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
-
Creating a Link Back Template
One of my clients supplies their product to a number of retail stores. Most of the stores do not currently link back to his website. He is hoping that they might be more motivated to link back if they had a template that made it easy to copy and paste the link back code into their website. Does it make sense to make a password protected page with different link back styles. Some plain text, some different size company logos (so they have different options)? Similar to what Yelp does with their badges.
Link Building | | rx3000 -
Another Footer Links question
I have reposted this as a new question as I posted in an old 'Answered' question but not had a reply. Footer links We have generated new business from links that we have on client sites linking back to us. The new client will call/email us saying "we see you did example.com website, which we like, would you mind quoting for a redesign our website". Without that link we may never have got that new piece of business. We always ask the client if we can place on link on their website and they all say ok. We don't do this for purely for SEO. The only thing we have done previously is to include the link in the footer of every page on the client site, which we are now in the process of changing to being only the client home page. With that in mind, is the following ok to do? Place text/image link in footer of client home page Link to be "nofollow" which goes to specific page on our own website e.g. oursite.com/portfolio/clientname.php on oursite.com/portfolio/clientname.php page we link back to client's home page, again this would be a "nofollow"
Link Building | | NeilD0 -
Should you always link back?
I am asking this for two reasons: Courtesy: Is it common courtesy to reciprocate with a link back if somebody has linked to your site? SEO: Does linking back affect your rankings at all? A blog has linked to one of my clients' sites as part of a round-up of "top 100 best" within their industry. They have also sent us an email suggesting that we add a link from our site saying that we've been listed. Of course, I understand that it is in my clients' interest for us to advertise on their site that they've been listed in a Top 100 list... However, it got me thinking (as more of a general question) - does reciprocating a link ever affect it's value at all? ie. Is two-way linking ever considered part of a link exchange in the eyes of Google, and does it penalize you at all for that?
Link Building | | WiredCanvas0 -
Backlinking / Link Building Services
Hello, Our site is struggling organically and one of the key factors (not surprisingly) is a lack of backlinks. We have hired a content writer and are working on a content strategy to generate quality, relevant backlinks. But this is more of a long term project. After reviewing backlinks to our competitors' sites, it seems clear that they are using agencies or services to generate backlinks (most coming from low quality sites). I'm aware that this isn't a good long term strategy (although it seems to be serving them well at the moment). I was hoping the community could provide some insight on products or services out there that provide "safe" backlinking strategies. I don't want to do anything that is going to harm us in the future. I've read a bit on the hoth, and it seems fairly safe and potentially effective, but it's hard find much objective advice on the topic. Any insight is much appreciated - thanks in advance! Jason
Link Building | | ba_seomoz0 -
How does it take after getting links discovered by google to see increase in rankings?
Five of my friends linked to my site from their website and updated their sites through Google Webmaster tools right after linking to my site. Though the Google spider crawled the site as soon as they updated their pages, it still took about three weeks for my site to get a bump in the serps from their links. Why does it take that long for links to kick in and what is the average time it normally takes to see an increase in ranking from links once Google discovers them? Thanks mozzers! Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Http://angelasbacklinks.com/ can someone give me their take on this site and the packages? Thank you
http://angelasbacklinks.com/ can someone give me their take on this site and the packages? Thank you I am looking to get links to this url www.gunshotdigital.com
Link Building | | vijayvasu0 -
Links from Nextag/PriceGrabber
I have a eCommerce store over BigCommerce platform. It is possible to sell via Shopping Comparison Sites like: Nextag, PriceGrabber, Bizrate, Shopping.com, If I decide to advertise my products over those sites, will it be consider a trust link for Google? Our store is new and we don't have links referring to us, I need solutions. Also, there is a yellow pages site, http://www.yellowpages.ca/ that ask for monthly fees to advertise on there web site, advertising will be business name, addressee, phone number and web site, will it be a positive link for Google or just a paid link? This is our store: Furnace Filters Canada Thank you for your help and support, BigBlaze
Link Building | | BigBlaze2050