Non-Recognition of Links
-
Hi All,
I asked about a client last month and have had to do some other digging to try to find out what's going on with its Google rankings.
According to our link-building spreadsheet, we have got up to 50 links (from 50 domains) in process of being actioned and a large proportion of these are actually in existence.
There are two questions:-
1. Open Site Explorer only recognises 3 domains - as I know that other domains exist and are pointing (mostly 'followed'), what can be the reason OSE doesn't recognise this?
2. What can be done to encourage these external links to be more easily accessible by OSE and, presumably other bots?
Other Points:-
1. I initially thought it might be crawl blocking issue causing the rankings, but Bing/Yahoo rankings are slowly dragging themselves upwards.
2. Robots.txt is not blocking any of the site
3. Pro on-site analysis for the target keyword is 'A'
4. The website's stats per OSE are better than some competitors in the top 20 except on the root domain issue, which is why the above point is important.
Link building for other clients has worked really well without hiccups and with general gradual recognition, so any tips from more experienced folks out there would be gratefully appreciated.
Many thanks,
Martin
-
Hi Martin,
You might find it useful to take a look at the Linkscape Update Schedule in case timing is a factor.
I believe Rand outlined the recent changes to the indexing rationale in this webinar
Using Open Site Explorer to Uncover New Marketing Opportunities , but if you still have questions then as Brian suggested, it may be a good idea to lodge a ticket or email the Help Team. help [at] seomoz.org.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Hey, if the page you got the link on was interesting enough that you wanted to get a link on it, than what harm is there in letting the world know about that resource via Twitter, Facebook, or whatever other service you choose? ... and if it's not worth talking about, or you would be embarrassed to speak of it, than how "quality" was that link anyway
On the OSE Catch 22, gotcha... all I can think of is that perhaps the low quality sites are not always re-crawled with the update, thus not picking up the new links?. An SEOmoz staffer with intimate knowledge of the crawl behavior could better answer that one though
Brian
-
Hi guys,
Thanks for the feedback so far and I will be definitely checking GWT and maybe even tweeting out the links. I did think that seemed a little bit... you know, false - but I guess it's just ensuring Google takes note of the actual page? What do people think? I'm unwilling to Facebook them out, because that's even more 'in your face' and I'm unwilling to SPAM out 50 domains just to get them indexed. Advice welcomed on these points.
@Brian - yes, I suppose they could be coming from lower domains, but equally many have been pulled from competitor link data from OSE, so catch 22?
@Theo - I will double-check
@Ross - firmly NO to Black Hat. I don't do this ANYWAY, but equally something's screwing up the SEO anyway, so going down that route could permanently jeopardise the site and that's not what the client's paying for.
-
Like Theo said, I would start with Webmaster Tools ( Links to your site > All domains area ), if they are in there, Google knows about them, and if they have any value to pass though that link, they are passing it.
One other quick note, if you know those pages you are getting links from are all index and follow pages, you may want to just double check to see if they have been indexed ( Google search for site:www.the-exact-domain.com/and-page-url.html ), if you get no results back, then you know those pages are not in the index (not found yet, or otherwise dropped).
On the OSE thing, if I am remembering this correctly Rand said something about how they were focusing the crawl, pulling in less low quality sites - could it be that the domains you are getting links from are low quality?
Brian
-
Hi Martin,
Although OSE is an awesome tool it is still in its infancy and may not have the capacity to crawl the links you are talking about. Another way to check the links is to have a look via majestic SEO, they having a much bigger index than OSE and tend to show a good deal more links.
I would also have a look at the Google Webmaster Tools and see if the links are present in there.
If you are worried about the links being crawled and indexed by google then take the URL and run it through Google itself with the site: command. If it does not turn up there is a chance it may not be indexed. If it is not indexed I believe that the site: command that returns no values must send a Google bot to the URL to crawl it- can't confirm this is true but it just makes good sense.
If you want to be doubly sure you links are getting crawled you can force a crawl by Google by bookmarking the page thorugh a bookmarking service or sharing it in a social network.
