Should we use 'disavow' if we dramatically dropped serps after Oct 5th, but did not receive a warning?
-
We dramatically dropped serps after Oct 5th, but did not receive a warning about bad links on google webmasters.
Is it a good idea to find and collect the worst links and disavow them? As there was no warning we can only guess links were the problem, but it seems likely. However we do not want to send any requests to google if no warning was sent.
Can disavow be used in this way, or should we do more manually?
(We are hoping remove links + increase very solid links + optimize for key words will help revive serps)
Many thanks.
James
-
Hi James,
Everyone has their own view of Google and what interacting with them might mean.
My personal view is that anyone who thinks they are clever enough to fly under the radar when everything they do is aimed at making themselves visible in Google is probably mistaken.
often people have said that this just raises an alarm bell to google if not totally necessary?
If you are seeing keywords that have dropped below page 100 in the SERPs, I would think those alarm bells have long since rung.
Sha
-
Thanks Sha,
We will definitely look into removing links where possible ourselves.
One thought though, if the site is not necessarily 'penalised' but instead the bad links have just been demoted, would it make more sense to not send a reconsideration request? often people have said that this just raises an alarm bell to google if not totally necessary?
And if not sending a recon request, then should we not also send a disavow?
I think this a kind of dilema that many people face when seeing drops but not being sure of an actual manual penalty.
James.
-
Hi James,
I would start out with cleaning up damaging links first, then lodge a reconsideration request. It is important not to appear to be trying to get out of a situation without making any real effort. That could put you on the back foot if you need to make future requests.
Keep in mind that some links may be totally within your own control to remove - I recently cleaned up links from more than 160 sites for a client by getting hold of a list of login information from a previous SEO vendor. I was then able to log into all those sites and either delete bogus profiles (where that was an option), or delete over-optimized body text and signature links that had been created within them.
Over-optimized links from article directories and syndicated content are another area that is usually within the site owner's control. I am stunned how many people I see sending email to the owners of Article Directories asking them to remove links when they could just log into the account and fix the problem themselves.
Once you have removed all the links that you can, you can use the Disavow Tool to inform Google of any links that you have not been able to clean up, then lodge a reconsideration request and include a link to the information in the Disavow list that you uploaded.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Hi, thanks for the answer, so the best thing to do, even if we have had no warning, is to 1st send a reconsideration request, then regardless of what they say, manually try to remove 'bad' links,
After this use disavow for the remaining bad links, then send a new reconsideration request explaining what we did manually to try to help the site. (if they confirm a manual penalty) or do not send a request again if they did not confirm a penalty?
Would this be a logical method?
-
Hi James,
Google's Disavow Tool is not a first line of defence, but the last.
Matt Cutts made it quite clear when releasing the tool that Google still expects webmasters to make a "good faith effort" to remove as many links as possible before using the Disavow Tool.
If you read Dr Pete's post using the link that Smart Lock Solutions provided in their post you can see this. If you have not seen the video from Matt Cutts about the Disavow Tool, you can watch it and read some views on the release of the tool here.
The only way to confirm whether a manual penalty has been applied is to lodge a reconsideration request. The webspam team will respond to a request, either advising that there is no manual action in place, or that a penalty exists because the site violates their search quality guidelines.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Hi I agree, I am assuming we have been hit by some sort of penalty, but don't know the best way to deal with it.
For example should we disavow bad links, then send a reconsideration request, or is it enough to just disavow, beef up strong relevant links (like Vikas said - with less keywords) and hope for the best. Some of our sites crept back one one or two pages, but the other all dropped below page 100.
Is the reconsideration request required in people's experience?
Many thanks!
James
-
Hi James,
My immediate response would be DO NOT place any reliance on the presence or absence of an unnatural links warning from Google!
I have clients who never received an unnatural links warning of any kind and were actually suffering impact from a manual penalty. The penalty was not revealed until I decided that we needed to lodge a reconsideration request because something more than Penguin was going on there. Sure enough, the message that came back from the webspam team was that the site had a manual spam action in place.
Since our company developed the rmoov tool, I have been responsible for customer support and spent many hours talking to site owners who are trying to clean up their backlink profiles. During that time I have heard from many, many other site owners that have big problems with no unnatural links warning message received. A number of these have also found on lodging a reconsideration request, that they have a manual penalty applied to their site.
Basing your assessment of what is happening on whether or not you have received a message from Google is a big mistake, and unfortunately one that is being made by way too many people
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Should we use 'disavow' if we dramatically dropped serps after Oct 5th, but did not receive a warning?
Not necessarily, here is a good read on who should use this tool: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-disavow-tool-take-a-deep-breath
-
there was a minor Google update in Oct 5 called Penguin #3 which impacted 0.3 % of queries. However main update was released on sept 27 which targeted exact match domains. If your url is all about keywords then you might have got hit because of that.
