I need de-spam help/advice

[kadesmith]

For one of my sites I am working on I outsourced SEO about 3 years ago.  One of the "tricks" the SEO used at the time was to pay for several Blog posts to be "sponsored" by this web site using exact match keywords for the domain.

1 Where do I look to determine the spammy links pointing to this site?

2 Have you had success getting rid of these bad links?

[RyanKent]

The purpose of OSE is to show you links to your site. There is no way to accurately determine which links are organic vs manipulative without visiting the site.

DMOZ links would not be considered as manipulative.

[kadesmith]

Is DMOZ really a spammy link?  It's the first one that came up using those filters.

[conversiontactics]

Thanks very much for your reply, really appreciated your advise.

Now im going through Paddy blog,

Thanks for your help

[RobertFisher]

Ryan,

This is excellent and clear:

"The message Google is sending is very clear: stop building links and start earning them."

As to expecting Penguin to keep improving over time, Google has already said it will, just like Panda.

There are a ton of ways to earn links, the first is to create great content that people want to link to. Look at how Google News works in terms of ranking articles. One of the SEO variables considered most valuable by those using Google News per Search Engine Land survey was cites (links) from other high authority Google News sources. Those sources don't link unless it is quality content.

Great point.

[RyanKent]

The first step is to ensure your site architecture is solid. If your site is unattractive, has broken links, is difficult to read, etc. then fewer people will want to link to it. Set up a Responsive Design mobile site, have a graphic designer improve the look and feel of your site, crawl your site to ensure your internal links are solid, gather user feedback, etc.

Next, you want to build "best on the web" type of content. Your content should be sincerely helpful, original and something readers want to share.

Find out who the influencers are in your niche. Ask them what content they need and give it to them! Each time you are likely to earn a link and be exposed to a new audience. Forget about search engines. The direct traffic value is fantastic.

There are countless articles on the subject of links. I would suggest the above advice is your best bet but if you require more direct tips, then I recommend you learn from a link building expert. Of course, great advice does not come cheap. Make sure you are prepared to pay him in the proper currency.

Otherwise, you can read some of his articles on the topic:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-power-of-using-lists-for-link-building

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/actionable-link-building-strategies

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-links-without-fancy-tools

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/eight-link-building-tips-whiteboard-friday

[conversiontactics]

thanks i will create a new questions but ,

any tips how to earn links , i do article and infographics.

[RyanKent]

Sharing your experience is great! It is what this Q&A is all about

Regarding your competitor's anchor text, I would suggest not spending a moment of time thinking about it. Fairness is based on perception and none of us have all the facts. When it comes to penalties, we should each focus on our sites and let Google sort out our competitors. It can be frustrating at times, but focusing on others only allows that frustration to build.

63% is still a VERY high anchor text percentage. If that site belonged to a client of mine, I would begin a manipulative link removal campaign. There is simply no way to earn enough quality links in a reasonable amount of time. I have repeatedly seen very fast recoveries after link removal campaigns. I hope this information is helpful.

[conversiontactics]

I do Agree with you but to be honest, unfortunately clients dont have patience to wait they would like to get quick results. And to earn link you need to have some help from your client in terms of any incentive but they don't want to spend anytime just like us to get on with things,

I had the same issue with a site in april it was hit by penguin, i then started removing link , and had to request for link to be remove numerous time from sites and then wait for google to get index.

i did it till end of june nothing happen also send a request to google the reply was there is no manual penalty but it could be algorithmic penalty  I checked my competitors link profile they were about 70 to 80 %  direct keyword anchor  then i compare it to mine and it was 63% after the analysis i start working on link building . start creating industry niche research content in our blog then some social activities and focus on guest blogging, but my anchor where all brand name or naked anchor . It work for me the SERPs are improving but still a long way to to go. sorry but im just sharing my experience.

[RyanKent]

That method is likely to cause more trouble then it solves.

Many site owners and SEOs seem to be confusing the Penguin mechanism with the message. The message Google is sending is very clear: stop building links and start earning them.

You are proposing to build links to manipulate the Google algorithm into not detecting the other "over-optimized" anchor text links. I have seen this advice and frankly, it is horrible. Most site owners have far too many manipulative links to "balance out" with legitimate links. Therefore you are building manipulative links without using anchor text to bypass the current Penguin detection system. I would bet a lot the next Penguin will not only continue detecting the original manipulative links (even if you change the anchor text) but also the new ones. Even if I am wrong, then the Penguin update after will. I expect Penguin to be just like Panda. It will keep improving over time.

Remove the bad links. Stop "building" links and start earning them. Site owners who follow the advice to change anchor text or bury the "over optimized" links are going to be hurting really bad, really soon.

[conversiontactics]

Another way is to balance your link profile by creating backlinks Using generic , nacked and brand anchor links to balance things out,

[RyanKent]

The worst ever was my first campaign in 2011. My most recent campaign we had about a 60% response rate which was awesome.

[MarieHaynes]

What kind of success rate do you find you get Ryan?  Mine really varies from niche to niche but is nowhere near 80%+

[benjaminspak]

lol yup, if you had fun doing 8+ hours of link building, you can enjoy it even more when you have to remove them. #damnthegoogleoverlords

[RyanKent]

If your traffic dropped on April 25th and you know there are bad links pointing to your site, then the likely cause is Penguin. It's always important to understand the exact cause of the drop as Google makes approximately 50 algorithm changes each month. There were also Panda changes in April.

To gain an initial look at the spammy links, simply go to Open Site Explorer: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/. This tool is part of the SEOmoz tools. For most sites affected by Penguin, you can locate spammy links pretty fast. At the top of the page there are 4 drop down boxes. Set the first three drop downs as follows:

followed+301, only external, pages on this root domain

As far as getting rid of the bad links, I have had a lot of success. The process is very manual and not a lot of fun, but it works. You need to contact site owners and very politely request they remove the links. If the first attempt does not succeed, do not give up. Keep trying.

Best of luck!

[MarieHaynes]

A lot of things happened in April.  There were Panda refreshes on April 19 and 27 and Penguin hit on April 24.  I'd be wary about cutting links until you are sure what you are dealing with.  You could do more harm than good.

If this is a Penguin issue then no one knows exactly what has to be done to recover.  Many webmasters will advocate getting spammy links removed.  But the problem is that in order to beat the algorithm you may have to get 85-95% of the links removed and in most cases that is near impossible.

If you'd like me to have a look at your site I do a diagnosis package for a very reasonable fee.  I have a good look at your analytics data and webmaster tools to give you an idea of what you are dealing with.  You can contact me through my profile page.

[benjaminspak]

Good rule of thumb, if you're getting links from:

• .info
• .ru
• .biz

They are usually poor links and should be avoided of removed.

Check your site's links in OSE (Open Site Explorer)

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

If they are:

Directory links or article submission links it should be easy to log in and delete them, assuming you were provided with the credentials.

[kadesmith]

The site hasn't received any unnatural links warning.  I just know that rankings dropped DRAMATICALLY in April.

I also know that the mozTrust of this site is pretty low compared to the competition.  I attribute it to this.

[MarieHaynes]

Have you been hit with an unnatural links warning?  Penguin?  Not sure?

It's important to know what you are dealing with before slashing links.

If I'm trying to get an unnatural links warning penalty reconsidered then I generally try to get removed any and all links that an SEO may have made.  So, if it's an anchor texted link from an article, 98% of the time it's unnatural.  I find though that most website owners are too lenient on themselves when they are trying to decide which links to remove.

I have had success in getting some webmasters to remove links like these - but you won't be likely to get them all.