Covering from link injection hack
-
About 3 months ago my site was hacked. Links were added to pages and pages were added. Whom ever did the hack made a bunch of scummy links back to my site. Now that the pages are gone off my site. Was wondering how I should deal with all the back links that are now getting 404s.
The two solutions I have thought of are 301 redirecting all the 404 to the homepage or disavowing all the backlinks.
Any advice would be awesome! Thanks!
-
Great thanks guys!
-
Disavowing would be a good option in this case.
You just need to tell Google that these links are of thin quality and don't want these to get associated with your website
-
Hi Murdacki
Here's what I would do...
-
Get a list of all your backlinks
-
Assess your backlinks
-
What ones are obviously spam?
-
What are your good backlinks?
-
Do any of those good backlinks link to your old spam pages?
-
You can use LinkRisk to assess your profile
-
Reach out to websites with links you want to keep
-
Have them correct the URL to a new relevant page
-
Try removing links that are from spam sites
-
Reach out and ask for the link to be removed
-
Do NOT pay to have links removed
-
Keep a spreadsheet of sites/pages you reached out to and those that removed links?
-
Here's a good resource from Moz.
-
Disavow backlinks that are obviously spam and could potentially penalize you
Do not blanket redirect backlinks to your homepage because you could have some bad backlinks that could backfire on you. This will take some research and work on your part, but will pay off in the end. You have to put a little effort into this, it won't be a one step solution.
Let me know if you have questions or comments. Hope this helps!
-
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
-
About Link Earning?
I own an e-commerce store and I am get started with my SEO strategy. I know content is extremely important when it comes to link building, however for an e-commerce store what can I do as far as content. So far my only idea is blog posts. It's a furniture store so videos are really hard to do. The blog posts relate to home decor and interior design. My question is if people are going to be linking to my blog, will this help my website rank for product terms? The blog is part of the website, websitename.com/blog.
Link Building | | The_Kiwi_Man0 -
Links from my Own Blog to my Own Website and Link Scheme
Hi There, I use my own blog to give advices and offer information related to my business service. Of course in terms of SEO my blog is useful not only to expand my brand presence but also to acquire long-tail traffic. I use to insert a maximum of one link with a relative matching anchor text in every article of my blog pointing to my own webpage. Said that, the questions are as follows: Am I involuntarily participating in a Link Scheme with my blog? And If so, how many links can I send to my own webpage ? Shall I limit the number of links to a minimum? Thanks a lot for your advices.
Link Building | | Midleton0 -
Indirect Link Earning via dofollow Links In News Articles
Hello, MOZ SEO Gurus. I've been trying to think some deep thoughts on safe, effective link earning for news publishing sites, and wanted to run this up the flagpole and see if you salute. Our site is a biotech news service -- we pump out copious amounts of news content each day, which works well for driving traffic. That being said, we also want to rank some optimized landing pages as well. Take, for example, this page, which we'd like to rank for "secondary progressive MS" and related keywords: http://bionews-tx.com/secondary-progressive-ms/ Now, as far as I'm concerned, shopping this page around to MS influencers isn't easy. I can go to Foundational websites, blogs, etc., and say, "hey, we have this info page on SPMS, and I thought that you might find it helpful/want to link to it." But chances are, the MS influencers already have their own proprietary content on SPMS, and there isn't much value to linking to it. Therefore, I think that we'll get few link earning conversions on the effort. However, what if I take our Secondary Progressive MS landing page, and I link to it in a corresponding article about SPMS research, as I did here: http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/01/30/secondary-progressive-ms-natalizumab-clinical-trial/ Then, I go to the drug developer who is at the center of this story and say to them, "hey, we recently covered your drug in the news, and I thought you might want to link to it." Then, we get a link from an MS drug developer to the news article, which in turn has a prominent anchor text, dofollow internal link to the landing page for SPMS. If the link from the drug developer is dofollow, then we flow page rank juice from the drug developer page to our news page to our landing page. To me, it's much easier to earn safe links this way than to try and shop the landing page itself. That being said, if we get a dofollow link on the news piece, we only get a diminished portion of page rank going to the landing page. Is this strategy viable? Is the indirect flow of page rank from a linking site to a news article to a landing page even worth it? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Link Building | | bionewstx2 -
Total Links vs Google Webmaster Site Links
I am interested why the numbers between SEOmoz and Google are so different. In SEOmoz we only show 17,000ish links from 190ish domains. In Google, we show 200,000+ links from 370 domains. Why is there such a dramatic difference?
Link Building | | webspecdesign0 -
What are the pros and cons of using a link builder? Can link building be outsourced?
Hi, I have great content on my website which I would like to build external links to from other websites. I am told this will increase my domain authority and ultimately help search engine ranking positions. I have very limited time in my hands and now thinking of outsourcing the link building component to a specialist. Is this a good way of doing it? Could you recommend professional link builders?
Link Building | | Saunders18650 -
Diversified Link Profile?
Hello,, I was wondering what type of ratio I should follow when building links to a page on my site? Broad, Exact, Phrase, Image? Is there a percentage I should shoot for? When you build links do you generally setup an excel spread sheet and watch to see what sticks using the seomoz link too? Last question, When I am building links, should the anchor text in the content Im publishing be a keyword I am trying to rank for in a search? Typically I try to rank for only 2-3 words per page. Sorry for all the questions, any help would be appreciated! I have a competitor that is spamming to death with Press Releases quite often, and the are bouncing ahead of us with Very Low Page Authority. Thank You!!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
Outsourcing Link Building - What Low LEvel Links Should One Start With 1st
Outsourcing Link Building - What Low Level Links Should I start with if my interest is get free immediate traffic as a direct result from placing links or what ever out there and what should I outsource 1st and why ? What questions should I ask my self that will help me determine where I should start with low level links ?
Link Building | | helpwanted0 -
Link Building Strategy
Hello Everyone, We have about 15 clients who we need to do link building for but I am at a loss on how to even begin. Does anybody have any tips or tricks to achieving quality back links in a short amount of time? Any help is appreciated!
Link Building | | imageworks-2612900