Dealing with links to your domain that the previous owner set up
-
Hey everyone,
I rebranded my company at the end of last year from a name that was fairly unique but sounded like I cleaned headstones instead of building websites. I opted for a name that I liked, it reflected my heritage - however it also seems to be quite common.
Anyway, I registered the domain name as it was available as the previous owner's company had been wound up. It's only been in the last week or two where I've managed to have a website on that domain and I've been tracking it's progress through Moz, Google & Bing Webmaster tools. Both the webmaster tools are reporting back that my site triggers 404 errors for some specific links. However, I don't have or have never used those links before. I think the previous owner might have created the links before he went bust.
My question is in two parts. The first part is how do I find out what websites are linking to me with these broken URL's, and the second is will these 404'ing links affect my SEO?
Thanks!
-
Removing 404 urls from Google indexes is a never ending job and often requires multiple submissions until they go away.
But when should you submitt them for removal?
If Moz finds them but Google is not reporting them yet in wemaster tools or Analytics...
should you be proactive and submit them to google for removal?
OR
Wait until the show up as an error by Google? -
Hi Matt,
Yes they all are! I'm going through the responses now and trying out the suggestions.
-
Hey mickburkesnr!
Are any of these answers helpful?
-
This is a common problem, you have three options:-
Attempt to get the links taken down (by contacting the Webmaster)
Use the Google Disavow Tool tool
Recreate content on the siteTo do any of the above as you mentioned you will need a list of URLs to fix, I would recommend using Google Webmaster tools & Moz Open Site Explorer.
You can also use Google search engine and search for the following:-
"-site:yourdomain.com yourdomain.com"Remove speech marks
Hope this helps.
-
It's my opinion that the Gary Illyes quote is a little out of context for the situation. Dead inbound links (404 errors) could be a bad thing, if the links are of good quality. It's more than likely Mr. Illyes was addressing on-page 404s, and in that context I would mostly agree.
Though to be pedantic, 404 errors slow page load time - and speed is a ranking factor. So while broken on-page links may not result in a direct penalty, it definitely doesn't do any favors for on-page SEO.
-
Before we get to the links:
Apologies in advance for all of this, but I know it can be helpful for your current situation and in the future.
The first thing that would have helped is using SEM Rush to possibly get an idea of the domain's ranking history. I say 'possibly', because it's not so great with domains/pages that geo target smaller cities. A site could be going gangbusters for Paducah, Kentucky targeted queries, and SEM Rush more than likely won't pick up on that. Major metros? Yea varily.
SEM Rush can also possibly help you determine if the site has been hit by various algorithm updates. Generally if a sharp drop in organic traffic occurs within, or shortly after, the same month of a spam related update there's a good chance the site has been penalized. If such is the case, it could more than likely hurt your efforts for some time.
In more competitive niches - penalties aren't always the case. Sometimes the competition is fierce and sites lose traffic to competitors at the time of algorithm updates. Use Moz's Google Algorithm Change History to help with those efforts.
There's also the possibility that whoever owned the domain previously made some pretty bad mistakes with their front end deployment. You can use Wayback Machine to possibly figure some of that out (you may even be able to grab a sitemap). Sometimes people/companies had enough rope to hang themselves, no algo or competition necessary.
Now... to the links!
The short answer to your second question is variable. You may have some really great links out there that are currently pointing to a dead page. On the other hand, you could have a ton of spam. So you can hurt your search engine optimization efforts through inaction or action. The rest of this is a general overview of what you should do.
It's always a good idea to get more than one source of link data. Always. Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Open Site Explorer are all good 'free' sources of link data. I would also recommend Ahrefs and Majestic.
All of those sources will tell which page has received links, as well as the anchor text used. Ahrefs and Majestic in particular are pretty good at showing you which inbound links lead to a 404. From there, you can choose whether or not you want to 301 to a new page with comparable content.
Just make sure that you're not bringing in a whole lot of spam links, and be especially judicious about links with exact match anchor text. A boiler plate example would be 'keyword city'. The rest of your decisions should be based on Google Quality Guidelines with special attention paid to the Link Schemes section.