WARNING, MESSY BLACK HAT TACTICS COMING UP*****
And if you really want to give it a good ole kick up the jaxie you can load up a automatic bookmarking tool and bookmark the URL with you link on over a couple hundred domains. Problems with this method include:
- need to buy spammy software like bookmark demon
- you are in effect creating a link wheel which may devalue your efforts
- it sticks out like a sore thumb
- links on bookmarking sites drop of the link graph or get devalued very quickly..
However, the positives that come out of this technique are you link will be crawled and indexed and it will have another couple of hundred links pointing at it....... for a while.
If you are working with a client I would recommend just running it through facebook or tweeting out the link and stay away from forcing any crawls. However, if it is the middle of november and you have a christmas shop that needs to rank quickly get that black hat on.
Hope that helps.
-
Hi Martin,
Although OSE is an awesome tool it is still in its infancy and may not have the capacity to crawl the links you are talking about. Another way to check the links is to have a look via majestic SEO, they having a much bigger index than OSE and tend to show a good deal more links.
I would also have a look at the Google Webmaster Tools and see if the links are present in there.
If you are worried about the links being crawled and indexed by google then take the URL and run it through Google itself with the site: command. If it does not turn up there is a chance it may not be indexed. If it is not indexed I believe that the site: command that returns no values must send a Google bot to the URL to crawl it- can't confirm this is true but it just makes good sense.
If you want to be doubly sure you links are getting crawled you can force a crawl by Google by bookmarking the page thorugh a bookmarking service or sharing it in a social network.
WARNING, MESSY BLACK HAT TACTICS COMING UP*****
And if you really want to give it a good ole kick up the jaxie you can load up a automatic bookmarking tool and bookmark the URL with you link on over a couple hundred domains. Problems with this method include:
- need to buy spammy software like bookmark demon
- you are in effect creating a link wheel which may devalue your efforts
- it sticks out like a sore thumb
- links on bookmarking sites drop of the link graph or get devalued very quickly..
However, the positives that come out of this technique are you link will be crawled and indexed and it will have another couple of hundred links pointing at it....... for a while.
If you are working with a client I would recommend just running it through facebook or tweeting out the link and stay away from forcing any crawls. However, if it is the middle of november and you have a christmas shop that needs to rank quickly get that black hat on.
Hope that helps.
-
The fact that OSE doesn't pick up a link doesn't necessarily mean a link isn't 'active' and giving your site value. Even though Linkscape captures a vast amount of URLs, it only crawls a portion of the web, most likely from the bigger pages down. If many of these links to your site are coming from smaller / less powerful domains, they might not (yet) have been picked up by Linkscape.
Try looking at Google Webmaster central to see if the links are included there. If Google lists them as links there, they are very likely to be counted by them as well.
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
-
Is It Necessary to Remove The Inbound links With Spammy Score?
Hi Friends, I am new to this community. I just checked my inbound links using Moz tool and I came to know that there are some inbound links with spammy score. So, should I remove those links using disavow tool? Awaiting for the reply.
Moz Pro | | Flyin.com0 -
Benefits of reducing on page links
This is more of a discussion point. What would be the measurable results of reducing the number of on page links, specifically on a home page, but let's assume by way of a large navigation menu most of the pages have a lot of links" For instance, would any of the stats on the MozBar be affected (let's start with the home page). Would the Page Authority or MozRank change at all, perhaps because there is less "juice" flowing out of the home page? Thanks! 🙂
Moz Pro | | ntcma0 -
Open Site Explorer - SEO - Company Back Links not visible?
