Opinions On Resource-Page Linkbuilding

[Tomwindham]

Hi, I'm just looking to get some opinions on resource-page linkbuilding.

These are links you would gain from sites when you use the following type of search operators:

"keyword" + inurl:links
"keyword" + inurl:resources
"keyword" + "helpful links"
... and so on...

What do you think Google's thoughts on this subject would be when a large portion of the pages returned are long lists of links - usually these will be the title of the page linked to as well as either a bare link or an anchor text link. In some instances a short description of the page linked to would also be there.

Are these long-term links that will continue to be relevant and worth spending time on for linkbuilding, or are these going to be see by Google as lower-quality links and potentially unnatural ?

For example, Google's page on link schemes states; "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" may violate their guidelines. Do you think that in some cases, resource pages may be seen as somewhat fitting this description?

Thanks!

[Edit] I have also found this comment from a Moz post 4 years ago, but cannot find any other reference to John commenting on resource pages: "A while back, someone asked John Mueller in a hangout about the benefits of getting a link on an outdated resource page and the answer was that if it is a link that never gets clicked on then it's probably not passing a lot of value."

[Paddy_Moogan]

Hi there,

As a link building tactic, I think that what you're describing is perfectly fine and within Google guidelines as long as a few things are true:

• The resource you're linking to is genuinely valuable and high quality
• The pages you're getting links from a relevant, high quality and not just "made for SEOs"
• This type of link doesn't make up the bulk of your link profile - you should try to get links via other methods too and not just rely on this

Longer term, Google may get better at working out which of these types of links are lower quality, but I don't think they will ever put a blanket rule in place to mark them all as low quality - there are just too many that are genuinely useful and relevant.

I hope that helps!

Paddy