Should receiving dozens of legitimate links make you nervous?

[gstlt]

Hi all,

Google has made it clear that it considers links built through press release sites as manipulative link building and one can assume that they refer in this context to press release sites that exist only for SEO reasons.

But it is also possible to receive a link in a press agency dispatch such as Reuters, afp etc. In this case, a site might receive dozens or even hundreds of links that have many characteristics of spammy links because

• they are from pages with identical content
• they have identical anchor text, which might even be a money keyword
• there are usually no canonical tags on the referring pages
• they appear in a matter of hours or a few days

On the other hand of course, the links will appear on very reputable sites, as these are regular media sites.

Do you know any case studies that look at this issue? Did you experience it yourself?

It just happened to me. I got even two links (both to my site's homepage) in a dispatch

• the first link has a four word expression as anchor text that is not really related to the topic of my site. The linked page now is search result #24 for this expression
• the second link has my brand name as anchor text, which does include a money keyword

No warnings in Webmastertools so far.

Should I worry or even go as far as disallowing these links?

Thanks for sharing your experience and opinion!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Frank,

Don't rush to disavow or worry about these links as Google will look at the types of sites where you are featured.

On the other hand of course, the links will appear on very reputable sites, as these are regular media sites

This is what matters in cases like this. The sites are reputable and that is a big plus. If you had an article spammed across 50 random blogs, then it might be a different story.

Without seeing everything for myself, it's a little hard to say with 100% certainty, but from what you said, it sounds OK.

-Andy