SEO value in multiple backlinks from same domain and from various sub-domains.

[knielsen]

1. A site has a link to my site as one of their main tabs, which means whenever a user clicks through to another page within the site, my link - being a main tab - is there. This creates thousands of links from this site. How does Google treat this? Do we have a rough formula estimate. In other words, assume it creates 1,000 backlinks would the SEO value be around the same as if I had just 2 link total as a main tab, but on 2 different non-related sites? Or, does it actually count fully as 1,000 links?

2. Links from various sub-domains. Several .EDU's are linking to my site. Different schools within the overall same university. Example: nursing.abc.edu links to my site, but so does business.abc.edu. For SEO does that count as much as if I had links from complete non-related universities, or would Google evaluate that these links are related (since same main domain) and that will discount any links more than 1 to some extent? If discounted, then what do we estimate the discount to be?

thank yoyu

[VentaMarketing]

These links do not count as 1,000 links from 1,000 seperate website, since Google does recognize linking root domains.

The most important link to your website would be from the page with the highest page authority, which is almost always the home page.

I am not 100% sure, but I remember reading about a recent Google algorithm update that targets multiple links from one domain. Web design firms were affected, since they typcally sign the footer, which creates a link on every page of the website.

The subdomain, works similar to a subpage. Google will notice the root dominan, which is abc.edu.

I do not think you are at risk of a penalty or anything like that, but if you want to continue to increase your rankings, once you get a link from a domain, I would focus my efforts on getting another link from a separate root domain, instead of a link from a subpage or subdomain from the same root domain.

[knielsen]

thank you. This does make sense and I appreciate the insight. I am still curious if anyone may have even more specific insight on the matter. It would be interesting to know how much the SEO value gets reduced in both cases

[WhoWuddaThunk]

1. To answer your first question, it does count all the links.  However, there is a massive diminishing return for anything over 2 links on one site.  So, having 1,000 links from one site would not be beneficial.  Instead, have them change it so you get one link on their top two pages, and none anywhere else.  You can use Opensiteexplorer.org and the top landing pages tab to find which two pages to request a link from.

2. A sub-domain is a separate site, and would therefor have its own ranking ecosystem.  Even a www.abc.edu is a sub-domain of abc.edu.  So, getting a link from a sub-domain would be as beneficial, everything else being equal, as getting it from the root domain.   Just make sure it's just a link or two, and not site wide like you suggested you currently have.

[knielsen]

1. it sounds like you think there could be downside in having this many links. Again, it is from a main tab on their homepage, and since the main tabs follow on all pages, so does my website link. I understand if the site linked to my site from different locations (main tab, in article, footer etc etc) that looks odd. But since it is from a main tab that creates thousands of links I can't understand why that could be a negative.

[VentaMarketing]

Here is a recent article in published in Search Engine Journal about subdomains and subpages, as they relate to SEO:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/subdomains-or-subfolders-which-are-better-for-seo/6849/

It looks like Cody is right, Google does recognize them has seperate, but a recent tweak in Google's algorithim, now cause them to be recognized as being associated with each other.

I would think that this means a link from a subdoamin and a root domain would not be equal to two links from two different root domains.

Cody, thanks for you insight, and I would love to hear what you think?

[VentaMarketing]

Kristian,

There is not really a downside to having a link on multiple page's of a website. You just can't expect all of these links to be counted a independent,and equal to a website with a link profile that has a wide variety of linking root domains.

I would not recommend removing any links on these website. I would just focus your time on getting links from other of root domains.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

This article talks about a website that received the Penguin penalty, and was able to start recovering by reducing the amount of site wide links: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2180722/Google-Penguin-1.1-Pushed-Out-As-Some-Sites-Report-Recovery

"A) Remove all of the crap sitewide links, weird anchors first, B) continue building good links and C) take advantage of press by pinging Danny Sullivan to try and get it featured on SEL to get in front of Google. Obviously A) was not going to be completely possible so I was going for "remove most of your crappy links."

So, I do believe that site wide links are bad, and that it would be better to limit the number of links.  Also, here is a reference about the diminishing returns on several links from one domain: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-link-based-spam-analysis-techniques

"The first link from a domain carries the first vote and getting additional links from one particular domain will continue to increase the total value from a domain, but only to a point. Eventually inbound links from the same domain will continue to experience diminishing returns. Going from 1 link to 3 links from a domain will have more of an effect than 101 links to 103 links."

[WhoWuddaThunk]

Even prior to reading that I would agree with your analysis.  2 links from separate domains are better than 2 links from the same root domain.

[VentaMarketing]

Cody, I would like to hear your opinion, but in Kristian's case, I would not think removing these site wide links would be a good idea, unless the links are spammy. Especially if the website has a good reason to be there (ex: it is a good resource, it is a sponsor, it si the parent company, etc.). As long as not all of the links in Kristian's backlink profile are site wide, I wouldn't link the website is at risk of a penalty. Also, I would not think removing a site wide link on an .edu site would be a good idea, just becuase all of the referral traffic potential.

Like I said, the site wide penalty seemed more geared to a web designer or hosting company that only have site wide links in their profile.

Cody, what do you think?

[WhoWuddaThunk]

If it had a good reason to be there, and you had a decent link profile, then you are probably safe.  Even so, I'd say try to limit them to relevant pages.

The real question, though, is how much traffic is driving?  If it is driving a lot of good traffic that converts, then you pretty much have to leave it there.

[VentaMarketing]

Agreed. Thanks Cody.