Do exact match anchor internal text links hurt any website?

[TuhinEternalSpring]

Do exact match anchor internal text links hurt any website???:blink::blink::blink:

 

[Nytshade]

No it doesn't hurt your website, it even make it easier for the user to find other content in your website. But too much of anything is never good, just make sure you don't spam, then you should be fine.

 

[samng]

Does not hurt unless you overdo it. Because then it will look "unnatural" to Google again

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

If that was true, than large sites would be totally screwed because of all the exact match links from their menus and footer links.

 

[ericplotz1]

Well here's the thing. You don't want too many anchor text keywords. For instance I had a site that dropped from position 7 to position 60 recently, for my target keyword. Come to find out (after checking ahrefs) my keyword accounted for 53% of the anchor text pointing to my site. That's no good.

Gotta diversify the anchors.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Here is one of my arguments against the whole anchor text diversity stuff. You actually have no idea what your anchor percentages are. Ahrefs is probably not even finding 53% of the links that Google has found. And even all the links that Google finds, they never share all of them in WMT.

So how do you really know?

Just playing Devil's Advocate... but in all honesty, nobody really knows their anchor percentages.

 

[elcidofaguy]

elcidofaguy

When you're gaming the serps you should keep a track of the links created as well as the anchor text albeit an estimate is better than nothing.... Further I would remove the nofollow links from the analysis e.g. forum sig links can really boost the anchor text count but are ignored by G...

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Sure you can keep track of links you created, but that is only a fraction of the actual links that are out there.

Also, nofollow links are taken into consideration when it comes to handing out penalties. They are not ignored. Google has said so. I myself have tested getting sites penalized with mostly nothing but nofollow links.

 

[sagabizsolutions]

Same anchor text backlinks does not hurt a regular site as if you use the links according to your design template required. If you make any kind of changes and move too far in adding too many links in the footer, sidebar, etc., then it can affect your site. Therefore, it is always the best strategy to serve the user and make it easier for users to navigate your site without considering how search engines can use it as a signal to rank your website. Your site is safe as his assistant acceptable site links in terms of quantity

 

[elcidofaguy]

Sure you can keep track of links you created, but that is only a fraction of the actual links that are out there.

I really don't think so... Does that mean if I sit there and do nothing all my sites are going to gain lots of backlinks out of no where? Way more than the ones I create.... The exception here is only if your website is massively popular and is already getting a ton of traffic in addition to going viral on social networks... Most people are not in that situation and if they sit and do nothing then the end result is pretty much zero backlinks (excluding negative seo attacks)...

Also, nofollow links are taken into consideration when it comes to handing out penalties. They are not ignored. Google has said so. I myself have tested getting sites penalized with mostly nothing but nofollow links.

Interesting that you observed that... It really cannot be that nofollow and dofollow are treated in the same way when examining backlinking profiles such as how anchor text is analyzed.. Lets say you use a competitive keyword on your sig link and have 10,000 posts on a forum... Thats 10,000 nofollow links which I am sure G would discount on the basis its a sig link from a forum... It may have some weighting but its negligible in my opinion - unless we are talking about some serious comment spamming across a huge number of sites...

That aside even Google states that in general nofollow does not have an impact in the vast majority of cases:

#1 - Can nofollow links hurt my site's ranking? Matt Cutts answer is upfront and quick to state no it does not... He states - typically nofollow links cannot hurt your site... The exception is when G receives spam reports (deceptive/manipulative mass action described as huge scale abuse) - then they reserve the right to take manual spam action... Which gets me thinking what the hell have you been up to lol ;-))

#2 - Q) Should you disavow nofollow links? Google's John Mueller answers as follows: "You dont need to include any nofollow links…because essentially what happens with links that you submit as a disavow, when we recrawl them we treat them similarly to other nofollowed links. Including a nofollow link there wouldnt be necessary." - source:[URLnf="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsDeu5PUx2A"] Webmaster Central 2013-05-21 [/URLnf]

In your case was that a manual penalty? As it seems from ref #2 given that there is no point in disavowing nofollow links ... So either that is incorrect or that penalties arising from nofollow is entirely manual...

In conclusion I can agree that comment spamming with automated tools could lead to a penalty... But I will say its insanely stupid to do that directly to your primary/money site... I would only consider that as part of tier link building at the lower tiers 2 and below... Further we're talking about an extreme case here... Its clear from Cutts video the vast majority have nothing to worry about........

I mention that as its important that folks know that unless they are engaging in comment spamming on a large industrial scale - nofollow links as mentioned and corroborated by Google themselves at reference have no impact...

 

[SEOPub]

Yes, you can pretty much do nothing and end up with a lot of links. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of scraper sites out there. It depends on the market space. Build a site in the life insurance niche once and you will see. You will end up with tons of links you had nothing to do with.

Backlink databases are only picking up a fraction of your links. They do not have the resources that Google does to crawl and index that kind of data.

1) Well, you can believe what Matt says or you can test it. I know others that have found the same thing through testing.