And should some of those linking domains not pass your judgement call, add them to your disavow file to be safe. You can disavow entire domains, so you're not bogged down in individual link entries. Just make sure to note that you had just purchased the domain, and the domain looked suspicious. Here's the official documentation for the disavow tool.
Best of luck, and I'm sure you'll have more questions. Feel free to post them here.
-
Hi,
To check broken links/URLs (the http response ‘404 not found error’) on your website) you can use Screaming Frog SEO spider which is free in lite form, for up to 500 URLs.
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/broken-link-checker/
Gary Illyes from Google says "Whoever came up with the idea that having 404s gives a site any sort of penalty, you're wrong. Utterly wrong."
Please also read this post @ https://plus.google.com/+JohnMueller/posts/RMjFPCSs5fm
Hope this helps.
Thanks
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
-
Deep Link Ratio
Hi there, What ratio links should be to a homepage compared to deep links? I'm aware there probably isn't a fixed ratio, and it may depend on niche, but i've heard Penguin is on the look out for people that link to heavily to content deep in their sites (product pages etc.) Any thoughts?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jennie.evans0 -
Why Link Spamming Website Coming on First Page Google?
As we all already know about link spamming. As per Google Guidelines Link building, Exact Keywords Anchor Link Building is dead now but i am looking most of the website coming on first page in Google doing same exact keywords linking. I think directory, article, social bookmarking, press release and other link building activity is also dead now. Matt always saying content is more important but if we will not put any keywords link in content part then how website rank in first page in Google. Can anybody explain why is website coming on first page because when i am doing same activity for quality links with higher domain authority website then we are affected in Google update.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | dotlineseo0 -
Buying a domain vs. renting a domain
I am considering buying and redirecting a domain that has a pretty strong, relevant link profile. However, it's very expensive. There is another option to rent the domain on a month-to-month basis. I am interested in doing this for at least a month just to see what SEO benefits are to be had and if it would ultimately be worth buying or not. Can renting a domain have any negative impacts on my primary site? Would the search engines know if I did this? Is there any harm in having those redirects appear and then disappear?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jampaper0 -
What are some of the worst links that you have come across?
I'm talking the least relevant and incredibly spammy. We've all done site audits and stumbled across some ridiculous ones. The funnier the better. I'm compiling a list of hilarious links that sites have gotten. Any input would be great!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | KevinBloom0 -
Spam linking site how to report
I have a spam linking site that is generation thousans of links to my site. Even if i have a good link background, this is the only spammy i have, each week number of links comings from it increases by 500 , i know have 3000 links for that site and 1800 for other sites, but that one keeps growing What should i do, i dont want that link it is imposible to remove as webmaster does not respond
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Site being targeted by hardcore porn links
We noticed recently a huge amount of referral traffic coming to a client's site from various hard cord porn sites. One of the sites has become the 4th largest referrer and there are maybe 20 other sites sending traffic. I did a Whois look up on some of the sites and they're all registered to various people & companies, most of them are pretty shady looking. I don't know if the sites have been hacked or are deliberately sending traffic to my client's site, but it's obviously a concern. The client's site was compromised a few months ago and had a bunch of spam links inserted into the homepage code. Has anyone else seen this before? Any ideas why someone would do this, what the risks are and how we fix it? All help & suggestions greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance. MB.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | MattBarker0 -
How fast should I make links
I have an eCommerce site. I like to review 100 of my products on Squidoo. There will be 50 lenses each lens will review 2-4 products. Each lens will link to each product review and one link to website URL. at the end of the project I would make around 200-250 links to my site. How should I extent the work. Should I do it within a month? of course I will do my other link buildings along with this task Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | giftbasket4kids0 -
New website :301 redirection of a established domain
Hello , I am launching a new website which would host user generated content . Based on my brandname i have purchased a new domain . In order to improve SEO rankings i was considering to purchase a good quality domain (have gr8 link backs) and then perform 301 redirection of the domain to the new brandname.co.in domain . Does this work ? Is there any harm in doing this ? . Does the Link juice pass naturally ? Warm Rgd
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ShoutOut0