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Thanks for the responses! We only submit to decent niche or local directories but have found a few of the smaller directories have this problem. The site is set to redirect to the https version so it sounds like it is just the directories using the old scripts to validate the URL. Cheers for the help though, it has cleared it up

Thanks Patrick, the Linkarati article is especially helpful.

My gosh guys, thanks so much for the thorough and insightful answers! Ironically you both cleared up my game plan in other parts of my business indirectly. So now, aside from my initial question - I've got a better plan for that as well. Brilliant. Thank you so much!

To the point Egol I am not sure how google see the relevance, but getting a link from a relevant business that is not in the business of giving out links is a good link.

There is one more and very important point here. Can almost anyone get a link here? if so, then I would say no.

Patrick is on the money here, when you say you are getting links, did you go out and get them or are they natural. I don't think google is interested in 99% of any link you can go out and get yourself. And those that appear naturally are also 99% crap. You can get good sites to link to you but it is not easy, and you may get good sites to link to you naturally over time. IMO you are better off spending time in making sure your sites crawls perfectly, making sure you have good content, and describing your site to google using structured data. If your site is a good result for your keywords click data alone can do wonders for ranking

I'm going to give OutBrain a go. Any suggestions?

Q1: Google is very bad at dealing with stuff like this, they really don't care to much in my experience. I have seen otehrs try and flood the front page with things like twitter facebook and linkedin to push down negative content. Try to use these strong networks to boost his name. Also might as well give it a shot and report it to Google. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93713?hl=en Q2: Every day Googlebot gets smarter and more nosy! It crawls javascript it does al;l sorts of things. Crappy sites go up and down and have index issues eventually Google will get to them and index them. This is likely what you are seeing. If they are pretty bad then get them in the disavow file ASAP. A Penguin update is not that far away and you need to be ready a month in advance.

Hi there Here is Google's resource on link schemes - I suggest you read it. I would also suggest (based on Google's resource here) that you make this link nofollow. Since this is a sponsorshipesque link and you're a local business (if you're not, don't do this), then make sure you take the proper steps. Where would this link live exactly? Content? Sidebar? Ad? Let me know - thanks so much!

Hi, Yes it works and it is legitimate. Brian Dean (SEO expert) also suggest to do that. Please read 4th point in below link. http://backlinko.com/17-untapped-backlink-sources Hope this helps. Thanks

If I make a blog about what Lawyers should know about say, new adwords changes or something like that, and then get links from PPC type blogs, would that help? Negative, your best bet is to no rely on building links but useful, authentic content. Mentioning portals with great value and like minded vertical. Then once posted - mention them socially and through time - they and or other like minded sites will begin to reference you. Now, this does leave you open to the issue of reciprocal links - but algorithmically speaking - we may stimulate the 3 pro-dominant social back links - facebook, twitter, and google + ( while it lasts ;o) What if I made a blog about top movies with lawyers in them or something like that, and just got links from non lawyer sites. Once again, don't put your efforts in just link building - if it makes sense and you have done your SEO keywords analysis correctly - cater it to fit that market. Most importantly - time is the most precious commodity in a URL's value. Is that worth while? I have many lead gen type sites and built them with knowledge of knowing they would take 8+ months to begin to gain traction and attention. Hope this helps Chenzo

Try not to focus on percentages. most SEOs try and build a certain % of each type (branded, naked URL, exact match keyword, random anchors, synonym keywords, etc). The problem with trying to do this is you're manipulating your link profile. The key to building a natural link profile is letting the link type do the work. Take your Moz profile as an example. You're allowed a link to multiple sites - the NATURAL link type for this is naked. Other sites will let you add an anchor - if you do, use a branded one. Blog comments are another example. Most platforms will allow you to create an anchor, but it's unnatural. Use a naked URL for blog comments and you can diversify easily. There's a really good article that goes into detail about it here: http://webris.org/anchor-text/

I would say yes, worthwhile. This would also depend on the industry and purpose though. If your purpose is to get traffic then I think it can be very worthwhile depending on your content shared and the community you're sharing it with. If it's purely for organic ranking then I would say it's mediocre. Reddit being a "social" community will see right through links purely to build rank. Also, it's worth noting that this would also have diminishing value if you're trying to build rank through links on the same domain as a tactic. Here's a Reddit post with an answer to your question about follow vs nofollow links. Use Moz tool and you'll see that front page (popular) posts are follow whereas less popular posts are nofollow. I'm not too sure what the threshold is when nofollow links turn to follow, it might be worth testing though, especially if you have a fairly active/popular Reddit account you can use. Hope this helps.

Hi there The DA and link equity will need to be there.  In fact, the TLD (.org, .com. net etc) has no impact whatsoever. Yes, it may 'appear' to look more 'natural/authorative' if you had 100 links from .org websites as opposed to, say, .info websites - but I'm as certain as I could possibly be (without looking at it myself) that Google's algorithm doesn't look at a website's TLD when deciding it's authority and strength.  Nor would Moz's metrics. The website needs to have many more quality factors for it to be considered worthwhile, such as links, social metrics, high quality content, user engagement, age and more. Hope this helps.

Ok, so going forward if I let's say, profile a local lawyer on each local page, or a few local lawyers is that ok? Can I still title it Find a Lawyer Brampton, Find a Lawyer Mississauga, Find a Lawyer Stratford, if it is more unique from page to page?  Let me know, thanks. Rafe

thanks man

HI Cesar If you're worried about them you could always use the dissavow tool. The truth is we can never be in total control of backlinks as anyone can link to a website. Automated tools pull in content from Blogs, RSS etc. As long as your profile isn't biased to the Dark Side I wouldn't worry too much. Keep an eye on it and use the dissavow tool if required.

Google Alerts .. one of the handy tool to check up with brand mentions

But if you are trying to get a lot of backlinks from unrelated site then you have to aware of the output. Relevancy among the sites are one factors for ranking in google. So if you are going for a long term ranking its better to have a solid foundation built for what you are targeting for.

Oh - weird. I thought the first comments were from a Dmitrii, but now I see you share the same company Interesting topic thread for sure!