2) When it comes to Disavow, John Mueller has contradicted himself so many times it is dizzying.

 

[elcidofaguy]

Yes, you can pretty much do nothing and end up with a lot of links. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of scraper sites out there. It depends on the market space. Build a site in the life insurance niche once and you will see. You will end up with tons of links you had nothing to do with.

Yep it depends on the market space but its extremely limited to the very competitive niches (and it counts for sh** given that it applies to everyone in that niche and one can assume G has a handle on that algorithmically i.e. they know scraper sites when they see one and ignore it)... less than the fingers on my hand - other than insurance have a go at payday loans... Either way you know full well that 99% of folks are not going to get magical backlinks coming out of a bottomless pit out of someone a** h***... If that was the case then no one would need to build links and the massive trade in getting links would not exist... Seriously its an absurd comment to make in the general sense and in this case you've cited an extreme case which doesn't apply to most...

Backlink databases are only picking up a fraction of your links. They do not have the resources that Google does to crawl and index that kind of data.

If you are not keeping a track of the links that you are creating, even with mass blasting with tools like GSA, SENuke, xrumer etc then you're shooting yourself in the foot... Further a lot of those links dont stick when using such tools - so one indeed needs to keep on top with ensuring the links are live... If you are not doing that and only relying on 3rd party backlink crawlers then.. indeed you're going to miss a ton of links - but funnily enough the vast majority are the ones you created...

1) Well, you can believe what Matt says or you can test it. I know others that have found the same thing through testing.

2) When it comes to Disavow, John Mueller has contradicted himself so many times it is dizzying.

Well - you started it... On your post #8 you stated Google states so... which I disagree..... and funnily enough it looks like you're agreeing with me now that I have cited G's opinion from the horses mouth... To be blunt I dont give a rat's a** what Cutts and Mueller have to say lol...

I have a lot of respect for your views - sorry to say but in this case you're on a tangent talking about stuff - which for most it doesn't apply given the extremities, coupled with the lack of missing information which can be misleading to newbies....

 

[SEOPub]

Yep it depends on the market space but its extremely limited to the very competitive niches (and it counts for sh** given that it applies to everyone in that niche and one can assume G has a handle on that algorithmically i.e. they know scraper sites when they see one and ignore it)... less than the fingers on my hand - other than insurance have a go at payday loans... Either way you know full well that 99% of folks are not going to get magical backlinks coming out of a bottomless pit out of someone a** h***... If that was the case then no one would need to build links and the massive trade in getting links would not exist... Seriously its an absurd comment to make in the general sense and in this case you've cited an extreme case which doesn't apply to most...

That was just one example. Take 50 sites that a good amount of link building has been done for and that have a decent age to them. Pull all the links in Webmaster Tools and compare them to Ahrefs and/or Majestic. You will see what I mean. Ahrefs and Majestic are not crawling the web nearly as deep or often as Google. They are not finding anywhere near all the links typical sites have. I was using scrapers as one place where a ton of links will come that you have nothing to do in creating.

Now it's rare that Ahrefs and/or Majestic miss a lot of good links. It's usually mostly a difference of junk links. Google finds a lot more of them. Although, that is changing more and more with lots of sites blocking spiders from the backlinks database sites. Nobody blocks Google, but lots of sites are blocking Ahrefs, Majestic, Alexa, and a ton of other sites.

On top of all that, Google has said they do not provide all your links either.

So yeah, if you do a little research into it, there is a lot of truth in what I am saying. Nobody has a freaking clue what their real anchor text ratios are. The only way you would know that is if your site existed in a vacuum.

If you are not keeping a track of the links that you are creating, even with mass blasting with tools like GSA, SENuke, xrumer etc then you're shooting yourself in the foot... Further a lot of those links dont stick when using such tools - so one indeed needs to keep on top with ensuring the links are live... If you are not doing that and only relying on 3rd party backlink crawlers then.. indeed you're going to miss a ton of links - but funnily enough the vast majority are the ones you created...

I would never point those links at anything I cared about, so I wouldn't track them anyhow.

Well - you started it... On your post #8 you stated Google states so... which I disagree..... and funnily enough it looks like you're agreeing with me now that I have cited G's opinion from the horses mouth... To be blunt I dont give a rat's a** what Cutts and Mueller have to say lol...

Sorry, what I was getting at is they have said there are exceptions. Matt describes one in that video. I'm sure there are others. Hell, I've tested it. There are definitely others.

I have a lot of respect for your views - sorry to say but in this case you're on a tangent talking about stuff - which for most it doesn't apply given the extremities, coupled with the lack of missing information which can be misleading to newbies....

There is nothing misleading for newbies. The bottom line I was getting at is spam will get you in trouble period. Don't think that just because you spam with nofollow links that you are safe from any future penalties.


By the way, two of the tests we ran we spammed the crap out of a page with mostly nofollow links. It tanked. We submitted a disavow file, where we ONLY submitted nofollow links. The sites both recovered. Not back to exactly where they were, but pretty close.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Sure seemed like the nofollow links were the problem though.