Backlink Audit
-
Hello,
I have a quick question for the MOZ readers about my companies current backlink audit. We've noticed many of the backlinks that the Google Webmaster Tool has found come from websites that are no longer in existence or have error messages. Are these websites counting negatively against us or should we ignore them?
Thanks!
Alex Rubin
-
Only if notified of unnatural links would I file a reconsideration request. Focus on building more links and creating new content.
-
If those pages don't exist anymore then they're not going to impact you one way or another.
Unless you've received some sort of unnatural link warning then I would concentrate more on building more good links and interactions than on spending time and resources getting rid of a number of links that you're not sure are hurting you. As long as you are continually building up your content and working to get good links and citations then the site should be moving in the right direction.
Lots of web sites have some "dirty links" and some sites do well in the serps despite outright spamming. A lot of the negative impacts I've seen has to do with tripping some boundary, so if you're working on the good links then you'll be walking back from that line instead of towards it.
-
Thanks for the response Craig! We are not going through a reconsideration request but we feel our site is not performing as well as it should be based on our content and link portfolio so we're hoping by removing some spam links from a past SEO organization we may get a boost in the rankings. Has anyone else seen an increase in rankings by removing spam links even if you technically had not been penalized?
-
If the pages are throwing a 404 or the links themselves are nofollowed, then you don't need to worry about them.
If you are putting together a manual link audit report for Google for a reconsideration request, I would include those links along with a column for link status and either set that as "nofollow" or "page generates 404 error" for those pages depending on the error.
If you're not going through a reinclusion request, then you can ignore those as Google will figure out those pages don't exist.
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
-
Backlink question
When I create a website for my clients, I always put our website link in the footer of the description, just to say 'powered by ieatdoorframes' with a link to our website. On SEMrush, its showing as a negative backlink with the reason 'compound', suggesting its a 'money term'. I add this link as I've had success getting new work from clients who like the site we built. I'm new to these terminologies and wondering what I should do?
Link Building | | chrisjordan0i10 -
Is there such a thing as buying white hat backlinks? (example)
Hi, would you guys recommend using a backlink service like this? https://www.peopleperhour.com/hourlie/gain-30-links-from-30-top-newspaper-sites-in-the-uk/396519Or is this the kind of thing that leads to being penalised?Over the years, I've always been told this is black hat and dodgy. Is that always the case?
Link Building | | landport0 -
Hidden Backlinks
Hi, I hope someone can help me with this. We have a competitor who appears to be ranking No1 for a competitive search term with a very lame site and above some authoritative sites. He has been here for some time as well. When we check out his back link profile through OSE, Majestic and Ahrefs they show as only 3 backlinks from no PR sites. However, someone pointed out that they could be using a link network that is blocking every crawler apart from Google, Yahoo and BIng. I would like to know if there is a way to confirm this. For instance I know that we can use screaming frog to mimic Googlebot, however, if there a way to reveal the real backlinks to a site like this using any tools. Thanks
Link Building | | kirstyseo0 -
Video Backlinks
This looks like an interesting idea from Wistia. Anyone have comments or experience with this? http://wistia.com/blog/video-backlinks Best,
Link Building | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher1 -
Backlinks outside my country
Hi there! If the product, service or resouce I offer is located in my country: Is it worth to include directories located in p.e EEUU in order to increase my Pagerank although this is not my potencial client (due to the "distance" obviouly).? If my potencial clients were people fromo other countries that could come to mine to enjoy this service? Should I include my links in directories of these countries and obtain links from websites of these countries? many thanks
Link Building | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Effectiveness of Forum Backlinks: specifically Paul's Backlinks
I know the general consensus is that these kinds of backlinks are of low value, however I'm curious as to anyones present day experience with them and if they are providing any value. More specifically, I am curious if they can do harm. I don't see how they could, as it would be a very easy tactic for an unscrupulous competitor to sabotage another by implementing them for their competitors. I can see possibly losing rank if they were discounted, however if this is the case, then it would only be rank that would not have been gained in the first place, minus those kinds of links. I ask because I have competing websites who have started to outrank me (they have been climbing and improving through each Google algorithm change in the past year), despite the fact that my mosrank and authority are better than every single one of them. But they have a sheer growing volume of backlinks that I can't match (seemingly low value when I look at their link profiles). Plus my domain is older (9 years as opposed to 3-4 years), and my site is clearly better (in terms of aesthetics, usability, content, etc), as well as my link profile being selectively cultivated from truly relevant sites. None the less, they are starting to kill me at this point -and I don't have the luxury of time. So....I was wondering about the wisdom of upping my volume of forum type links, as this is the only area of measurement where I can see my competitors are beating me. I am a believer in true, difficult, quality inbound marketing - however it is not getting the job done. Any thoughts on this?
Link Building | | csblev0 -
Are backlinks to a domain that redirects useless?
I am working on trying to get backlinks. We are currently redirecting a few Domains to our current domain name. One of the Domains that is redirecting is the main Domain, we will be advertising in the near future. Can I send backlinks to the redirected URL or does it only carry link juice if it is to the main Domain?
Link Building | | hfranz0 -
How much time Google takes to see my backlinks
Hi, I got bunch of nice links in high pr sites. But some links was a 2 month ago and i cant find it in webmastertools, opensitexplorer and yahoo, because of that i dont know if my links are working good for my site.
Link Building | | Ex20