Are paid links on your brand name considered bad by Google?
-
I've been intrigued recently by the penalty applied to a site we have just started working with. They were penalised back in summer last year as their previous link builder had built 60,000 links all with the same hard to get keyword anchor text....we're still sorting it out.
My question now is that if the client pays for inclusion on some relevant sites, such as niche directories and those sites automatically produce 'follow' links, would the client be penalised if they link on their own company name? For example if they manufacture blue widgets and the anchor text on the link is 'ABC Manufacturing' rather than 'Blue Widgets' would Google see that as a reasonable link?
I appreciate that if they linked back on the keyword anchor text 'Blue Widgets' it would be wrong but I'm seeking clarification on using the company name. Any thoughts?
-
Thanks so much, but without this pain we would never have got the client! We're the good guys, just trying to unravel a tangle of American .edu links and sitewide footers from other American sites for a business based firmly in the UK. What the last guy was thinking we've no idea...
Thanks for taking the time to contribute
-
Thanks again Irving; we're advising the client to stay away from directories anyway, and concentrating on providing a useful service for end users. Links, if they happen, will be a bonus we hope!
Thanks guys...;-)
-
in my experience, ALL paid links should be no-folow. Also they may have penalized you for having all the same few keywords. A good link building strategy Must look natural to Google. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before you get penalized.
Sorry this happened to you, i feel your pain!
-
The difference is naturally occurring links from regular non paid diversified sites vs paid links from directory type sites that Google has already flagged as being bad neighborhoods used for SEO, and these sites are most likely linking to a lot of penalized sites as well which makes you guilty by association.
So it has more to do with the places you are linked on than it does overusing your brand name in the anchor text, plus naturally occurring links will have their own keyword mix and match diversity.
brandname
visit brandname
visit brandname.com
go to brandname
some will be do follow, some will be no follow, some might be image links
-
Thanks Irving. Just wondering though, the client naturally attracts links anyway so surely that can't harm them? Or can it? There's no way to stop that. They regularly blog and get shared on social as they are an 'authority' and spent years on page one of the results so people in the industry know them and we don't want to diminish this activity which, irrespective of links, is what they are known for. Any further thoughts from anyone welcome here!
Thanks all....
-
if your brand name is your domain name then you should already rank for that. don't build links while trying to recover from a penalty.
-
Thanks, good advice. We're slowly trying to undo the harm already done and build good relevant backlinks, hence the question. I think that we will need to take almost everything off and start again with this one.....
-
If you are already penalised, I wouldn't touch paid links of any kind, especially directory ones
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
-
How long does it take my links to get indexed by Google?
How long does it take my links to get indexed by Google? Also Is it possible to get my links indexed faster?
Link Building | | EugeneMot0 -
Are Side Bar Links Bad For SEO?
I'm thinking about adding a sidebar on the right side of my blog post with links to other pages. Is have a sidebar with links to other pages good or bad for SEO.
Link Building | | WilCross0 -
Should I disavow spammy links that are showing in Open Site Explorer but not showing in Google Webmaster Tools?
Howdy Mozzers, After carrying out a backlink audit for a client, Open Site Explorer shows a range of outrageously spammy links for guys wanting a bit of assistance in the bedroom area, and so on. Hopping over to Google Webmaster Tools, there is no reported trace of said spammy links (for either of the www/non-www versions of the site). There are also no manual webspam actions found on the www/non-www Google Webmaster Tools accounts for this website. So my question is: do I carry out a pre-emptive strike and go down the disavow process of requesting removal from the spammy sites, and then submit a disavow request to Google after allowing a suitable period of time for the junky/compromised website to (not) respond? Or do I just leave it alone? Thanks in advance for your wise words of wisdom and pearls of clarity.
Link Building | | wh-seo0 -
Links from sites with iffy link profiles?
So the site http://www.cadenas.de/ appears to have good decent scores from the various Moz ranks, but when I check out the site in OSE there are a lot of really sketchy links that jump out, online pharmacy/drug type links. I should also add that the negative links are seemingly going to a weird blog deep in the site and only appear when I select all links to the root domain in OSE. Everything about the site appears very legitimate except for the link profile which has me nervous. Would you guys pursue a link from this site?
Link Building | | CJ50 -
Clean up bad links or start again?
I am looking to take on a new client but when I looked at their current backlinks they have 420 low quality spammy irrelevant backlinks, all with keyword anchor text and no branded links at all. The site is still ranking well at the moment but I don't expect this to be the case long-term. Would you try and remove the old links and then disavow any that you can't remove or would you start again on a new domain? Not sure which way to play it! Thanks! Karen
Link Building | | Karen_Dauncey0 -
If bad links are now ignored why bother to resubmit a reconsideration letter?
So what I don't get is that Google says it will not trust and ignore these Spam type links so you lose only the value from those specific links.So if someone was hit with a penalty why should you bother to write a reconsideration letter if Google is supposedly just ignoring the value of the poor links anyway? On the other hand in their message they do state if you are able to remove any of the links you can resubmit --- this is sending conflicting messages. Back in the day you get your entire site hurt, now it seems like it can potentially just be a few keywords or pages.Does it make sense with the new roll out in March 2013 to still do a reconsideration request?
Link Building | | SEOEnthusiast0 -
Do links within imbeddable widgets carry link juice?
I'm dipping my toes into infographic design. On of my desired outcomes is to gain links by having other sites embed my graphic. I'm considering using Tableau's interactive data visualization software to do so; thus creating a widget, embedding it on my blog, and including the embed code for others to post. Is it possible to include a juice passing link in such an infographic? I know its possible to include links inside the tableau graphic but not sure if they have straight SEO value. If these links are not juice passing would it be better to go with a simple image link that passes value?
Link Building | | JesseCWalker1