Global navigation & backlinks to external sites

[cos2030]

Hi guys,

My company has a number of websites of which the main corporate site links to via its global navigation. This global navigation sits within a simple

with no HTML

<nav>markup.

Every time a new page gets created on the main corporate, a backlink gets generated to those external sites. And the anchor text is always the same. As the corporate site publishes new pages frequently, I'm wondering whether this ongoing building of links using the same anchor text would be a cause of concern for Google (i.e. too many links from the same domain with the same anchor text).

Would really appreciate some insight here, and what could be done to fix it if it's an issue.

Many thanks

</nav>

[FedeEinhorn]

Hmm.. usually it is advised to nofollow those kind of links. However, as your main corporate site links always to the same places (how many external sites?) there shouldn't be any problem, still it wouldn't hurt to nofollow them to avoid any penalty.

[cos2030]

Hi Federico

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. There are probably over 20 sites, but the number in the global nav changes - usually anywhere from 10 to 15.

Cheers

[FedeEinhorn]

Well, 20 are a lot, those sites are probably safe, but the main corporate site might be flagged as "selling link" although it isn't.

I just had my manual penalty revoked, and in the process they pointed a link from federicoeinhorn.com to my business site (the link was in the about page saying I was the CEO of *** and a link there). Google pointed that specific link as one of the examples of the infringing links, therefore I would suggest you do a nofollow to all those external links in the nav.

[Thos003]

Well it certainly doesn't sound natural. Is there a benefit to creating these links outside of SEO?

[cos2030]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for responding. Funnily enough, the links aren't there for specific SEO gain - my company oversees a range of initiatives (such as public events) and the navigation is intended to provide our audience with an overview of all the other things we do. The events are seasonal, so they drop in and out depending on the time of year.

In saying all of this, I am event tracking use of this specific navigation, so time will tell if its 'useful'; but as this stage I'm concerned about the potential negative SEO effect from the backlinks.

Many thanks.

[Thos003]

Fair enough. If you believe there is a benefit to your users then proceed. Sounds like they are seasonal navigational links and that they could be good for users. But because this tactic could be used to manipulate search, it might still raise flags.

If you are automating these links and they all appear on the same day at the same time with the "Exact same fantastically keyword stuffed anchor text" then it will look suspicious. If these are links pointing to a uniquely titled event, "November SEO Evangelist Raleigh" and the news is published casually in content over a few days after the original announcement then it will look less suspicious. Especially if the each publication adds in some additional commentary about the event that makes it useful for each site's distinctive audience.

As with everything SEO, test it out. You should know fairly quickly if you get an algo penalty. You should also know fairly quickly if users are finding the links useful. I would certainly "NoFollow" the links.