Panda Update: Isn't a link still a link?
-
I was doing some link building and some SEO's said that the Panda update affected many websites. I am going to use eZineArticles.com as my example. EzineArticles was affected by the Panda update and does not show up in the SERPs as much as before. But they still have doFollow Links coming from the articles I am submitting.
QUESTION: Regardless if EzineArticles was affected by the Panda Update, isn't a "Follow Link" still a "Follow Link" OR am I completely wasting my time on this devalued website?
Edit: Yes I know a PR 0 page is not as valuable as a PR 9 page. I am asking from the standpoint of the affected Panda Update domains overall.
-
I agree with you 100%.
-
Shawn, I agree with you that EZine Articles are crap now and I would not desire a link from that site. I look back now in horror at my response from early 2011, but Google has changed a lot over the past year. For quite some time, Ezine Article links held value and helped sites to rank higher in SERPs. Those days are gone.
-
Ezine Articles is now looked at as a trashy, spammy website, and the links from the "author bio" area hold no value. I have seen first hand, these links destroy some of my clients rankings. After I emailed Ezine and had them remove all the articles for that client, they ranked well again. This is an example of how lame links from article directories are. They offer "platinum" and "diamond" statuses to entice the author to write more articles for status points. This is all propaganda, and should be ignored. I would not waste any time in the ezinearticles.com domain. Just an SEO professionals opinion though.
-SEO (Shawn Eric Olson)
-
Hey Mike,
While this might be what it is meant for, it has been more often used for the backlinks in the author profile area. The more articles, the more links.
-
Where were you when I was selling diamonds?
-
EGOL,
I know how Google values a link. Leave 1 billion dollars in unmarked bills in the public parks waste basket at 1:00 A.M. and I will send the exact method to you...
Or... just pay me $129.00 a month and we will guarantee you the FIRST PAGE of Google.
-
Good discussion. I have a time crunch, so right to my 2 cents. Isn't the real point of publishing on E Zine is to have a well written article republished on other sites, and therefore the juice is not from e zines but the sites that pick up the article?
-
If the pages where those links exist are in the Google index then I am betting that some value will be passed - even if the pages currently register PR0 on the toolbar. The question is how much value and what type of value.
If they are indexed then each of these links will pass a tiny amount of pagerank. However, we know that pagerank in itself does not rank a website.
If you believe that Google passes some measure of trust with a link, then I am betting that the trust associated with a link from Berkeley will be nice but that Ezine will past almost nothing. This is because Ezine links to crap but Berkeley mainly links to quality. Lots of people might disagree with this idea of "trust"... but, just saying here my opinion of the relative value of these links.
-
EGOL, let's take this scenario. I have one link with PR 0 coming from Berkeley.edu and the other link with PR 0 coming from EzineArticles.com. BOTH links pass zero Page Rank. I don't get the link juice from the DA 86 from Berkeley nor the 91 DA from Ezinearticles.com. Assuming everything is equal, neither link hold value, right?
PS. 100 drunks voting for me would be awesome, but a link blessed by the Pope would be better.
-
What about 100 drunk Popes?
Good analogy.
-
EGOL,
I agree with you that I would rather have the link from Berkeley based on their reptuation. But your comparison of 100 drunks vs one Pope seems completely unfair.
EzineArticles is the 161st most popular site in the world (Alexa ranking) where Berkeley ranks 1829. EzineArticles also has a lot more (40k+) linking domains when compared to Berkeley. A link from EzineArticles will be seen by more people, while a link from Berkeley will be seen as more credible.
Most webmasters are not in a position to get a link from Berkeley, where they can from EzineArticles.
-
The domain authority on EzineArticles is an impressive 91.
That domain authority number is blind to some important factors. One is Google's opinion of the domain. The domain authority of berkeley.edu is about 86. Where would you rather have a link?
Which is worth more? 100 drunks voting for you or one Pope?
-
Isn't a "Follow Link" still a "Follow Link" OR am I completely wasting my time on this devalued website?
Yes, a follow link is still a follow link post Panda.
All links are not equal. A link's value comes from the authority of the source. The domain authority on EzineArticles is an impressive 91. The page ranking, relevance, anchor text and other factors will play an important role in the link's value.
EzineArticles is a source of information. They are linked to be 200k+ domains. They offer exposure for your site. You have an opportunity to reach out to an audience who otherwise might not find you. I would suggest publishing an on-topic article once per quarter would be a positive experience for your site traffic. Google and other search engines will agree and rank the links accordingly.
-
It has to do with the severe decrease in value and trust that Google once gave article sites like ezinearticles.com. Once beloved, Google chose to recalibrate their level of importance. Once this occurred, the value of the content, links, and everything related to such sites plummeted.
While I do not want to go as far as calling them a graveyard, in which if a link of yours is found in them you get demoted, it was and is extremely close.
Links from quality sites are still vital, however the strategy has changed. This should be a lesson to anyone who puts their eggs in one basket, doesn't diversify their link building, or treads in areas that may one day be considered suspect by the big search engines.
