Backlink Badges - Good or Bad
-
One of my free tools for creating web pages automatically inserts a back-link to my home page as a footer, or 'badge' from the free web pages it creates. Hence there are tens of thousands of low quality sites out there linking back to my home page. While this was great ten years ago, Google looks on things differently these days. So the question is, will Google penalize me for this? Does the negative outweigh the positive - should I remove the insertion of back-link badges from the product?
Thanks,
Peter
-
This is what I'd do:
- Use the brand name in the anchor text
- Allow people to remove them (or, to be extra safe, turn it off by default and prompt people to turn it on)
- Keep the links followed.
You could definitely debate the last point, but as long as you're not paying people for the link itself or trying to manipulate Google's algorithm it shouldn't be a big deal. If you're extremely risk averse, go ahead and add nofollow to the links.
-
Thanks for the helpful responses!
Peter
-
First what you need to control is anchor texts. If the tool you use uses one commercial keyword as anchor text for all sites it is a big problem for your link profile potentially. For a start check your backlink profile and see the anchors (use MajesticSEO or Ahrefs for this). For natural profile most used anchors will be brand names, url as anchor or domain name as anchor.
-
Hi Peter,
It is widely known now that any kind of compensation given for a link is against Google TOS (that includes affiliate links, "powered by" links, PRs, sponsored posts, etc). All of them should be not followed, in that way, you still get the people that may want the services you offer without affecting Google rankings.
There are some rel alternatives that could help Google recognize those links and not count them towards your rankings (or counting them differently). Take the case of Wordpress, most of their hosted blogs have a "powered by" link, but they use rel="generator" which helps Google distinguish between spam and "powered by" links.
Anyway, there are 2 sides of the coin here. Google said that affiliate links should be nofollow, but I still see sites that have hundreds of thousands of links (over 95% of their link profile) from affiliates, which are followed and not blocked by anything and the site ranks 1st.
I would recommend to nofollow those links, but that is my approach. I even created a javascript method to insert our affiliate links (including the nofollow tag), still, we are ranked 10th on the same query that the site I mentioned above ranks 1st.
Hope this answer helps you at least decide what is your approach and what to do...
-
I really can't wait to hear people opinions on this. If it works without a penalty, I will try it.
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
-
Sometimes I write a post for another site and then post the first 1/3rd on my site to help promote it. Is this a bad idea?
Sometimes I write a post for another site and then post the first 1/3rd on my site to help promote it. Is this a bad idea? When I do that should I be adding a canonical link to the original post? Should I have /make sure the 3rd party site does something? Is there anything else I should do? Thanks in advance.
Branding | | mcarroll0 -
How to turn a good blog into link bait
Hello, I don't really believe in spending a lot of time link building (and maybe that's a limitation of mine). I believe, at least for the small businesses I've been running, that producing targeted, thorough, very very helpful, useful, unique, authority based, knowledgable, transparent content is what most of the time should go into. I'm sure there are many exceptions in industry and company size. We use a blog and feature it really big and solid on the home page. So we're making a blog that has the qualities above (useful, unique ... transparent). How, while we're doing the writing, can we make the content also be good link bait? We need an awesome link profile. Also, what free easy afterward social or email outreach am I not including to maximize exposure (The only content marketing I do is posting blog posts right now on Facebook and Google+)? What would you do with the first $100 in this context? The first $300? (We're low budget always) Thanks, Bob
Branding | | BobGW0 -
Is a press release a bad idea?
We've never sent out a press release before using one of the services, and thought it might finally be time. Then I saw that Google seems to be calling services like PR Newswire out. "Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites." https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en So, is it worth it to spend a few hundred bucks to distribute a press release, or am I better off just publishing it on my blog for my blog writing service and promoting it all the regular ways?
Branding | | scodtt0 -
Considering Switch to old Domain - Any Bad Karma?
So here is the issue. I am working with a company that used to have a branded domain. Then they split the domain into two separate keyword rich domains and tried to change branding to match the keyword rich domains. This made for a really long brand name that is difficult to actually rank for as it is mostly hi traffic key terms and also created brand confusion because all of the social accounts still operate under the old brand name. We are considering a new brand initiative and going back to the original brand name as it better meets our business objectives (they still get traffic from branded searches under the old brand) and the old branded web domain. My question is if there is any added risk in going back to an old domain that has been forwarded for the past 2 years to the new domain? I know the risks and problems of a domain name change, but I am not as certain about the added complication of moving back to an old domain and essentially reversing the flow of 301's. Any thoughts? Cheers!
Branding | | prima-2535090 -
Using Alt Text in stock photography good?
Hello, I got a client who told me that he bought his images from a stock photography website. I know it looks awful and all, but the client can't afford a photographer to get some decent pics. So, How positive it is to use Alt Text on images that aren't yours? The purpose of using alt text properly is to get traffic from an imaged based search right? So if the business shows up with some stock photography it looks kinda bad. Is it worth optimizing images in this case? Or just leave em without optimizing? Changing pics isn't an option. Thanks
Branding | | Eblan0 -
Is having two websites that sell most of the same products a good idea?
Hi - Please read this in full before you answer. I currently own a website that sells kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities that match the kitchens. This website has been operational since Arpil 2009 and we have built good rankings over the past 3 years. The site is operated on the Volusion platform (my mistake from the beginning, but we're kind of stuck now). We are in the process of designing a new website on the Magento platform - everything will be 100% different from look, speed, the way our customers shop, content, product skus, etc. The original plan was to keep the same domain but implement 301 redirects for subpages (subpage urls would have to change) and shut down the Volusion site and transfer the domain name to the Magento site. Our current website does make money right now and we would hate to lose rankings (even if only temporarily) during the switch or have something go wrong. What I am now thinking is keeping our current website on Volusion where it is currently making money and having the new Magento site have a new name/domain. The sites would sell most of the same products (the Magento site would sell more types of vanities and accessories though). The two sites would have different email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. Is it a bad idea to try and rank two websites selling pretty much the same thing? We have competitors out there that sell the same products as us, I would just prefer to compete with myself rather then someone else. Another issue is our name, one of our competitors names is extremely close to ours and we rank for pretty much all of the same keywords and customers get us mixed up all the time. This other site would have a different name (one that makes more sense). I want to make a decision that will not come back and bite us later. I know there are a lot of bigger sites that operate tons of niche sites, and of these website could eventually be similar to that. I really appreciate your help and guidance! Thanks
Branding | | tyler7560 -
Social Bookmarking services any good?
Do you guys use any social bookmarking services to help promote your website? Any of them worth using?
Branding | | TinaGammon0 -
Good PR Distrobution Services?
Are there press release distribution services that you Mozzers would recommend? I see a lot of, "don't use this service, this service or this service", but I rarely see anything touting good PR release services. Followup Question: Are these services still effective after Penguin? I am being much more careful about anchor text (inserting a lot of branded or phrase match instead of just head terms). Are there other ways to be effective but also cautious when using these services? Thanks for your help!
Branding | | CJSmiles0