Can high SERPS and/or social signals minimize Google penalties and a back linking removal question
-
As I am continually sizing up my competition in the SERPS I have scanned their sites with a fine tooth and comb. I have found that these sites practice in the very things that I have practiced in the past and have removed thinking that may be some of the reasons I was hit with Penguin.
Some of these factors are:
- Link Scheme with sites they own (C Blocks)
- Content for Search Engines (Keyword rich text)
- Exact anchor text in back linking profile
Yet even though my competition practices in these methods (One site even places exact anchor text in the footer and header of every page for one of their other forum site) they seem to have not even been touched with any of the recent updates. In fact it seems their ranking have increased.
In scanning these sites the only major difference that I have been able to see between them and I is that their SERPS are higher than mine and they have way more social signals than me. One site has about 73k facebook likes where I only have about 300.
My question is Can Google ignore penalties for sites that have higher SERPS and /or social signals that would effect another site that had lower ones?
My other question is related to back links
My main site has links from another site I built a long time ago (Pre SEO and not knowing what I was doing) somewhere in the 73k range. Obviously a HUGE signal to Google that this might be spam and I am aware. I have removed the links from that site but unfortunately the average crawl rate per day is very low so it is taking a very long time for Google to find those pages and re-crawl them to find the links gone. Since that site I have than has those links pointing to my main site has very low traffic I am totally willing to kill that entire site with a 404. Can this help speed up the removal of those links from that site? I figure since the site no longer exists all links from that site will be removed almost immediately from my main site.
Any thoughts?
-
I believe that social signals are important however I doubt if Google has a way of knowing how many "likes" you got (Bing may know due to their somewhat partnership).
What I do believe is that Google does recognize people coming from social media like FB and gives you credit for it (as a site that has social appearance)and that it does recognize other types of shares such as twitter, tumblr, stumblupon and obviously Google +.
There was an article here at MOZ once and they tried to analyze social signals. I thinkk that the result was that there is a correlation but not necessarily causation.
Good luck
-
gentleman you are both correct and I apologize for my incorrect answer. I had been under the assumption that you did understand or have something to do with this other site. My apologies for not reading thoroughly enough you made the right choice by listening to these gentlemen.
Respectfully,
Thomas Von Zickell
-
Just uploaded my list, hope to see results from it
-
yes, great timing! I think Matt said in his webmaster video that disavowing will also take a few weeks. Please let us know how you get on. Good luck!
-
Halarious that the disavow links was just released from google webmaster tools today
-
There are so many factors that come into play with rankings positions, it;s almost impossible to pin it down and definitely not one factor like FB. If Google ranked sites that strongly based on FB engagement then FB would be nothing but spam. FB should be thought of as a marketing tool and a traffic driver not something the help with rankings, although I do believe Google does consider if you have social media presence in their algorithm.
If you have the power to kill off 73k links from one site to your do it, if it's not a site u care about 404 the site, or remove the links on that site, or if you can change the configuration to nofollow those links that works too. The links can still be there as long as they are nofollowed and no longer pass PR.
Speed up the crawl rate in WMT if you want to get respidered more after cleaning up bad links on your site. Explain in detail to Google what you did specifically to clean up your site and humbly request reconsideration.
-
On the first question I don't quite agree with Thomas. I think that social signals are an important part of the mix but I don't think that having 73k Facebook Likes will undo the damage caused by a manipulated link profile.
If you've been hit by Penguin - and if you're sure that's what's hit your site - then you simply have to sort out your unnatural link profile. That means getting links removed, or at least making every best effort to do this, and making detailed notes of your attempts, which you can submit to Google on a Googledoc if required.
High rankings would NOT have protected your competitors from a Penguin update. They are separate things. Google does not "think" along the lines of "Oh well, this site may have a crap link profile but at least lots of people seem to like it on Facebook, so let's give it a free ride". Penguin is algorithmic. There is not a committee of Googlers deciding which site to hit on an individual basis.
Social signals are important and they will likely come into play once you've fixed your link profile. But, in my opinion, not until then.
-
What about header links to all my main pages, Im sure those are not considered redundant. Did you find redundant interior links on my site?
-
I would 1st off definitely tell you without a doubt the difference your ranking is because of the 73 thousand Facebook likes they have over your 300. To Google Facebook represents something that is real data that can be quantified by Real people so that is the difference. You probably were both penalized equally however they are beating you because of the social media presence.
