Avvo.com: Are links in the contribution area bad for SEO?

[mgordon]

Hello all and thank you for taking the time to read my question.

I am struggling with a client of mine. I have done just about everything that I can think of that has worked on other sites. Banging my head up against the wall here.

He is VERY active in the contribution area of Avvo.com (answering questions and making guides). His site use to rank very well but now it can't be found at all. One of the things that caught my attention is the way he would leave his citation in his answers for AVVO. He would leave a direct link to his website. Since his rankings have dropped I have advised him to stop. Do you think Google is treating them as spam? His link profile is small >1000 links but half of them are from AVVO

I was wondering if anyone else any experience with this?

Thanks in advance

[jnfere]

No, you cannot edit Avvo answers.   I suppose you can ask the folks at Avvo to just remove all of client's answers. No idea whether they will do it for you. I have had them remove an answer or three for me, so it can't hurt to ask.  Not sure how your client will feel about you doing that, of course.

[mgordon]

Agreed. Its gonna be a long night. Thanks

[mgordon]

Thanks for the reply. The links are set to nofollow but as you mentioned I am still skeptical.  There is no way to edit the answer from what I can tell so far. Not sure how I can eliminate the links now.

Pass the coffee... I am gonna be here a while.

[jnfere]

Avvo provides only one follow link, and that is in the person's profile.  Links in answers are nofollow. As a result, answering questions on Avvo should not harm a site.

I answer a lot of questions on Avvo and it hasn't hurt my firm's site. I often put relevant links in the link section of my answers. For example, if I am answering a question about medical malpractice, I might put a link to a page I wrote on the basic requirements for a medical malpractice case.  However, I do not put links to my firm in every answer. I only use links when I think the person might be a potential client for my firm and I would like to guide him/her to my firm's site.

I agree with irvingw that your client may well be doing this sort of thing all over the web, which might be the source of the problem. In addition, if your client is adding a general non-useful link back to his website, he might be violating Avvo's terms of service.

I see a lot of disavowing in your future.

[irvingw]

If the links are set to NoFollow, it shouldn't have any impact. However, many SEO's feel that excessive links can set off a a spam trigger even if they are set to Nofollow. If the links are set to follow, than I would certainly be concerned if you had money keywords as your anchor text links. I would edit all the articles and eliminate all the links. Avvo lets the lawyer link to their website so adding these links in their answers isn't necessary at all. I suspect that this lawyer probably utilized this same linking strategy across other web channels. Good luck cleaning this all up.