Disavow Links - how do you know if it's worked?
-
I asked another SEO company to analysis my link structure (as I was too busy!) As I was flat lining on some work I was doing. They said I potentially had an algo penalty and that i need to do a disavow , even though I had no messages from Google saying I had unnatural links. stupidly I agreed to the disavow. Looking at Webmasters tools it seems they've submitted a bunch of links. Since they've done this traffic dropped by 60%, ranking dropped massively. In google Webmasters all the links which are meant to be removed are still showing. How do I know if the actual disavow has been done? And should I do a reconsideration request? Even though Google hadn't flagged an issue ??
-
Thank you for this, it answers the question. I am going to get the sites which shouldn't of been cleaned out back into the mix.
-
I agree with Bill. Your disavowed links will still remain in GWT. You can download your current disavow file here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main
Even if you don't have a manual penalty, it's still not a bad idea to do some disavowing if you may have been affected by the Penguin algorithm. You won't get a message if this is the case. And, as Bill pointed out, you can't file a reconsideration request unless you have a manual penalty.
I'd download your disavow file, and review it to make sure that it contains obviously spammy links. One area that is grey are directory links. If the company has disavowed directory links that are from non-spammy looking directories it might be a good idea to re-allow them.
Another iffy area is guest posts. Right now, guest post links are working really well. But, I am quite suspicious that the next Penguin update will hit sites hard that have used guest posting extensively as a way to rank higher. For one of my own sites, I have just disavowed a number of guest posting links and yes, I took a hit in rankings. But, if I'm right, when Penguin refreshes, my site will come out ok whereas my competitors will be in trouble.
And one final thought....if your rankings drop happened any time around May 20, you may be dealing with a Panda issue and not a disavow problem.
Back to your disavow file....if you remove the links that you want to start counting again and re-file, then the next time Google crawls those links they will be credited back to your site again.
-
Thanks Bill, I can see some sites on the list so I can resubmit without these key urls
-
Here is my thoughts based on experience.
First the links don't disappear from Webmaster tools. You will still see them there. A reconsideration request only helps if you got hit by a manual penalty not algorithmic ones. If your traffic dropped after the disavow list was supplied it could be that you told Google to kill some valuable links and now you are missing that link juice. Though with that the flip side from mantra of causality and correlation that Rand preaches. Google has been rolling out some changes so your traffic drop could be unrelated.
I would go back to the disvow list though and see if they put some links in it that shouldn't have been flagged as spam and resubmit the list.
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
-
Links in other language than site's language
I have a quick question regarding usage of links in my articles or website. As I already told in my last night question, I drive 2 french blogs. I'm wondering if putting on english sites links in my articles or pages to add complimentary infos on a particular topic would be useful or messy for my SEO. In other words, will Google be misled by the fact that I write in french and that I put english links ot ressources in my texts even if they are on a related topic
Link Building | | MarcoBernard0 -
Is it possible to un-disavow a link if we later decide that it isnt spammy / undesirable ?
Is it possible to un-disavow a link if we later decide that it isnt spammy / undesirable ? (i know best practice is to get it right first time, but worst comes to worst is it undo able ?)
Link Building | | jpeg800 -
Grr SEO linking.. I am not understanding why I wouldn't have lots more links.. Please help. Thanks
I have done the whole moz open exploer and I am not understanding why my site wouldn’t have more links registering to my website.. I have lots of sites(directorys and 3rd party) with my website domain in them. The only one that is linking to my site is BBB.com and my advertsing with saint paul press. www.somerersetautodealer.com But if I have links with all kinds of automotive directories why wouldn’t they register? I am sure this a simply answer or that I am not understanding something. Thanks for your help! Scott
Link Building | | Scott12340 -
Starting a new site's link campaign... how to approach it?
Over the last few years I have been building content in my niche that I believe rivals some of the best content out there and deserves some attention. Although I have a plan to produce alot more content which I believe will take the quality and quantity of my content into a position among the top 5 or top 10 sites in my niche in the next 1-2 years, I decided that making that massive investment in content production irrespective of a consistent marketing plan is a recipe for failure because I need the positive feedback loop from site visitors to begin now, not in 2 years. Right now I'm in a position where I'm producing content that I think is better than alot of what's out there, and it's just not ranking the way I believe it should. I think I need to do a legitimate link building campaign to establish the website a little more firmly and put it on more level ground with some of its competitors. In Majestic SEO's "fresh index", most of my site's immediate competition have no more than 500 new domains in their links, though the biggest one has some 2,000. How can any link building effort I might take on possibly compare to links of this scale? Is there some "rule of thumb" for how many quality links I should aim for to get on square ground with some of the competitors on the lowest rungs? And if I try to build that many links at once, do I risk sending signals of untrustworthiness? (Assume I'm not going to be looking for any shoddy links, and in general will aim to follow Google guidelines.)
Link Building | | guitarsites0 -
Should I contact webmasters to remove URL's to my site from domains with a low DA?
Should I be contacting webmasters to remove URL's from domains with a low DA - to remove low quality links? Thanks, -Mike
Link Building | | naturalsociety0 -
A link with "return false"- OSE sees as a No Followed Link
Hello, I couldn't find a clear answer to the impact on SEO for a link written in this way: [" class="expert_info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">](w</span>ww.yourwebsite.com<span style=) [Does the "return false" act as a "no follow"? I came across this in our link data in Open Site Explorer which lists these links all as "no follows." However, an engineer I spoke to said that it shouldn't impact search engine behavior. Any ideas? Thank you in advance! -Sarah K.](w</span>ww.yourwebsite.com<span style=)
Link Building | | OneMedical0 -
Think I'm ready to do some link building. Couple questions.
Getting ready to do some link building. I've got several lists of competitors' links, including a bunch of sites with broken links that would be a great fit to link to us. I've got a capable VA to get started work on reaching out to people. Just curious if this is the right game plan, seems a little simple: For this round of link building I'm thinking all the links would point to my root domain. -Find quality sites/links to go after -Find an email to the owner/webmaster -Have the VA send them a value proposition email(i.e. why it's good fit for all)...or tell them about broken links etc. -Follow up myself when a response is generated. -Hope/verify they link to us. Thanks for the help with the newbie questions.
Link Building | | astahl110 -
Link value
Hi I have some links from blogs to our ecom website. My question is if anyone knows what happens if you have several different blogs on .blogspot linking in to you. Does that make them loose value because they are on the same domain? I can probably quite easily have 5-10 blogs on blogspot all with PA of 35-40 link in to us. Is it worth striving for or should i strive to get blogs that have their own domain to link into us instead ? Or equally important ? Dan Lærum
Link Building | | danlae1