'Powered by...' anchor text links
-
Hi Mozzers!
We're a web design and dev agency in Kent, UK who don't really provide SEO services (tend to outsource and focus on our core competencies!)
Have never really bothered putting 'Powered by...' or 'built by...' anchor text links at the foot of our client sites that link back to ours. Obvs we have a huge back catalogue of opportunities to add this to various sites which, if clients agree of course, would push our backlinks above our key competitors overnight (according to OSE).
Good idea or Spammy/back hattie???
Cheers guys.
-
Thanks Rebecca, frustrating though as our competitor is ranking top for 'web development' local searches and having run OSE on their site the only reason is by adding anchor links to sites they've developed. This is generating them dozens of new enquiries pcm compared to our zero!
-
I agree.
-
Bad idea. I would not do this kind of footer link without a rel=nofollow, ever. Google has been known to target footer links like these for unnatural link building practices. (Check out this article by Barry Schwartz from a couple years back.) Just because something has been a "standard practice" for a long time doesn't mean it's white hat today.
Edited to add:
By the way, the fact that you're talking about how to add them slowly enough to stay under Google's radar should be enough to tell you that what you're planning may not be on the up and up. -
Thanks Umar, we've got about 100 RDs that we can add our link to which will give us about 10,000 backlinks. Was going to add about at a rate of about 20 RDs per week. Seem reasonable to you?
-
Hey,
I agree lots of agencies are following this practice but the question stated "we have a huge back catalogue of opportunities". So, it's not a good idea to get the tons of links on these phrases in a short time. That's why I said, it "might" get caught into a spammy practice.
Plus, if you have the opportunity to get some decent links, it's better to have them on your branded term to give away a strong brand signal to google.
What do you think?
-
Hi Umar,
Just wondering, how it is going to be Spammy ? Hyperlinking keywords in footer is a regular practise all Webdesign & SEO company do. I dont think it will be termed spammy.
-
Hey Steve,
I'm afraid it might be caught into Spammy practice because of the latest penguin updates. You should get the links from these sources after all you deserves them but just change the approach a bit.
Rather getting links on "Powered by", "built by" or "developed by", you should try to get the links on your branded term. Something like "Developed by Moz".
Google has no objection, if you're getting links on your branded term and your profile will gonna look more authoritative and natural.
Hope this helps!
Have a rocking Sunday!
Umar
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
-
Should you ever change your anchor text ?
Hello I have a question about anchors. I have done all my own seo over the last 3 years, with tools from various sites. I had an seo audit done about 1 month ago and was told my link profile was very natural. They had one recommendation. To go back over my link profile and ask some webmasters if they would change the anchor from the name of my site or my url to a more seo friendly phrase. This seemed logical. I never did a lot of anchor text just name or site or url. Anyway, over last 4 weeks I have messaged several webmasters and asked to have anchor text changed to something along the lines of the keywords Im targeting. Tedious task to go through all the links but I changed several anchors to what was recommended. I was also out link building at same time. These last links and I got several of them all natural links after 16 hours work days. Are all will seo friendly anchors, because as Ive gotten more experienced my links have gotten more in lines of what is "seo friendly" or at least I hoped. I asked one webmaster to change my anchor and he warned me I would be slapped with a penguin penalty and wouldn't recommend I do this. I have already done this to several of my links. Then today the new seomoz update came up and I was down on DA and PA by 3-4 points. Do these have anything to do with one another and have I been given bad advice and can I fix it if I have ? Sorry about long post just a little confused. I don't want to step into penalty land and not know I did.
Link Building | | New1000ad0 -
Why don't directory backlinks show up in Open Link Explorer?
Why don't we see linking root domains like yelp, google, yahoo, etc? Is there any way to get a more accurate list of links to a domain where webmaster tools are not an option?
Link Building | | ScottM0 -
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Link Building | | thestudio40 -
There is a New link to my Site but I can see it on link report ?why ?
Hi I found out using link campaign and Open site explorer that my competitors where getting links from this page http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/activities/land_sports/golf So I conatc the admins and added our golf courses too Is the dunes and the bay course in the middle of the page But this happened 3 weeks ago and still this linking domain is not appaering in my campaign why is that any ideas ? does it take so much time to appera to SEOmoz ? Or the problem is because they are linking 2 diffrent sites ? my site is www.costanavarinogolf.com Thanks a lot in advance for your help
Link Building | | grzontan0 -
Link values
I have an interesting question, it's more to see other peoples opinions than looking for an exact answer, as I know noone can give that. If you had a good link on harvard.edu.. how many very low quality links on low DA domains that are full of junk, would you need to match the harvard link... if all other factors were equal. I'm gonna go for 500.. I've had great results with a few high DA/trust links. I'm not looking for anyone to give me a definative answer, just curious as to the views of other SEOs 😄
Link Building | | PeterM220 -
Over Optimised Anchor Text
Hi. We are new to the seomoz community so just getting the hange of it. We have run a few reports and found that we have to many links with the eaxct match anchor text. We are as a result we feel penalised and held back at no.7 or lower. There doesn't seem to be any other logical explanations why aren't higher besides that. What would the best way to deal with this over optimisation issue? Thanks
Link Building | | GardenGamer
Shannon0 -
Do links from a Tumblr blog count as inbound links?
That's it. I'm thinking of making a Tumblre blog (s) for inbound links. Is it worthwhile?
Link Building | | Spreader73760 -
Longer Tail Keyword for URL and Anchor text
Hello If I am trying to rank for the term blue widgets as a primary, and also the term shiny blue widgets , and big shiny blue widgets as secondary - would the url /blue-widgets or /shiny-blue-widgets or /big-shiny-blue-widgets be better (all else equal) Would the word shiny / big dilute or affect of KW in the domain for the rankings for blue widgets (all esle equal) Regarding anchor text of inbound links, if the anchor text is shiny blue widgets, is that going to help me rank for both queries "blue widgets" and "shiny blue widgets" equally? (all else equal), or would including shiny, affect my ranking for "bliue widgets" Or is it better to keep the anchor text as just blue widgets (of course we could vary it) but Im trying to get a feel for how that would work as we are builfing some links I can control the anchor text. I hope this was clear enough Thanks Sam
Link Building | | Impact-2015550