Should I disavow these links?
-
Hi all, I have a site that is a year old, we have been building backlinks organically - probably around 50 or so - then almost overnight we had100s of spammy links. Screenshot here: https://ibb.co/cijiub
My questions:
- Should I disavow these?
- What happens if I don't disavow these?
- Can I work out where they came from?
- If I disavow a few of them, is this a token offering to the Google Gods that will lower my risk of being penalised?
Thank you.
-
Hi there,
Gaston's reply below is very helpful so I don't have too much to add apart from a couple of points.
Personally, I think I'd disavow these links a bit at a time - perhaps submit a few of them to start off with and make sure there are no negative effects, then add more over time. Right now, no one really knows how Google handles disavow because on one hand, Google say they handle things automatically, but on the other hand they still provide the tool for us to use...
1. If you don't disavow now, just make sure you keep a note of all of these kinds of links (and watch for new ones in the future) and if you do experience any penalty problems, you have a list ready to go to submit.
2. If you do disavow now, take your time to get the list right and make sure you only disavow links which are purely manipulative and / or look spammy. If you haven't seen any traffic or penalty problems, you want to be extra careful when using disavow. At the same time, if links are clearly spammy, they're unlikely to help long-term anyway, so disavowing them may not hurt at all.
I hope that helps!
Paddy
-
Hi Bee,
1.- Yes, please disavow those! I do not recommend to wait.
The awful quality of them is by default harming. Also the amount, if you have 50 good inbound links, I mean that you worked hard for getting them, having 100 low quality, that is a great proporcion. Please do it carefully, include only the spam ones. You can use Moz´s Open Site Explorer for verify the spam score. Never use "disavow all".How: verify into the Google Search Console:
a) Search Traffic, b) Links to Your Site, c) Who links the most, d) All domains.
There you will get a list of all domains.
Download it, erase from the list all the good inbound domains. Then you will have a list of domains for disavow, save as .text and upload to Google Disavow Tool.
You have to verify in all the properties, just in case. If it is necessary repeat the process in the affected property. Remember that for Google, every possible version of your website is a different property, for this purpose and many others.
Remember to disavow into Bing Websmasters too.
2.- Google might notice those as spammy or might "think" that you bought those.
3. It is possible, by the police or a highly skilled hacker. Therefore not many options.
4.- On the contrary. You notice them you took action. Good luck!
Mª Verónica
-
Hello Bee159,
On one hand, Google (though their spokemen) said that the algorithm is pretty good finding and diminishing the strenght of spammy links. So, if you talk to someone from Google right now, they might said: leave them, probably the algorithm will consider those as spammy and there will be no harm.
On the other hand, If you are absolutely sure that those links are spammy and malicious... then go ahead and disavow them. Remember that it's possible to disavow an entire domain.
More info here: Disavow backlinks - Search Console HelpAnswering the list:
- Its up to you.
- Google might eventually recognize them as spammy and ignore them in your site's backlink profile
- I don't know any good way of reverse engineering how backlinks end up in spammy sites.
- I don't believe that Google might think more of your site just if disavow some links. Sure, if the penalty is caused by any of those links, then you will lower that risk.
Hope it helps.
Best Luck.
GR.
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
-
Link Exchange
Is link exchange always bad? What if I want to add a link for other related products on my site which I do not offer, and the other site does the same for me? Will it be better to rather an article for each other product and link to somebody, than have one page with a list of other products to other sites. For example. We do training. Lets say we offer computer training. We search companies that does health and safety training offer to put their course on our site with a link to them, if they do the same.
Link Building | | Heinwest0 -
When buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? OSE not showing links
when buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? Sometimes the open site explorer doesn't show any links to the domain, especially if the domain is parked. Obviously a domain for sale with 1000 domains linking to it has lots of SEO Value right? Thanks mozzers!
Link Building | | Ron100 -
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 -
Link building during link removal
We were advised by out outsourced link removal vendor not to build any links while they are removing links pointing to our site. I am worried that our site will lose significant traffic if we dont build any new links while waiting for them to remove links that caused our site to be penalized. What are your thoughts?
Link Building | | WizardOfMoz0 -
Linking Root Domains V.s Total Links
When analysing a company's inbound links, what is more important to note: The number of linking root domains, or the total number of links? And why?
Link Building | | SEOrookie170 -
How many nofollow links should we build to have a natural link profile
Hi guys, As with many link builders we have been building lots of dofollow links for our site, so many that mainly our incoming links are dofollow. Some pages have 99.5% dofollow external links which I know is not very natural. In your experience in terms of percentage how much should you have in terms of nofollow external links in your link profile. I noticed SEOMoz has about 12-13% nofollow external links, shall I go with this figure? Thanks guys. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
What are the new ways of Link Building which will get quality links?
Hi We are doing following kinds of Link Building: 1. Article marketing 2. Directory Submission 3. Guest Blogging 4. Press Release submission 5. Infographics (Viral Marketing) I know blog commenting and links from discussion forums are considered as greyhat / blackhat by google. So I want suggestions on some other ethical(Whitehat SEO) ways of Link Building to get quality Links. Also suggest me some Free article submission sites which give " dofollow-links" Thank You
Link Building | | Virrtuo0 -
Value of Inbound Links to Pages With a lot of Outbound Links
Suppose you have a resource page of the Top 50 Awesome Sites in your niche. Since there are about 50 outbound links, then I would think there will be less Page Rank being passed to internal pages from internal links on the resource page. Since you are getting less PR passed to internal pages, are there other ways the inbound links can be beneficial, such as increasing the diversity of links of your domain? Sites like SEO Optimise seem to create a lot of Top 30 Resources lists and I have read that they think it is a strong tactic.
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0