Has anyone changed domain after "unnatural link message" from Google?
-
We received a "unnatural" email from Google approx 6 months ago and have tried removing all links but it is proving to be near impossible - has anyone undergone a domain change and moved their sites to get rid of the penalty?
-
thanks
-
OK well the Disavow tool if your friend in this case.
You can read more about it here if you wish, and I have some links at the end that will be of use:
http://www.inetseo.co.uk/seo/google-disavow-links-tool/2012/10
Hope that helps,
Andy
-
we did yes....
-
That's a shame Jason - can I ask did the drop happen at the same time as the warning? If not, it could be a nasty coincidence that you were hit with an update at the same sort of time.
Andy
-
our site dropped for all main terms......
-
Absolutely - Try the new Disavow tool in WMT - this can take a few weeks for the crawl to happen, but should prove less of a headache than going down the route of changing domain.
Also remember, a warning doesn't mean you are being penalised.
Andy
-
I agree with Marcus, it really sounds like you need to consider the disavow tool. I would assume since you have been working on this for 6 months you have a lot of notes about what was done to try and get links removed which will certainly help with your disavow.
I would also like to add a link to the Matt Cutts from Google YouTube video regarding this tool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=393nmCYFRtA
-
I have not done this, but in theory, this should be a way to start again. Of course, you could always consider the Disavow Links tool as an alternative.
If you are going to move domains, then I would do it gradually in the following stages:
1. remove all the current site from the index
2. change domain
3. reindex the site
This will remove any kind of penalty but it is starting from ground zero again so the Disavow links tool may be a better option if you have tried multiple reconsideration requests but made no progress.
Ref:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-disavow-tool-take-a-deep-breath
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Effects of a bad link linking to a image
i am getting a lot of links from wallpapers sites.. One person has created 1000's of similar sites that are linking back to my images. My guess is images do not pass link value positive or negative. But I am not sure what the potential effects would be. Does anyone know who linking to images might effect SEO especially when there coming from horribly low quality auto generated sites.
Link Building | | KentH0 -
Should I disavow spammy links that are showing in Open Site Explorer but not showing in Google Webmaster Tools?
Howdy Mozzers, After carrying out a backlink audit for a client, Open Site Explorer shows a range of outrageously spammy links for guys wanting a bit of assistance in the bedroom area, and so on. Hopping over to Google Webmaster Tools, there is no reported trace of said spammy links (for either of the www/non-www versions of the site). There are also no manual webspam actions found on the www/non-www Google Webmaster Tools accounts for this website. So my question is: do I carry out a pre-emptive strike and go down the disavow process of requesting removal from the spammy sites, and then submit a disavow request to Google after allowing a suitable period of time for the junky/compromised website to (not) respond? Or do I just leave it alone? Thanks in advance for your wise words of wisdom and pearls of clarity.
Link Building | | wh-seo0 -
Does Google drop links from page rank N/A sources?
Hi Everyone,
Link Building | | AMA-DataSet
I've started doing some link analysis on one of my site that has over nearly 800 links in total (which I got from the webmaster tools downloading the latest links). When I go on to Google and use the "link:www.mysite.com" directive it will only display 12 links. Does this mean Google is only counting 12 links from the link profile? Iv checked the freshness of some the links it wasn't displaying within Google to check they hadn't all expired. Links from march 2013 still don't appear. This sites link profile has been untouched for at least a year now and is full of directories many of which have a page rank of N/A hence my question. (I'm surprised it hasn't been hit by penguin!) Thanks in advance.0 -
"Bad" backlinks
Hello dear community, I am new here and quite new to SEO. Perhaps someone could give me a hint on a following question: Which tools can help me to track "bad" baclinks, e. g. links which would rather downgrade my SEO performance?
Link Building | | hochzeitsfotograf0 -
Changing Anchor Text and Domain Name on external sites
Hey guys, I was hoping somebody might be help with my current dilema. We have a international website due to go live soon which has changed its brand name. It is International educational website funded by the government is all I can tell you I'm afraid. They have over 40,000 inbound links many of which are images. I'm wondering what i site best approach. To contact the web master of the top PR sites and ask them to change the listing to the new brand? I was also thinking if I was to leave most of them there as they would be redirected anyhow. Could I be clever and add the new brand link to some of these sites without removing the old and reap the benefits of having two links, the old site url and the new site url? Here is the main dilema though, the commission wish to keep the old site live for 6 months before we can redirect. Thanks, Rob
Link Building | | daracreative0 -
Domain name holding pages link back, good or bad?
We are a web design and hosting company http://www.spiralsites.com But when we register domains for clients, or they take email only or a name is parked we have it using a holding page which can be seen as follows: http://www.jcevents.co.uk/ is this a good thing? Bad thing? Could it would it should it benefit our rankings? Should we do more to make it look less like our main site and actually try to use it better to help rank our other services pages?
Link Building | | spiralsites0 -
Which link should I use for link building?
I have an article which have high rank on Google. But recent, I use mod rewrite url so this article have new url. old: mywebsite.com/c1/p-1 new: mywebsite.com/c-e/p-1 Now, google is indexing old url. I want to ask when I build linking to my site, which link should I use for link building? I should build linking for new url or old url. Thanks
Link Building | | sonzin13040 -
High Domain Authority Even Though It has spam links to it...?
I own a domain that can provide links to my website, but it seems to have picked up a lot of spammy links - 2000+ linking domains. SeoMoz toolbar still gives it a domain authority of 66. Should I use the domain to link to my site? Or will it have a negative impact?
Link Building | | barnst0