Hi Guys, I am relatively new to the SEO community and have what is hopefully a pretty quick and simple question? I have recently outsourced some of my SEO campaigns to an Australian SEO group which were referred to me buy a friend, and i do not have the time to manage all sites SEO. On pitch the SEO company said they had in excess of 7000 domains, and they would implement a massive back linking strategy for me anywhere upwards of 200 links a month and all legit. Initially there were some basic header and title tag changes needed on the site, and I am now in month 4 of my campaign. Looking forward to using SEOMOZ service and specifically Open Site Explorer, I entered my URL but to my disappointment I could only see 4 links and two I was responsible for. I spoke to the SEO company who responded Open Site Explorer wasn't a good indication of back links and that a lot of their sites were not on the network because of the structure of their linking being only one way. I would appreciate a second opinion (external of this company) on this because of my short time learning and dabbling with SEO. On a side note thoroughly enjoying learning SEO and my journey as part of the SEOMOZ community. Appreciate any feedback or responses I get. Kind regards Bodie http://www.berkeleyriver.com.au
Moz Pro | | Bodie0 -
Several DA 70+ websites linked to me, not showing in OSE
Like the title says, about 3 weeks ago several websites linked to me. Those websites have very high and probably 100% of this board has heard of them. I'm wondering how long it takes for OSE to recognize these links, and if my website's DA and mozTrust will increase as a result?
Moz Pro | | CHEATERS0 -
Over 90% of anchor text tends to be brand-name on OSE link profiles. Why?
I reported this as a bug in OSE, because often I explore these links and find that the pages include both a brand-name link AND a regular keyword link, but for some reason OSE was only reporting the brand-name link... This led me to wonder how many links this occurred for, and therefore whether or not to trust the fact that the majority of the sites I ran OSE on returned at least (in most cases, more) than 90% brand-name links. I understand that brand-name links are amongst the most important to obtain, but that it's also important to get anchor text for keywords to build a varied profile. Given this apparent flaw in OSE, is it wrong - in the case of very successful sites - to take this ~90% as being anywhere near the correct percentage of brand-name links that I should be aiming for as a proportion of the total profile? Extra Credit :)... And this may help potentially help resolve the issue: does "Inbound Links" tab in OSE just report links to the Root Domain, or to that and every other page on the site?
Moz Pro | | ZakGottlieb710 -
How long will it take for the link analysis to be updated?
In an effort to evaluate SEOmoz I started off my free trial with a fresh website that I am going to get to rank on the first page and hopefully to the #1 spot. I have been link building and changing the website around a lot. When I created the website hosted by HostGator with wordpress installed I marked down where it showed up the first time. After checking for many days to about the 100th spot I found it in spot 65. I have since then been spending some time (not a ton of time, but enough) guest posting, some bookmarking, press release creation and some other odds and ends stuff. The page has gone up to 23rd but there have been no signs of any work done on the link analysis. So, How long does it take?
Moz Pro | | DLRISM0 -
Need a Google Doc That Imports List of Links From SEOMoz API
Does anyone have one they'd like to share. I've seen the great ones by Tom Anthony but I am looking for the list of the first 1000 links that are available as part of the free API to be brought back into a Google Doc.
Moz Pro | | belasco0 -
How best to gain Followed Linking Root Domains?
Hi All, Sorry if this question has been asked before. I've had a look through the Q&A sections and I couldn't really see anyone who'd asked the question as direct as this? Basically, I'm using the SEOMoz competitive domain analysis to compare some of our domains and our competitors domains and see where we're falling down. At the minute, we seem to be only scoring around '31', whereas our two closest competitors as 32 and 33 on the overall score. This still seems pretty low to me (maybe it's not) so I'm assuming we can make some good headway. At the minute, the analysis shows that we're beating our competitors hands down with the number of links to our site, these are all relatively good quality and they haven't just been spammed out there to gain links. We are however struggling to get followed linking root domains. As I understand it, these are basically just links from domains not on the same IP that are followed? Since I've seen this, I've looked through the open site explorer and gone through all of our competitors sites to get backlinks from URL's linking to them. I've had fairly good success with this but they only seem to have gone up by 1 - 2 links. Does this only get updated once a month? In addition to this, does anyone have any tips on how to build up followed linking domains? Kind Regards
Moz Pro | | LewisSellers
Lewis0