Do the number of back links to the root domain vs language subdirectories effect SEO?

Question

My project has two language, English and Arabic. For this project we need more and more back links. The root domain has almost 60k back links but sub folders like /en has only 11k and /ar has only 9000 back links. If the main root domain don't have language segment i am redirecting it to default language.

Do these back link differences effect SEO and ranking? If so, should I load default language site without language segment in the URL?

Answer 1

Well, you first really should be worried about the quality of those backlinks since if you're buying thousands of them AND asking a question like this here, chances are, those backlinks either don't do much, or do harm to your site.

Now about the destination, your links should organically lead to a languaged version of the site, especially if you force-redirect people from it. How do you imagine to pretend that these links are organic if they lead to a url that has always been redirecting to another? Way too sloppy to be safe.

So some advice:

1. Make sure you're building high-quality backlinks.
2. Explore and implement hreflang
3. Have the non-language version as default in hreflang, pick a language for it.
4. Don't redirect people against their will. The 2010 is over.
5. Closely monitor the results of your efforts in organic traffic reports.