Removing Unnatural Link Penalties

[jesse-landry]

As soon as I began working in my current position at my current company I noticed my predecessor's tendency towards buying link packages from blackhat companies... I knew we were being penalized, and had to prove to him that we needed to halt those campaigns immediately and try our darndest to remove all poison links from the internet.

I did convince him and began the process. There was 57% of our backlinks tied to the same anchor phrase with 836 domains linking to the same phrase, same page.

Today there are 643 of those links remaining. So I have hit a large number of them, but not nearly enough.

So now I am getting messages from Google announcing that our site has been hit with an unnatural link penalty. I haven't really seen the results of this yet in the keywords I am trying to rank for, but fear it will hurt very soon and know that I could be doing better in the meantime.

I really don't know what to do next. I've tried the whole "contact the webmasters" technique and maybe have had 1/100 agree to remove our links. They all want money or don't respond..

Do I really need to use this Disavow tool?
I hear mixed things about it.. Anybody with experience here like to share their stories?

Thanks for the moral support!

[ShaMenz]

Hi Jesse,

Without a little help from a googler in the forums there is only one sure way to determine whether you have a manual penalty or not - a reconsideration request.

BUT with the knowledge that you have of some issues and the absence of an obvious effect, I would not recommend the reconsideration route, as it is likely it may actually GET you a manual penalty which at this stage I am doubtful you have.

I would continue to do good work for your site and at the same time, put some effort into eliminating the most troublesome of the links you know about. Keep a close eye out for any effect (especially when news of the next penguin refresh appears).

also...good on you for taking a proactive approach to this and having the guts to make it an issue that gets dealt with.

Sha

[jesse-landry]

thanks sha -

I'm having trouble determining this. The community at the google forums was not very helpful. Only had one response who said "yeah, manual good luck" and that was it.. Not too convincing to say the least.

Still haven't seen the effects of this. I've started a campaign and put together a ton of paperwork that I can continue on if need be but the last two days I've spent doing some good quality white-hat link building. I think I'm going to continue on that path until I start to notice a negative effect..

I do appreciate all of your help and may return to this topic sooner than later. I sure hope I don't have to, however!

[ShaMenz]

Hi Jesse,

Since you have Basic with rmoov, it might be worth taking a look at the level of detail in the campaign summary report for your campaign (click the Excel icon in the campaign list to download). I think that will help you to get an idea of the type of information that might be useful to include.

I really think it is imperative that you try to get an indication as to whether the messaging you received is just for information or confirmation of a penalty. Given that you are not seeing visible effects, I am leaning toward the former, but as I mentioned before, that really means it's an opportunity to get things in order before disaster strikes

Sha

[jesse-landry]

Sha -

Thank you for this I am finding it incredibly helpful. I'd like to say that I have actually already used the trial version of the RMOOV software and do have a free account with your service. I was using it in the past before I was notified, knowing that this day would come and assuming I had a penalty already whether it were algorithmic or manual.

Anyway, I actually have copied the "polite letter" from Rmoov and have been pasting that into contact fields on forums and what-not that I am trying to remove links from. So yes, the effort to sprinkle in kindness is understood and appreciated.

I am going to post on the webmaster tools forum as you suggested. I am still confused as to whether or not we are actually penalized. I have yet to see any signs of penalties as of yet. In fact, the one keyword with 45% of our anchor text linked to is still climbing the rankings... I keep expecting to see it disappear entirely but today it has creeped onto page 1...

Anyway. Thank you.

So far I am contacting the sites I cannot remove and I have a spreadsheet going with lists of URLS and columns reading: "Link Found?, Able to Manually Remove?, Webmaster Contacted?, and Response from Webmaster?"

I'm hoping this will illustrate my efforts to Google should I need to resubmit.

Also, in regards to the "contacting the site who we paid for link building services" suggestion - Yes. I did that immediately way back in December. I insisted they shut down all campaigns and also took lists of URLs with passwords from their website and went through the spreadsheets, followed links, logged in and removed our backlinks everywhere I could. So I do have a few spreadsheets full of the results from those efforts to submit to Google as well which should be beneficial. Unfortunately that was all done back in January and we are just now getting penalty notices...

