!
I hope that this will help!
-
These would likely be deemed a link scheme unless the links are nofollow. We can bring up a number of examples where sites appear to get away with these tactics, but followed widgets and footer links are definitely high risk. If you genuinely want exposure for your site, nofollow the links and make sure they don't contain 'money terms'. (e.g. Free Malware Scan)
Both of these tactics have been done to death. A lot of sites have been penalized due to dofollow links in themes, widgets, plugins and badges. If you still want to do this, I would strongly suggest using a nofollow attribute on the link.
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
-
When conducting a link building strategy does it matter the country the link is from?
We are a UK business and if we have links mostly from US based blogs and websites does this penalise us. The links are from relevant websites and topics. Should we be focusing on .co.uk sites
Link Building | | Caffeine_Marketing1 -
Does Google Groups and Google Community links count?
Hello Everyone. I noticed when I added a few links from Google Groups and Google Communities. It has a do follow? Does that mean it help your SERPS? Thanks for you help?
Link Building | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT0 -
How to remove back links from third party website??
Hi Guys, I checked my website back-links and found some bad links. Now i just want to remove links from third party website. I know two methods as mentioned below: Disallow bad links from Google Webmaster Contact to webmaster and remove them I tried both of the above methods but not get success.Is there any other method to solve this issue??
Link Building | | RuchiPardal0 -
Link Detox and Link Removal
I have a question about which links to remove after running a link detox from Link Research Tools. First a little back story. I had had an SEO company link building for one of the websites I own. But I have recently stopped working with them. In the last month my rankings have near dropped off the charts. I have just recently gotten access to Google webmaster tools and noticed an unnatural link warning from back in March. So yesterday I ran link detox and it reported 19 toxic links, 120 suspicious links, and 24 healthy links. It's rather obvious that I should remove all of the toxic links. They all from sites that have been deindexed by google. But my question is a about the suspicious links. What should my criteria be for removing them? Am I better off removing them all and leaving my site with only 24 healthy links or should I personally comb through them and remove only the worst of the worst so that I leave my site with a few more links? I'd really like to get the site ready to resubmit to google as soon as I can. Thoughts? yyCOf.png
Link Building | | CobraJones950 -
What's Angela/Paul link profile?
Hi, Very new to this and appreciate your time to read and answer my question. What's Angela/Paul link profile? and what should I look out for if someone is offering to provide this type of link building to me?
Link Building | | nojan0 -
Image only badges giving link juice!?!?
I see some chatter about badges, but no clear definition. A collegue of mine instituted badges on clients website, but these badges are only an image w/ hyperlink; no textual content. He is confident that this has worked successfully before as a link building strategy, which blew my mind. I thought we needed some text, and obviously optimizes anchor text for biggest benefit. Are these simple badges helpful, or do we need some html in there!? He also routes them through bit.ly to track impressions and clicks.. does that have any effect as well? Thanks!
Link Building | | SwissNinja0 -
How many links per week is too fast in link building?
For a new website/blog how many links per week looks suspicious or hurt the rankings?
Link Building | | aaran1