John Mueller of Google recently stated on Twitter that “the quality of links doesn’t depend on their nationality or the languages they speak.”
Regardless if your site gets links China, Africa or Europe, and even if those sites use anchor text directing towards your site; having anchors or links from offshore sites like the ones mentioned is not bad or spammy.
As everyone knows, the new Google Penguin algorithm is a global one. Basically, this means Penguin in not like Panda, and does not change due to the page language.
The new Penguin algorithm also saw a much welcomed change to the linking world; Google is now only devaluating spam links, as opposed to demoting them (as was previously done). Before this change, SEOs and site owners feared anxiously about possible link demotion. Since links are an indispensable piece of the internet, it is great that Google is not taking a zero policy in regards to them.
As Penguin is now part of Google’s core algorithm, it appears Google is attempting to match their own algorithm to the web, and not the other way around.
In spite of some fears and differing opinions, links are still important! Recently senior strategist from Google stated that the two top factors for rankings were links and content.