I wonder.. I launched a new website this month. The old website was redirecting to the non-www and the new one redirects to the www... Could this have brought on the red flag to Google?

Anyway. Thanks for all your help, and sorry for the incredibly lengthy narrative above.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Jesse,

First and foremost, you need to determine exactly what the messaging means for your site. Is it a warning which indicates that there may be a manual action applied to your site, or is it actually just a notification intended to tell you that Google is discounting unnatural links that have been detected.

The most efficient way to get an answer on this is to go the Webmaster Central forum and ask the question "Does this mean that my site is under a manual penalty?". (I would not discuss the links you already know are a problem, just the need for clarity in the messaging).

I have seen a number of instances where Google's John Mueller has taken a look at the specific site and advised webmasters that the message is actually just an advice that they have detected unnatural links and are discounting them at what they refer to as a "more granular level". If this is the case you do not need to lodge a reconsideration request, but you should take it on notice that your backlink profile needs some careful scrutiny and any troublesome links should be dealt with as soon as possible. Basically, it's a "heads up" and you should take it as such.

Second, over 10 months of providing phone support for rmoov.com I have spoken personally with hundreds of site owners who are confused by the messaging they have received or not received from Google.

From my discussions with these people I know that there are a large number of sites which have a manual action in place and have never received a message from Google of ANY kind. Clearly, not everyone who has a manual action applied is sent a message, despite assertions to the contrary.

On the more helpful messages, out of the hundreds of people I have spoken with, barely a handful have ever received one of these more helpful messages.

While I am sure that Matt sincerely believes the information he provides in his answers is accurate, the fact is that what is actually happening within the webspam team does not match his information. In my view this is the fundamental issue preventing most people from dealing effectively with their situation.

On the subject of removing the links, you have a bit of an advantage in knowing where the paid links have come from

First deal with these paid linking arrangements.

Since you mention that they have been acquired from sources that are likely to bring with them their own problems, I would not recommend trying to remediate those links by applying a nofollow tag. So, first job is to ensure that every payment arrangement that still exists has been cancelled. Record evidence of these cancellations by keeping screenshots and/or email receipt text.

Add any where there is no payment arrangement to your list to contact.

With the low response rate you indicated, the next thing to focus on is increasing the effectiveness of your outreach:

• Make sure the text of your email is friendly and personal. Remember that your email could well be one of hundreds already received by the webmaster that day. Show some understanding for their situation, explain briefly why you are making the request and ensure that you provide details of the URLs where the link(s) can be found in their site. Ask nicely and thank them for their help.

• Help the webmaster to tick their due diligence boxes (ensure that your outreach email originates from the domain you are trying to clean up, use a real name and provide contact information so that they can match them easily to information that appears on the site).

• maximize accuracy by obtaining as many different contact methods as possible (email addresses from the site and the WhoIs record, contact forms where you can submit a request, twitter handles, google+, facebook & linkedin profiles, telephone numbers, physical addresses). Use whatever works for you.

• send polite reminders at reasonable time intervals. At rmoov mail is sent every 3 days for the life of a campaign. Don't assume because a webmaster did not immediately remove your link that they aren't willing to do so. Again, your request could be one of hundreds ... sometimes a couple of gentle reminders will help.

• Pay particular attention to undeliverable notifications returned from your outreach. Some privacy protected domains do not accept mail, but will provide a contact URL that you can use to contact the webmaster.

• Document everything. Keep copies of responses and make notes on how you will handle those domains. e.g. "Webmaster advised a cost of USD $500 is required to remove each link. We believe this to be an unreasonable demand, so have chosen to disavow all links from the site at the domain level".

Finally, disavow only after all attempts to remove links have been exhausted and disavow at the domain level unless you have a very good reason not to.

Well, this is now way too long, but hope it helps.

Sha

[Mike.Goracke]

Hi Jesse,

To me, it sounds like a message about manual action. Per SEL...

"Manual Actions

With a manual action, some human being at Google has reviewed a site and decided to issue a penalty against it (usually manual actions are indeed penalties). The review might be triggered by a spam report from an outsider or just Google’s regular policing.

