Will Testimonial Backlinks Work?
-
Hey guys,
I am pretty new to the whole SEO thing.
I did have an idea though. There are things that I like, IE restaurants in my neighbourhood.
If I did a testimonial for say, my local pizza place that I really like, with a backlink to my site, would that be useful.
IE "Jimmys pizza makes the best pizza in the neighbourhood by far
-RafeTLous president http://www.mybacklink.com"Assuming the page has good domain authority would that be helpful?
-
Hi,
The example I quoted in my reply about Paul's pizza (it's not exactly the same - but quit close)
For the newspaper: if it's just an ad random links (e.g. in the footer) it doesn't look really natural. If the newspaper is featuring an article about a legal issue and it's quoting your law firm in the article, than the link would be quite natural.
For the retirement homes: Google is quite aware that if you're in a retirement home you have entered the last phase of your life; so it's not really unnatural for a retirement home to feature some articles on your final "bucket list" - which could include content on how to make a will. If on these articles they quote your law firm, or if the content is entirely written by your law firm, it would be quite logical to mention the original source (or even better - put a canonical url pointing to your site).
Basically - natural links are quite easy to detect. Just ask yourself: if no link building for SEO purposes existed, would the publisher include this link? If he would, it's almost certain that it's a good link. If he wouldn't, it's not really a good one.
rgds,
Dirk
-
I really appreciate the help!! Which one on the google page do you think it looks like?
So if I'm promoting a lawyer website, and I get a link from, say a newspaper, the newspaper is not about lawyers, so does that help?
What if I wrote content on everything you need to know if you are making a will, and I get links from retirement homes. These sites are also not about lawyers, so would this help?
-
With Penguin in mind, a link like this doesn't look real natural to me. Even if you don't pay for it, it still looks like paid link.
It would be different if this pizza place would have a blog, where they would discuss about their legal troubles with their neighbours, and they would mention what a terrific job your lawyer has done to defend them.
I refer again to the beginner's guide (sorry for that). Link techniques that used to be good and are considered bad practice now are
- Blog comments that are not moderated
- Press releases with optimized anchor text
- Article directories
- Guest post signatures
- Advertorials
- Embeddable widgets
- Infographic embeds
- User profile pages
- Guestbooks
- Forum signatures
- Directories that are not moderated
Source: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building/types-of-links
You also might want to check https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en - one of the (negative) examples is quite close to what you would like to do
- Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
_Thanks, that’s great info!
My advice would be - don't do it.
rgds
Dirk
-
Ok, i'm promoting lawyers.
So I wouldn't post a comment in the comments section.
I would contact the pizza place owner who knows me and say "Hey, I really like your pizza! I'll do a testimonial if you agree to make the link Follow"
So if I got a follow link for a lawyer website from a pizza place, would that be valuable assuming the pizza place has good domain authority?
-
Unless you're selling pizza's yourself, these links are not going to help you much
This strategy is not really going to work - most sites make links on testimonials and comments nofollow (just to avoid that other webmasters are just going to post comments to create links). Not that nofollow links are necessarily a bad thing (check https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/the-hidden-power-of-nofollow-links) - but these kind of nofollow links normally add no value.
You might want to check this link https://mza.seotoolninja.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building and all the resources you can find here: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/category/link-building
A lot of reading & studying to do - it might be a relief for you that even experts sometimes get it completely wrong http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-failures
Good luck,
Dirk
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
-
My backlinks are not showing
I have been building lots of backlinks to my website but when I decided to check them I saw just two. Please am I doing something wrong?
Link Building | | Briefwatch0 -
Outreach for backlinks
What are some of the best ways to reach out for back links? The goal is to get a link from their website to our root or an anchored text but what are some techniques and options to consider to make it beneficial for both parties?
Link Building | | Cfarcher0 -
Has anyone heard or worked with penwarriors.co
I had someone from penwarriors.co approach me about putting some content on my site. The content is good. It's unique. It's very relevant and any links out are reasonable. But when I started to look into it, they seem to be churning out a hell of a lot of content for the companies they're doing outreach for and the companies themselves don't seem to be very active on social. I can't find the person they are attributing a guest blog to and I can't find the person that I've been communicating with on linkedin etc. Something doesn't feel right. Any ideas? Simon
Link Building | | GrowTraffic0 -
Pr4 domain backlink from a blog post
I'm about to do a guest blog post on a pr4 domain. Will I be getting an actual pr4 backlink? I'm thinking since it's technically not going to be on the homepage forever since it's just a blog post and also a blog post has it's on page once you click on it I'm not going to get a pr4 backlink. Correct?
Link Building | | fbbcseo0 -
Beyond Guest Blogging, What Else Works Now?
Given the importance of editorial links & co-citation, beyond guest blogging what other high-value link-building tactics should I be looking at to boost organic search placings? Specifically, in Apr 2013 is there still mileage in directories (such as these on the SEOMoz list) or on this GetListed list; or in placing content on social sites such as Squidoo?
Link Building | | Jeepster0 -
A backlinks question
Hi all Could do with a second opinion on this one if anyone has a moment please. Recent Google updates have targeted overally optimised backlink profiles as they are clearly for seo purposes and not natural. The question I have is how does this relate to an ecommerce website? If I sell 'blue 1980 aged cheese' (I know nothing about cheese so perhaps not the best example!!) and I have a url on my shop domain.com/store/blue-1980-aged-cheese with the product name as the page title along with the domain name. If I were to get backlinks pointing to this page using the anchor of 'blue 1980 aged cheese' (and other variations of that, blue cheese, aged blue cheese etc) would this be considered to be too optimised? Given the page is about this item then surely it could be considered natural that people link using the product name, as well as using the site name and the domain url Any thoughts please Thanks, Carl
Link Building | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Good/Bad Backlinks - Penalties
Just a quick question from someone that is extremely new to this: If "G" penalizes sites for bad backlinks (low quality, spammy) then why are people not building these types of links towards the competitors that are currently outranking them? Or are they? and if they are, is it beneficial? (are your competitors dropping in rankings?) Seems like a fair question.... Any insight is appreciated
Link Building | | Prime850 -
Which backlink will be more useful?
Which bacllink will be most useful and gives me most juice? -link from all pages on the website (in footer), such as menu
Link Building | | ATCnik
-link from all pages on the website (in footer, display:none;), such as menu
-link from home page (footer)
-link from the page which have highest PR (PA) (footer)
-contextual-link from most relevant page on the site0