Links From Unrelated Sites
Blurb by Shaun Anderson (Hobo) -You do not always need to get links from related sites (in your niche, subject area) to rank better in Google.
I’ve engineered better rankings for sites getting links from unrelated sites so I would say getting links from unrelated sites is not a bad thing in itself.
It really depends on the sites in question, what you’re linking to, and the intent.
It’s a bit of a band-aid though. I’ve only used that method for clients who seem incapable or unwilling to add content to their site and to be honest I am moving away from those kind of clients all the time.
For maximum impact, it’s far more important to try and aim for links from related pages at least – ie a page with a good page title etc with your desired keywords in it.
A link on a page on an unrelated website with a measure of domain trust / authority discussing your subject area is worth it’s weight in Gold. I’ve actually increased rankings from unrelated pages too, though.
I am not saying don’t get links from related sites – the audience and traffic possibilities alone make links from related sites worth it. I’m just saying links from unrelated sites work just as well sometimes.
The same goes for linking to unrelated sites.
And I’m not advising getting links from unrelated sites or to use this strategy as the only linkbuilding strategy you employ, in case I upset the white hat shock troops.
I just think a link from any real site is a decent link.
It’s easy for seo to advise “get links from related sites….” – it’s safe, it’s what Google wants to see, it seems to compliment some of Google’s ranking algorithms – that’s why they do it.
Just don’t discount links from unrelated sites as useless – they are clearly not.
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And you never know who will follow a link from an unrelated site and needs exactly what you are offering – but was their next search so you did them a favour and saved them time
Nice. But if you’re trying to generate traffic then you would need to get links from related sites (in your niche, subject area),that’s what i would say.
But i agree with you 100% that links from unrelated sites can boost your google rank.
Agreed, links are Google’s currency. It is obviously best to get related links, but just being on a blogroll or a link love comment can help your numbers, both link counts and possible traffic.
It is just like reallife. If you refer to a relative. It affects you too and if a well-known (authorative) persoon refers to you esspecially in a special field, then you almost automatic become an authorative person too.
Hm, I had a chat with a seo expert few months ago. I guess he really shoud be an expert, because he works for a seo company (quite renowned), as a link building specialist.
He told me that a text link from no related site to my site COULD get that site in trouble, if there are more links that are pointing to no related sites.
He even showed me an example of a PR6 site which has droped to PR4 because of it.
But, img link from no related site is fine.
Wonder what do you think of that?
Andrija – For me It depends on the intent and the sites in question. For instance, if I was to link to a number of unrelated sites on my home page, I would expect to see my toolbar pr go down. I am a seo. I am profiled. I need to expect that. Actually a lot of seo companies do that and it doesn’t hurt their rankings….
Linking to an unrelated site wont get your site penalised at all – that is total bollocks. I link to unrelated sites all the time. It’s the intent – are you linking to a site Google has algorthymically profiled as buying links (if it can do that) or are you linking to a site just to imporve it’s ranking? Yeah you might get penalised, but you probably won’t.
Jeez, if everybody thought linking to an unrelated site was an automatic ban we’d have nobody linking out at all.
Here’s Matt Cutts of Google linking to Blink 182…. is he related to that? Cleary not? Are those paid links? Very probably not….
Can we learn something here though? Look how he’s linking…. he’s using the name, not some Google manipulating anchor text…. you see, he won’t be banned – there is no intent to do anything ropey! Look at the post… it’s about music, he’s linking to music sites…. if you’re page is about Search Engine Optimisation and you’re linking to a viagra site… that link’s not going to weigh much, and it might be seen as being manipulative especially if you’re using anchor text like “buy viagra online”!
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Thanks, so I guess the key thing here is:
“if I was to link to a number of unrelated sites on my home page…”.
That could get sites PR goes down, but it wont affect SERP.
But, linking to unrelated sites here and there in a natural way is perfectly ok and normal.