Non-English Websites and Link Development

Should links be from same language sites?

[McMohan]

Well, fairly simple question.
While you are optimizing a non-English site (say Chinese), should you get links from same language sites? Lets say I have good quality links from authoritative English sites. Will they benefit me as much as links from same language sites do?

[webcertain]

Hi there,
IMHO links from authoritative English sites will always help the prominence of your site, but maybe not for what you want ie the search phrases (in Chinese for your example). If the anchor text used by these english sites is in english, then the effect on rankings will be minimised - and if you've only got links from english sites, there's a risk that the search engines will consider your site as relevant only for english speaking queries..
In a word, try to balance with links from China if that is your targeted market.
Good luck,
Johann

[McMohan]

Thanks Johann. Makes sense.

Personally, haven't much experience with optimizing sites other than in English. For one English site (PR7) which had Japanese version and without a single link from Japanese sites, I was able to rank for pretty competitive keywords. Doubt that may be due to the high natural PR the site enjoyed.

if you've only got links from english sites, there's a risk that the search engines will consider your site as relevant only for english speaking queries

Are we sure search engines do a theming/neighborhood for non-English sites?

Thanks
Mc

[webcertain]

"Are we sure search engines do a theming/neighborhood for non-English sites? "
Well sure is a word I avoid using when talking about se :-)
However it seems logical that, if in doubt (eg no cctld) se may try to define the origin of the site by the other sites linking to it.
Cheers,
johann