Multilingual Sitewide Links

[comfortclick]

Multilingual links in the footer section is being counted as backlink and we are getting tons of backlinks from all the 7 lingual websites.

Is there a solution where we eliminate these links and still having the option to navigate to other lingual pages?

vr24NAv

[effectdigital]

There actually is! If you're worried that Google might see the links as 'manipulative' but you still need them for UX, then all you have to do is to is inject the individual links (in your footer / template) with rel="nofollow". Google will then discount the links from their algorithm

Note that if you are wrong and Google sees the links as valid and they are helping all your sites interconnect better (in terms of SEO authority) - then you could see some tail-off. Hope this helps

[comfortclick]

Hey,

Thanks for replying. Are you sure nofollowing own links is a good idea?

[effectdigital]

If your own links are being interpreted as link-spam and causing problems, then yes I am certain. If however your suspicions in that area are incorrect, then no it would be a bad idea. It depends upon your confidence in your evaluation of the situation at hand

Without evidence (performance impacts) that these links are harming you, I'd hold back. In which case, you can just leave them as they are and there's no need for 'any' action (this question becomes moot)

I assumed that your reason for waning to 'eliminate these links' was that you feared the SEO repercussions of leaving them (link spam). If you do feel that they are harming your site from an SEO POV, then yes - no-follow them across the board. However if your assumption in that area is wrong, you could see problems (so think hard on it!)

[comfortclick]

It was just a suspicion that google "might" think them as spammy.

Should I be even concerned about these?

Does backlinks from multilingual pages of our own website is common?

[effectdigital]

Without any indicators that Google 'do' think the links are spammy, I wouldn't worry about this too much. If you start to notice performance issues which you can isolate to these footer links, then I'd no-follow them right away

Usually site-wide links are only an issue between different domains, and even then - only if it's not a multi-domain site. A multi-domain site is usually where you have exactly the same site with linguistic differences, spread across multiple domains (so instead of having site.com/fr/ and site.com/en/, you have site.fr and site.co.uk). As long as the templates are highly, highly similar and Google begins linking the 'brand-entity' across those sites, there shouldn't be a problem

Lot's of sitewide links placed in footers across the web (cross-domain) are paid for links to manipulate SEO rankings. Those are bad. If your links are 'editorial' in nature (e.g: the site owner or editor decided they were required for user benefit) then I wouldn't be so concerned. There's always the chance Google's algorithm could get it wrong, and you could eventually have a problem

What you need to decide is, would you rather have some small performance issues now (by removing the links or no-following them) and prevent any further 'possible' action in the future? Or would you rather take a small risk, and keep your results solid. No one 100% knows how Google's algorithm(s) work (not even Googlers). As such, there are elements of chance at play here and only you can decide what you are happy with:

A) Undo or no-follow the links now for a high chance of mild devaluation now and some affected results, but it will almost 100% stop any site-wide linking penalty (which could wipe out all results) from occurring. The damage of that would be devastating, but the chance of it occurring in the first place is low

B) Leave the links as they are. Experience no mild devaluations or performance issues at all, for now. But possibly in the future, you get struck with a penalty and lose everything. The chances of that seem very low, but if it does happen... ouch

Sometimes both your choices are less than ideal. But you still have to choose! If it were me, I think (with the information which you have supplied thusfar) I'd leave it alone for now (but watch performance like a hawk)