How do we get rid of irrelavant inbound links
-
Hi Moz Community,
We were previously doing Content services and Design services. Now, we are only into design service and we have deleted all content services related pages. Our website has many inbound links coming because of the content services pages but they are not relevant to our present service anymore.
Will this affect our credibility on google and other search engines?
We have applied 410 code to many of these old pages. We have also redirected some of them to the wayback pages. However, they still appear as one of the popular pages.
Is there any solution for this?
What can we do to do away with many of these inbound links coming to our website which are not relevant anymore to our current service?
Your advice is so much appreciated.
Thanks!
-
Thank you so much, Hurf. That was helpful.
On our 410 page, we did write a note saying we no longer provide content services. The only thing that bothers us is that those old links keep showing on our most popular pages even after we 410ed them many months back and they still appear on our Search Console crawl errors. I think disavowing those links is not a good idea either as they were credible back then.
So, again does these crawl errors from the old links affect our credibility on search engines? Just want to be sure.
Thanks again!
-
If the inbound links are truly irrelevant to your company then a 410 redirect (Content deleted) is the best approach, as you're telling the search engines that you removed those pages on purpose and they should be de-indexed. A 410 should see this de-indexing happen pretty quickly (quicker than a 404, which will linger as there's a change the content was only temporarily unavailable and could return). This practice won't affect your credibility - it's simply good practice. There's no sense in redirecting them to the Wayback version of your site, either, as you simply don't offer that service any more, so the visitor is still none the wiser when they arrive there. An alternative, I suppose - if you'd like to point out that you no longer offer that service, would be to 301 redirect the remaining links to a page on your site informing visitors that you no longer carry out service X, perhaps offering a list of alternative service X providers?
My preference would be the 410 as that is best practice as 301 redirects to irrelevant pages have little or no value.
I hope that helps.
Good luck.
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
-
Should we get link from dated page with high PA/DA?
We have an unlinked mention on a page that has dated content about an old event but the page and site have a good PA and DA score. Is it worth it to go for the link? Thanks.
Link Building | | rdoty0 -
Thoughts on creating a resource/recommend links page in order to attain links?
Hey guys, Just wondering, how does Google view reciprocal link building nowadays? I've heard in the past that it's something that Google isn't particularly keen on. However, more recently, I've also read that - as long as the links are decent (and in moderation) - link exchanging is by no means a bad thing. The reason I ask is that I'm thinking of creating a "resource/recommended links page" for a client of mine. Because of their industry, it's really apparent that attaining links is often only possible if there is the opportunity of a reciprocal link in return. Therefore, I'd need to have a resource/recommend links page of my own. Is this something I should go ahead with to make it much easier to attain links? Or should I try to avoid reciprocal links and attempt to pinpoint one-way linking opportunities - even if they're thin on the ground? Any help much as appreciated as always. Cheers.
Link Building | | Webrevolve0 -
Any benefits to having Wikipedia links now they are 'no-followed' (apart from traffic and natural link prof.)
I see that Wikipedia outbound links are all no-followed, is there any benefit (aside from the traffic) for having links here now ? For example is their co-citation and co-occurance benefits. I know there is without the links since from seeing previous Moz content about this saying Google getting good at connecting brand/s and topic mentions on a page (without any links) so appreciate Wikipedia is still good for that sort of thing. And a no-followed link is obviously good for the potential traffic. But is there any additional SEO benefit to having a no followed link on a wikipedia entry/stub too ? (aside from its contribution to your no-followed links which in turn contribute to a natural looking link profile) Cheers Dan
Link Building | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
How to explain to a client that link building doesn't get fast results?
I started doing link building for a client 1 month and a half ago. This includes submitting to free directories, social bookmarking sites and also writing and submitting articles to free article websites. Since I only use free and non-paid websites, it doesn't get approved instantly and many links I submitted are still pending review. Now the client is getting all nervous because he doesn't see a ROI regarding my work! I tried to explain to him that link building is just a piece of the cake and especially using non-instant approval free directories, it can take up to several months for each link to be listed (if listed), so it doesn't have instant results! I'm also trying to convince him that he needs to create more engaging content on his website, and also invest more on social media in order to get non-solicited links. I'm really annoyed with this. Can you SEO guys help me explaining to him why he doesn't see a great ROI with just 1 month and a half of link building and why his website's Moz Rank and Moz Trust decreased and that's normal to happen!? Thanks!
Link Building | | blablabla20130 -
LINK BUILDING - Does it really matter if the link is not relevant?
Hi guys, I have just done a lot of link buillding and I thought I am just going to link build and I am not going to go after RELVANT links. I have property/real esate website and I have been any kind of link builidng and I have noteced some good increases in rankings.. So my questions is; Does it really matter if the link is relvant to property or real estate if I have got ranking increases? Or will it later harm my site?? Thanks Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ091 -
Total Links vs Ext. Followed Links
Hi I'm fairly new to SEO and SEOMOZ. I've created a campaign for my own site and I've added 3 competitor sites. There are 1,385 total links to my site and a massive 49,450 links to one of my competitor's site. However under "Ext. Followed Links", there are 1,045 to my site and only 911 to the same competitor site. Am I correct that it is the "Ext. Followed Links" which are more important from an SEO point of view as the other links have the "no follow" attribute set? Or have I got this wrong? Thanks James
Link Building | | avecsys0 -
Does it affect SEO of how quickly you get in-bound links?
We have undertaken a very aggressive in-bound linking campaign. I have a whole team of people working to get in-bound links to our site. But I dont want to cause any red flags to the search engines on how quickly we get all of these in-bound links. Will they notice or flag our site if they see a quick rise of in-bound links? Thanks.
Link Building | | findachristianjob1 -
Link Frequency
I understand that good link building is all about the quality of the link / the anchor text attached to it. But, what about frequency? Should I build until I can't build anymore? or create a plan to submit links to a certain # of sites per week/month?
Link Building | | pricefutures0