Is it a bad idea to link a Hubpages article to a niche site article?

1. 85

   NateB11posted 5 years ago

   I wrote an article and put a link to one of my other articles which is on a niche site. So, it's a link from Hubpages to a niche site. Now many are saying Hubpages looks bad to Google. Is this link going to be considered a "bad" one and affect rank in the search engine?

   replyreport
   1. 42

      zobayer eusufposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I don’t think so,if linked site & article is relevant.

      replyreport
      1. 85

         NateB11posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, bro, that seems to be the consensus so far..

         replyreport
2. 85

   NateB11posted 5 years ago

   *bump*
   
   Sorry, folks, still curious if anyone has an answer to this question.

   replyreport
3. 84

   EricDockettposted 5 years ago

   It's fine. Ideally it would link to whichever niche site your new HP article will eventually move to but as long as the link is relevant it should be be ok.
   
   Linking in the other direction is what is bad. From niche site back to HP. Don't do that.

   replyreport
   1. 85

      NateB11posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Eric, much appreciated.
      
      Now I'm curious though. Why is it bad to link from niche site to HP but not from HP to niche site? Hard for me to wrap my brain around it, I feel like I almost get it.

      replyreport
      1. 84

         EricDockettposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         When Google crawls your page it sees your links, and links to high-quality sites tell them your page has value. That doesn't mean you can't link to small blogs or lesser-known websites if they are relevant and are the best source of information. It just means that those links aren't quite as helpful from an SEO standpoint. 
         
         It is a smart practice to link to quality, authoritative sites whenever possible. HP is not a quality site and it isn't authoritative about anything. It is no longer trying to be. It is more like a slush pile and content wasteland. In the past few years all of the good articles have been moved to niche sites.
         
         Think of it like this: If you write an article about baseball, Google would expect to see a relevant link to a site like ESPN. ESPN is well-known. well-respected site about sports. But what about a link to HubPages? HubPages is a site about nothing and everything and none if it is very good.
         
         Linking once to a highly relevant HubPages article from your niche article isn't going to get you banished to SEO hell, but it isn't likely to help you much either. The real damage occurs when many people are doing it. When you have hundreds or thousands of links from one site to another that don't appear relevant, that is a big problem. The editors are going to snip those links and I don't blame them.
         
         Consider the ESPN example again. It would make sense that HowTheyPlay might eventually have hundreds of links to ESPN over time. But why in the world would HowTheyPlay have hundreds of links to HubPages?
         
         That doesn't make sense and it appears unnatural. It looks like we are up to something, either trying to funnel traffic or engaged in link manipulation of some kind. That can get the whole niche site dinged.
         
         Linking from HP to the niche sites is a little different. For one thing, if you have written a new articles it is probably going to move to a niche site soon. Ideally, the same one you linked to. So, those external links become internal links and as long as they make sense in context they are no worry.
         
         If you write an article about baseball and, for whatever reason, it stays on HP, your link to HowTheyPlay is far less of a concern as long as it is relevant. HowTheyPlay is about sports. Your article is about sports.
         
         In theory, hundreds of links from a HP site to a niche site could also look dodgy, but given the amount and type of content left on HP is seems less likely that a lot of people are doing that. It is also probable that Google understands the relationship between HP and the niche sites.
         
         Sorry long long. Hope it makes sense.

         replyreport
         1. 85

            NateB11posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks, Eric, very helpful!

            replyreport
4. 61

   paradigmsearchposted 5 years ago

   My current practice is to not create any links whatsoever between the hubpages domain and any of my articles or websites anywhere; not to and not from. I believe doing so would have a real risk of a negative SEO impact. And I believe any generation of additional traffic would be minimal to none anyway, so why take the risk? Frankly, I don't even like our profiles on the HP domain linking back and forth to our niche site articles. Oh, well.

   replyreport
   1. 85

      NateB11posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, you know, I think I'll remove the link to be safe. It's mostly an unnecessary link that would have minimal benefit anyway.

      replyreport
      1. 85

         NateB11posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, not sure yet. Might give it more thought.

         replyreport
         1. 61

            paradigmsearchposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            A  writer's trials and tribulations never end.

            replyreport
5. 82

   Ben716posted 5 years ago

   I am not very sure but a link I had included in one of my articles in a niche site to Hubpages was unlinked.
   
   I think Hubpages doesn't want links from Hubpages appearing on their vertical sites.
   
   I might be wrong but I think I might be right

   replyreport