Links from PRWeb press release violate Google's quality guidelines?
-
My site has had a manual action performed on it by Google indicating that I have inbound links that fall outside of their quality guidelines. I did my own research, found what I thought was the issue, had the links removed and requested reconsideration. Google's response surprised me in that they highlighted two specific pages with links that were the direct result of valid press releases and a publisher picking up our release off a wire service. Has anyone else seen this occur? Anyone had a case successfully reconsidered? I realize that I don't need to do anything at all as the manual action is in effect and will stay that way, discounting those links, but I would rather a) not have any manual action against my site and b) know for the future so this doesn't happen again. Also, is this applicable for guest blog posts, which effectively create the same type of backlinks? Thanks
-
It was a mix of both. There were some embedded keywords with nofollow links (which I thought were ok given that they were nofollowed). The keywords weren't forced in, just naturally present and then linked, doing so to have a nice balance between follow and nofollow links to the site.
-
Follow-up question on your links that were no followed.
- Were they links within the body of the release that were optimized with anchor text. e.g. Widget Industries Inc (Wii) is proud to announce the latest in wigitized technology, pink widgets! Joe Smith, president of Wii said that, "Our red widgets are a technology leader, we thought pink widgets would be a win win win!" and in your text "pink widgets" was linked to an optimized page for pink widgets on your site.
or
- Was it that you simply had a link under your contact info e.g.
Widget Industries Inc 124 Anyroad, Anytown, State, Zip, www.domain.ext, phone
Just curious the types of links you put into that release.
I have seen talk from various persons saying links in press releases are ok as long as you are not keyword embedding them. Seems silly that you would be penalized for linking to your company in the contact info, but I wanted to see.
Thx,
-
Upon further investigation, I traced back all inbound links created from PRWeb activities and found that most links created were correctly tagged as "nofollow" but it appears certain publishers removed the embedded nofollow tag when publishing. Specifically, pressreleasepoint.com and streetinsider.com are two examples where the same press release that was sent to and published by hundreds of other outlets as nofollow, were published by them with no such tag.
-
Thanks, Federico. I understand your logic. And I'm not arguing it - I just tend to try to "read between the lines" whenever Google makes a statement. I certainly can see the logic of nofollow on a link while a PR sits on PRWeb or another PR site. But if the NYT or Wash. Post decided to run that story (yeah, I know... pretty unlikely ) I have difficulty understanding how Google would hold it against a site if the paper left off the nofollow.
Thanks for the response!
-
They should be no-follow even on those sites that may pick the news up. Like the question says, the response from Google to the reconsideration request mentions links that were on syndicating sites, not on the actual PRWeb site.
And the statement I mentioned was a quote from PRWeb, and it says and I quote "all outgoing syndication" meaning that even those outside PRWeb site are being no-followed.
-
Federico, I'm familiar with the fairly recent statement from Google that links in press releases should be nofollow. In searching for it, I can't locate where it was, but I found this on the support blog: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
This only refers to anchor text rich links, however. Do you have a link that will clarify this?I ask because my impression is that they only need to be nofollow on the PR distribution site. If a journalist picks up the release and runs it, my impression was that it needn't be nofollow then, (unless, of course, we see it's on a low quality site).
Thanks!
-
Links coming from PRWeb and other Press Release websites should be no-follow and Google is quite finicky about this and do not allow anyone to build links through this press release related sites.
Hope this helps!
-
Yes. Links from PRWeb are considered unnatural if not no-followed. You must nofollow all the links in your releases, and in case other sites pickup your PRs, just make sure those links are no followed.
PRWeb claimed they made several changes to comply with Google guidelines, but given the amount of people that use their services only for the SEO effect, it would be hard to believe that they actually force the nofollow to all their releases and the sites that syndicates them.
From PRWeb:
"As far as changes in links and backlinking these changes come from google and apply to all press release distribution. We have been proactive in these changes and marking all outgoing syndication as ‘no-follow’ in accordance with Googles new rules."
