Are links from pages in other languages ok?

[jhinchcliffe]

Hey everyone, what are your thoughts on this? If a bunch of links from another language, say the site is in Canada and is in English but we have french links pointing to the site with english keywords...is that ok? Will that harm us?

Opinions? Facts?

[JakubMovic]

Hi Stephanie,

Think like Google Bot, if French website i saying "check this Company in Canada it's really great!" How that can harm you?

Seriously, if this link is natural and from good quality webpage you shouldn't worry.

Thanks,

Jakub.

[ZephSnapp]

Hi Stephanie,

It depends on how the links are structured (IMO).  You said that you have French links pointing towards the site with English keywords.  Does this mean that the page the links are on is in french, but the anchor text itself is in English?

Because that would be a little fishy.

On the other hand, if they are branded links, there is no reason to think that they would be harmful.

My rule of thumb is to apply common sense :).  If a person would look at the context of the page and the link intself and say, "Boy, that looks strange", then that is bad.  If it naturally flows, then that is good.  We are also learning that context is very important, and that Google is reading the words in front of and behind the link.  So be sure to look at that too.

I hope this helps!

[jhinchcliffe]

Thank you, actually a company we hired is doing this and I thought it was weird. They are actually making blog comments on a french page with keywords in english.

[jhinchcliffe]

Yes the page it links on is french, but the keyword anchor tect is in English see here http://www.veille-seo.com/articles/linkbuilding-pourri-oui-existe.html

I want to call him on it but am trying to build a strong case against it.

[ZephSnapp]

Oof.

We phased out comment links a long time ago.  Too spammy.  But of course I wish you success.

[jhinchcliffe]

LOL I didn't want those types of links, but these guys are vancouver based and we purchased a link building package from them. I feel their techniques are pretty poor and I am not happy with the little they have done so far.