I recommend removing bad links manually. Use URL itself as anchor text. Get links from blogs.
If things still doesn't work then try changing titles for low competition keywords. Also optimise the site copy for the same. Don't use keywords as anchor text for link building.
Hope that helps!
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 building for a 'boring' eCommerce site
Hey all, I'm in need of some serious inspiration and I'm hoping one of you generous people can help. We're looking to do a spot of link building for an eCommerce site which I would describe (without putting it down too much) as 'boring'. This isn't our fault per se as the site sells printer cartridges and there's only a certain amount of excitement such a product can create. As a result natural linkbuilding is quite tricky, especially when it comes to creating links to anything other than our homepage. For the past couple of years we have focused on creating good content and indeed have a thriving database of hundreds of helpful articles and videos on the site. These are generating decent traffic (and rank #1 for many different help related search terms) but the problem with these articles is that they don’t convert in to sales at all well. I’m also conscious that it will ultimately end in us developing a link profile which would classify us as a printer repair resource rather than cartridge sales website. I have read numerous guides on Moz but they all tend to focus on products which are a little sexier than those that we sell. Getting someone to share and link to a truly unique product would be incredibly easy compared with asking someone to engage, share and link to the latest Epson cartridge. I started writing articles on some decent quality business blogs however the links given don’t look particularly natural and the link would always be to our homepage. We have the staff and the time but we built a whole host of rubbish links back before Penguin and I want to ensure that we are going to head in the right direction before embarking on something new. If you had a site which was really dull how would you devise a link building strategy that was relevant and, most importantly, natural? Thanks for your help. Chris
Link Building | | ChrisHolgate1 -
The dreaded drop
Hello all, So a sister site has contacted me about their drop in traffic, around January they created a page, (and I kid you not), with a title of "Banner Link Exchange", it took me about ten minutes to stop laughing. Around the 16th of July their traffic dropped like a stone (see image). Obviously I've had them remove the page and we've contacted the sites that they swapped links with, there are 20+). I'm going to give them a week then I'm going to disavow the links. Interestingly the brand keywords are all still at position one, but it's decimated any product and broad search links. I've had them create a blog and they're going to contact the sites they were linking with and write some proper articles. We'll clean up their backlink profile and any site issues they have. It's an ecommerce site so the projected take is down around 40% My question is are there any indications after fixing as much as possible that the traffic will return, and in what period of time? (i'm seeing conflicting ideas about this) We can't change the site domain as there's a physical store as well... the domain was first used in 1996... Cheers Stew Yz8xiS5.png
Link Building | | StewMcG0 -
301 to main page or deeper page for best 'link juice'.
I have two rafting websites. One ranks high for one set of keywords. The other ranks okay for a different set. I want to redirect the whole second site to the first to give the first more link juice and hopefully lift the first site even more in the rankings. Would it be better to link to a deeper page of the 1st site. I have a page that does well for some long tail keywords or would it be better to link to the main page. Or is it a bad idea over all.
Link Building | | tkobrien0 -
Trying to use the SEOmoz link building tools but...
all of the directories that are listed seem to be based in the US for US companies - am I missing something? By the way my target audience is solely based in the UK, Thanks, Jason
Link Building | | JasonHegarty0 -
How do paid directories like thomasnet.com do so well in the serps? Aren't the Panda updates supposed to be moving us away from this?
With all of the updates/changes to Google's algo, I assumed that paid listings & links like those on thomasnet.com would have less merit. Is this an incorrect assumption?
Link Building | | PropelMike0 -
I'm aware that spamming tools can lead to ruin..what do you use as a backlink strategy.
But I have had some luck with bookkmaRKING DEMON, and understand the pitfalls of massive submission, but I deal in facts not generalities. If the goal is to mix your links accross the pages in your site, and mix the DA quality, or pr of the links, and have them contextual as well as comments, directories, etc. who cares how it is done as long as it appears natural 1. Linkvana claims to be a posting service for you. you put text in with your link and it posts to relevant sites, the same as you would do manually. For my context links I see this as a better way than begging people to give me a link, or wasting time kissing butt of reporters (kike i did in the past). Anyway there is good and bad with everything. I want to know if anyone knows of anyone who used linkvana and what their experiences is ? And more importantly.... WHAT DOES EVERYONE USE AS A COMPLETE BACK LINK STRATEGY? Thanks
Link Building | | joemas990 -
Anyone use and like Brute force Evo 2
What exactly does it do and does anyone know someone who got in trouble using it? With linkvana and bookmarking demon and manually posting to blogs would anyone need this/
Link Building | | joemas990 -
Where's MY SEO DVD'S
When I first signed up about a week and a half ago I paid for the DVD's but not only did I not get a confirmation, but my 2 emails requesting a status went unanswered. A question about the page crawl gets answered right away. So is this co. all tech? Sales dept. just takes money, then hides? What's up?
Link Building | | joemas990