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
-
Quality Links From Web Directory Usefull ??
Hello, Am Planning to Buy Few links from directories. Really Is it safe ? Or Guest Posting is good for Link Building??
Link Building | | wiralgroup1 -
Removing bad/poor quality links from the site
Sometime back my site was penalized due to unnatural artificial and deceptive links. Then we got removed the penalty by uploading file in Disavow Tool. Bad links are decreasing gradually now . What i am concerned to ask is that: 1: For how long i should wait till Google removes all the requested bad links 2:Second, i believe there are still many bad links that I dont want to keep. How to remove them now onward? Should we send Google a reconsideration request for removing the remaining bad links (site has been recovered already and no more under penalty banner) Tanveer
Link Building | | Sequelmed0 -
Removing links from rubbishy 'blog' sites
I need to remove around 800 bad links, probably about 500 domains as a very rough estimate. These were built by a previous link building company. Here some example domains: http://globalweddingblog.com
Link Building | | Coraltoes77
http://theweddinginsider.net
http://www.couturefashionissues.com
http://www.topfashionlabels.com
http://weddingworldnews.com
http://www.savingsdistrict.com
http://bestfemalesblog.com
http://mylatestfashion.com
http://lastfashion.net
http://womansonlineblog.org I have already tried emailing a hundred or so with a manual link request - with zero outcome. Hardly surprising when you consider the types of sites they are. I've had a quote for a link removal service, but I'm not sure if it's wise to pay someone to do this work - not sure what resources/tools they would have above and beyond what I can access and there could be increased risk. Any advice?0 -
Google Link-building Update....
Hey, Guys How long does it take for Google to recognize your link-building efforts with authority websites and affect the SERPS?
Link Building | | AubbiefromAubenRealty0 -
I found a link to my customer's site with an over-optimized
I found a link to my customer's site with an over-optimized anchor text using the OpenSite Explorer tool, but when I opened the link, my customer's link is nowhere to be found. Here is the link Opensiteexplorer gave me: http://www.derbymadness.com/my-profile/demolition-derby-groups/viewgroup/12-web And here is my customer's link: 1896omalleyhouse.com The link is not on the cached version of the page either. Can anyone tell me how this might happen? Thanks!
Link Building | | Acorn-IS0 -
Why aren't links to my site from YouTube showing up in my link reports?
Our company is paying for a service to create hundreds of videos/month for us with links back to our primary domain. If I go to YouTube I see the videos with the links, but YouTube does not show in my link reports. Why not?
Link Building | | jtroia0 -
Multiple KW's , on-page and anchor text
Hello, For each page on my site, I've targeted one primary keyword and three to four secondary keywords. All of the keywords variants are tightly themed. With some on-page, I've ranked page two or three for all of the keywords and many are starting to convert based on Analytics data. Each page scores an "A" using the SEOmoz KW targeting tool for the "primary keyword only". For secondary keywords, I've only included words but not the complete keyword. For example, if the primary keyword is "blue green widgets" and the secondary keyword is "get blue green widgets", I've included the word "get" throughout the copy to target the secondary keyword. My questions are... Should I include each secondary keyword once in the copy and not just the word "get" for example? Just wondering if there is a better approach to target all of the keywords via on-page. When getting links to each page, how would you vary the anchor text to target all of the keywords, primary and secondary? Thanks!
Link Building | | ShaneO0 -
Looking to partner with a Quality Link Builder
I have a number of clients, but don't have the time, energy or desire to spend my time building links. I'm looking to partner with someone looking to make some ca$h by helping me accumulate quality links for my clients (at an affordable price). Any referrals would be appreciated. If this type of post is inappropriate or violates any policy, then I would like to change my submission to: "What's the best way to find a partner to assist my link-building efforts?" ....not looking for an SEO firm's sales pitch. Thanks! BR
Link Building | | BVREID0