73,000 links sounds extremely high obviously if you're willing to 404 them you should before you in the domains name and every site that you're linking to I would keep the links in place take the domain off-line just killed the DNS for short Time.
Also inside your own website look for redundant interior links I know it sounds crazy however it affects your link flow in a amazing way.
Sincerely
Thomas
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
-
Will short linking to my site affect SERPs attribution of inbound link?
Some brand partners are using their short links to link back to our site (like bit.ly but they have their own). They have a high domain authority and trust so we want that link back to be read by Google. When I downloaded all inbound links from Moz, this brand's site was not listed, making me worried that the inbound link isn't being seen or considered! Haven't been able to find any info on this...
Link Building | | PAC31350 -
Linking with or without the http://
When linking from forums, blogs, or any other forms of SEO link building, should we link with or without the http://? Does google favor one more than the other or index them as two different pages? For example: | http://4wheelonline.com/ | or | 4wheelonline.com/ |
Link Building | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Multiple Links from High Ranking Site Vs. Links from Multiple Domains - What's More Important?
I understand it is important to get links from many quality domains. Currently, I do have links from top domains (PR, Trust) and it I can get more from (high rank) pages on these same domains. Would it be better to focus on expanding my reach (find additional domains to link from) or to continue to build links from the current domains I have a connection with? What is weighted more? I realize doing both is important, but trying to figure out how to best use my time. Thanks! David
Link Building | | DWill0 -
Google sending warnings about Artificial or Unnatural links in Google Webmaster Central
Has anyone seen warnings about Artificial or Unnatural links notice show up in their Google Webmaster central yet? I just looked at each of our clients and had not but after reading the Search Engine Land article at http://searchengineland.com/google-warning-more-about-bad-link-networks-117079 I was wondering what your thoughts were regarding this topic? We are not purchasing links for our clients sites but definitely going out their and building links. Article concerned me that I may run into issues for my link building clients. Thoughts?
Link Building | | jfeitlinger0 -
Why are none of my incoming links showing up in SEOmoz or Google? How do I get good legit incoming links?
There are hundreds of sites that are linking to my website, but nobody is showing it. Google wont display any when using link:eugenecomputergeeks.com, and in webmaster tools it only shows 46 incoming links. SEOmoz shows only 3 links. This just isn't so. Why is this? I DESPERATELY need valid incoming links from well ranked websites , and having lots of trouble getting them. Nobody in town with a well ranked site seems to want to do a link exchange, and I've already made the mistake of buying my way into directories, which didn't do anything good for my rankings. Thanks!
Link Building | | eugenecomputergeeks0 -
Links from Google Place to Website
If you have a business with multiple locations, is it better to link you Google Place pages to the home page (IE homepage.com) or directly to one of the location's pages. (IE homepage.com/location) ? Thank you
Link Building | | caseyp0 -
Do you think it's a good idea to try to find synergy between clients for blog posts/citations/links, or should you keep clients away from each other?
Say you have for example three (in this case) clients, and: Client A sells red widgets Client B is a doctor Client C sellls blue widgets With some research, you find that: Red widgets (A) can make the process of blue widget creation (C) even more effective. Red widgets (A) can protect you from harmful things that doctors (B) are qualified to recommend that you stay away from. Furthermore, there are things that doctors (B) recommend that you do in order to maximize the benefits of red widgets (A) Blue widgets (C) carry with them certain potential health risks, which according to doctors (B) can be minimized using the following means Sometimes blue widgets (C) can be used to effectively repair red widget (A) factories ...and so forth. Sure you're really writing these articles to generate links and exchange authority, and frankly you started with "how can I find synergy between these clients?" rather than a with a great article subject that needed a citation which luckily happened to be another client, but the citations are legitimate and the clients are qualified to speak on the subjects where their expertise and interests overlap. Would you consider going ahead with this? Does anyone have any experience doing it? I could see potential pitfalls if clients were to interact with each other, but keeping yourself as the intermediary might well work and overall it seems like a decent way to grab low-hanging fruit as they say. What do you guys think?
Link Building | | PathMarketing0 -
Can Referral Programs pass Link Juice?
Does using referral programs, such as by using index.php?referral_id=0001 pass any link juice back to the page index.php? I'm creating a web app that ideally I'd like people to be able to link to and bookmark - so that they can pull up their own settings. Is there any way that I can solve both of these at once? The use of PHP GET and the use of SEO. I'd really like to get a solution as I'm developing my new website! Any help would be appreciated!
Link Building | | tomcraig860