What is your opinion on link farm risks and how do I explain this to a client?

[PlusROI]

Hi All,

I have a new monthly retainer client who still has a $600/month "linkbuilding" contract with a large national advertising/directory organization (I won't name them but I'm sure you can guess).

I just got a "linking" report and it's filled with garbage:

• Comment spam (on huffington post).

• Fake G+ Account

• Links from multiple sites with Domain Authority of 1 (http://encirclehealth.net/, http://livingstreamhealth.co/ , etc). These have no "about" sections, no ads, no products - just blatant link farms.

I've told the client that these links pose a danger in Google, that he should get them to remove them, and that he should request a refund.

Their rep is pushing back hard and saying there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

Am I overestimating how bad/dangerous these are?

How would you explain to the client the risks?

I've already shared a report and my recommendations with the client but am really just looking for some affirmation of my position that these MUST get removed.

Any advice much appreciated!

[grasshopper]

Hi Robert,

You're doing the right thing!

1. Ask the right questions (you are)
2. Ask them in a reputable community (like this)
3. Take the combined weight of your own experience and good feedback from the Moz community to your client (your next step)

You should expect to get a blizzard of counter-argument and obfuscation from the link development company.  These days, it's very likely that the rep in question spends a lot of time on the phone trying to explain away the fact that his company has a "Kick Me" sign on its back, and that his comany's activities put their clients at risk.  He's just trying to stop the bleeding.

Your advice to your company is directed toward making sure that your website is in the best possible position to earn your company money over the long term.  The rep is just trying to keep yet another client from cancelling on him - which is a goal not aligned with the long-term health of your website.

[JaneCopland]

The other responders here are right - that activity needs to be stopped right away. It's highly unlikely that they'll get away with it for much longer, and when they're hit it won't be pretty.

[gazzerman1]

The next Penguin update is just 3-4 weeks away now if consistency is anything to go by.

They may get what is coming to them in a short time frame! This would be very sad indeed and recovery time on large domains can be a long process taking over a year in many cases.

Remember that Google says that buying links is a NO NO, that includes all kinds of buying, such as I will give you a gift in exchange etc.. Those are hard to detect but the others are so obvious that a computer can detect them with a simple algorithm. Those are the ones you will get hit by and it wont be long before someone else in your niche reports them.

Its just a matter of time. Every update scrapes deeper into the barrel until all are affected by it. One thing is for sure they will have suppression from the Penguin Algorithm, those bad links act like minus points, eventually it will out weigh the good ones and they will drop in rankings. Removing bad ones can actually increase rankings!

[PlusROI]

Thanks William, that's a great post.

As much as I feel totally confident in my position, sometimes the confidence of a natural introvert like myself starts to wane in the face of a barrage of a blunt but relentless opposing argument from someone like this rep.

[EGOL]

Have that client come in here and see how many people are cryin' because their site dropped into oblivion.

Now they are stuck with $4,000,000 of inventory in a $12,000 / month warehouse and a dozen employees to fire.

To pull themselves out they gotta pay big money for a link cleaning job and then they have a site that ranks deeper than is useful.... and $4,000,000 of inventory in a $12,000 / month warehouse and no sales coming in.

[WilliamKammer]

They absolutely need to removed as quickly as possible. You are in the right and that company is just doing what companies do and protecting themselves. If the articles on MOZ aren't enough to convince your client, here's one from Forbes... maybe he'll listen to that one: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2013/10/09/seo-rankings-tanking-check-for-bad-incoming-links/

A large portion of my job with new clients is now link cleanup and disavows, because they suffered this kind of penalty with who was doing their marketing before us.