-
Yes, a followed link is still a followed link. It was like that before Panda and it is like that after Panda.
However, not every followed link has the same value. For example: a link from CNN.com has more value than a link from buy-viagra-online-now.info, this holds true both before and after Panda.
What Panda did was decrease the value to you that a link from eZineArticles.com has. Whether you're wasting your time is up to you to decide. Given that you know the article submitted to eZineArticles will only generate a low-value link, is that a wise task to spend your time on, or is that time better spend elsewhere?
-
Nobody knows for sure how google values a link.
However, the links that you are talking about can be acquired by just about anyone, much of the content used to get these links is garbage, the articles fill search indexes with duplicate content and Google through their actions has confirmed that these are not favored websites. So, you can only hope that they are worth anything at all.
If I was the boss at google these links might carry negative value because they are so often used for manipulation.
I would invest my time elsewhere.... but, that is just an opinion.
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
-
Can you get "link juice" from an outside company's/organization's intranet?
Will you get the same "link juice benefits" from a University, Government Org, or public company's intranet that are linked to your webpages – vs the benefits that you would get from links from their public webpages? Assume that the external webpages have very high Domain Authority, MozRank/Trust etc.
Link Building | | MLR0 -
What's Your Most Jaw-Droppingly Spammy Link ( or Promo) Request?
Sheesh. I get them every day. But this one takes the cake. It's from a woman I met once in my life on a long run with my running club. That was two years ago. Now she wants me to endorse her -- even though I know nothing about her professionally. But wait, there's more. She's not much of a runner. As it happens, I know a thing or two about fitness -- having edited a fitness magazine and worked on websites for many top fitness and nutrition pros. The idea of an MSW doing fitness programs for people with medical problems raises all kinds of red flags. She sent this Facebook IM: Hi Daniel - hope all is well! I was wondering if you can share my page with your friends, with the following message (or something similar). Thank you so much in advance! My friend XXXXXX, MSW, has been running XXXX Personal Training for the past 18 years. She specializes in exercise programming for people who have medical problems, everything from heart problems to chronic pain conditions. She works on site in her clients' homes in midtown and downtown XXXXXX. Please contact her if you know anyone who would benefit from her expertise.
Link Building | | DanielFreedman
http://www.facebook.com/pagesXXXX
XXXX Personal Training
We specialize in helping people who are experiencing medical issues incorporate exercise into their treatment plan. We work as a team with all other professionals involved in your care, whether that is your medical doctor, naturopath, physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor, massage therapist, or...
Page: 141 like this [note from SEOmoz staff: we ask that you keep this post TAGFEE and not include specific names, URLs, or phone numbers in your response. Thanks!]2 -
Links to main landing category page or links directly to products
I have an ecommerce website and a manufacturer is providing links directly to my website from their products pages because they do not sell directly online. What is my best linking juice power for this situation:
Link Building | | dsmolinski
Manufacturer A has a number of different brands: brand1, brand2, brand3 and a number of different products in each of it brands. They are currently linking their individual products to my individual products on my website. My website is setup like this:
my.com/manufacture-A
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1/product1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1/product2
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2/product1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2/product2 What is the best practice for this situation:
--Linking manufacturer product to my product
--Linking manufacturer product to my associated brand page
--Linking manufacturer product to main manufacturer page
--or something else? Thank you and I can provide more details if need be. Denny0 -
Link in the footer
we have a sponsored link in the footer of a website, and since that footer is displayed on each page of that site, it shows that we have thousands of links coming from that site. my question is : does Google consider this as spamming? and does it help us , harm us, or has no effect?
Link Building | | puremobile0 -
Is link exchange a reliable source to get back links?
I read a latest post on seomoz that _“Do not buy or exchange link with anyone who contacts you. This is completely against Google's policies and if they were to find out, you could be penalized." So I went through Google's ''Link Schemes'' and found that ''Excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you")'' can negatively impact a site's ranking . _ So is it the ''excessive'' link exchanging that can cause a negative impact? Exchanging links with good quality, cached sites (without excessive doing) can do good or bad? Can anyone please explain to me in detail?
Link Building | | semvibe0 -
Text Link vs image link?
Which passes most link juice a text link or an image with the correct 'alt' attribute? Do the pass the same amount or is one more valuable than the other?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Best way to create deep links - Building links to inner pages
I am looking for a cost effective way to rank 30 inner pages, which are all low competition, long tail keywords. What type of links are the best for this type of project, social bookmarks, article marketing, high pr links, etc.... Also who would be good to hire for this type of project?
Link Building | | newcitymoving0 -
Different Link Titles Linking to the same page
So I'm doing a lot of link building but my question is how do search engines treat different link titles to the same page. For example, my main page is www.musillawfirm.com If I have 20 links from 20 sites linking to it as Melbourne FL DUI Lawyer and 20 more linking as Melbourne FL immigration Lawyer and More linking as Cocoa FL DUI lawyer etc... what happens? Do the search engines just rank me higher for all the terms or would it be better to always just link to separate landing pages? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | musillawfirm0