Removing manual penalties often involve the targeted site filing a reconsideration request along with showing a good faith effort to correct a problem. For example, last year, JC Penney was hit with a 90 day penalty for paid links. It made an effort to clean up those links, submitted a reconsideration request and the penalty was eventually removed, deemed “tough and the appropriate length,” as Cutts said last year.

How do you know if you have a manual action? This should be reported to you through Google Webmaster Central, if you’ve verified your site there."

From your original post, it sounds like you have a handle on which links were purchased/unnatural. And as Marie and I are saying, you need to document your efforts. You will want to send those emails of requests for money to remove your links and your other emails that are not responded to... this will show a good faith effort on your part.

Marie is correct, "It's not about the percentage of links removed.  Really, what Google wants to see is that you understand which links are manipulative and that you've worked to get rid of those and that you're not going to continue in this matter." - Google isn't going to require you get webmasters to remove all or a certain percentage of these links. They simply want you to try to get them removed 1) to clean up the web and 2) to make sure you learned your lesson ; )

From your original post, it sounds like you are on the right track. Look over the links I sent you and as Marie suggested, search SEOmoz for additional blogs regarding other peoples' experience with getting an unnatural link penalty removed. Some people it takes a month, others 6... my suggestion is to arm yourself with as much research as you can (KNOWLEDGE IS POWER), provide Google with emails, spreadsheets, whatever - showing you are really trying to get these spammy links removed, and submit a request for reconsideration.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out! Document it all and make a blog post out of it!

Mike

PS Hi Marie! Funny running into you here ; )

[MarieHaynes]

Hi Jesse.  I've seen it happen often where a site gets an unnatural links warning and then anywhere from 2-3 days later to 2-3 weeks later the rankings drop.  Occasionally Google will penalize you for just one or two keywords.

Do a search on SEOMoz for unnatural links recovery and you'll see lots of advice on how to recover, but in general the steps are:

1. Identify which links are unnatural.

2. Take all means possible to remove them.

3. For the ones you can't get removed, disavow them.

4. Document your efforts at removal thoroughly.

5. Send in a reconsideration request.

It's not about the percentage of links removed.  Really, what Google wants to see is that you understand which links are manipulative and that you've worked to get rid of those and that you're not going to continue in this matter.

[jesse-landry]

Thanks Mike. That Matt Cutts interview is helpful but I'm totally confused by some of it, specifically pertaining to my situation. This is an example of my confusion:

Interview says:

"Question:

Just to double-check, reconsideration should only be done if they’ve gotten a message about a manual action, correct?

Answer:

That’s correct. If you don’t have a manual webspam action, then doing a reconsideration request won’t have any effect.

Question:

Do manual actions specifically say if they are related to bad links?

Answer:

The message you receive does indicate what the issue with your site is. If you have enough bad links that our opinion of your entire site is affected, we’ll tell you that. If we’re only distrusting some links to your site, we now tell you that with a different message and we’ll provide at least some example links."

Now I'm confused because this is the message I got from Google (mind you I received this message several months after I began removing poison links from this domain):

Dear site owner or webmaster

We've detected that some of your site's pages may be using techniques that are outside Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you've made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google's search results.

If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.

If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.

Sincerely,

Google Search Quality Team

So I'm confused. Is this a "message about manual action?" It seems more like an algorithmic action, right?

And then to the second answer, he says they will tell us if our entire site is affected or if they are only distrusting some links and then provide an example or two.. Neither of which happened. Goggle instead stated "we've detected that SOME of your site's pages MAY be using techniques..."

Do you see my confusion here?

Like I said, I haven't seen any negative affects yet. But I'm worried they're coming.

I do appreciate the links though, Mike. Much obliged.

[Mike.Goracke]

That's a bummer Jesse.

I would not take any action until you read through the following articles below.

First READ THIS from Google.

From what I have read, you should make you sure you are documenting your attempt to get the links removed. Matt Cutts states that using the disavow tool without requesting link removal first

Duke Tanson wrote a great article on how he used the disavow tool to removal an unnatural link profile warning.

That should be all of the information you need.

Good luck.

Mike