Spam Back Link Removal Problem.
-
I have just paid a lot of money to have spam back links removed from directories owned by the same person, the links were on pages that were set up for me without me knowing, at the end of each url is my domain name, the links have been removed on the page leaving a directory page with no other links on however the url is still there with my domain name at the end of the url and in each search box is my domain name, I have asked for the pages to be removed altogether as I did say before I paid the money I did not want my domain name on any of his directories, he has come back and said leaving my domain name in the urls is not a problem as far as Google is concerned, can anyone please advise, I can ask for a refund from PayPal, there are over 768 links on different sections of a number of directories.
Thank you inadvance.
-
Chris
Thank you for all of your help.
-
I'd say the domain name does show up in the url and the search box. They're not links, however.
-
What about thedomainnaWhat a bout the domain name in the search box, do you still think I should claim my payment back from PayPal, the agreement was that I did not want my domain name on any of his directories.
-
That's certainly a real page, alright, but it won't do any additional harm your site as it stands right now.
-
I don't think that's the right url.
-
I think you're saying that the webmaster did remove the hyperlink but left evidence of the link by way of the anchor text that was used for the link. It also sounds like the webmaster had said the page that the link was on would be removed but is now refusing to remove it.
I would say that if you have it in writing that they would remove the page, you certainly have reason to dispute the payment with paypal, as Tom says. If not, at least the worst of the problem is over. I'd at least document the transaction and the conversation and let the webmaster know that those details will be included in your reconsideration report to Google if he/she won't also remove the page. Then you may just forward it all to Google anyway.
So, if the links aren't there any longer they're not going to count against you. But let me tell you, the rest of your link profiles doesn't look that great. Be sure you're working on dealing with those other links, as well.
-
Thank you for a good reply, we have used the disavow tool six months ago but it has had no effect at all, our main keyword is the backbone of our business we have got to do something or else we will not have a business.
-
Hi John
I'm not going to get into whether removing these links was worthwhile (in short: I can't see them having either a positive nor negative effect. The effect would be nil) but let me be clear about the main matter at hand: get your money back ASAP.
There's no reason at all for you to have to pay for links to be removed when something like the disavow tool exists - in fact I'm fairly convinced it was one of the reasons why it was developed in the first place. You've essentially been extorted. There is no sense in this - otherwise, I could easily find your website, build thousands of bad links on a crap network I could set up and then threaten you with them until you paid me to remove them. I'm not going to do that of course, that would be despicably evil!
If you're concerned about those links then disavow those links - don't give into demands like this.
Now, as for getting your money back - I think you could successfully dispute this with PayPal. You have paid for a digital service and the seller has failed to deliver (and refuses to). The work implied the links would be removed, yet the links still exist in some form. The seller is effectively in breach of contract, so you should get your money back. For better of worse, PayPal does favour the buyer in the majority of cases - this case it is definitely for the better.
I hope you get the money back in full.
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
-
Adding the link masking directory to robots.txt?
Hey guys, Just want to know if you have any experience with this. Is it worthwhile blocking search engines from following the link masking directory.. (what i mean by this is the directory that holds the link redirectors to an affiliate site: example:
Algorithm Updates | | irdeto
mydomain.com/go/thislink goes to
amazon.com/affiliatelink I want to know if blocking the 'go' directory from getting crawled in robots.txt is a good idea or a bad idea? I am not using wordpress but rather a custom built php site where i need to manually decide on these things. i want to specifically know if this in any way violates guidelines for google. it doesn't change the custom experience because they know exactly where they will end up if they click on the link. any advice would be much appreciated.0 -
Importance of Links for Local Search
**According to an article about the "no no's for local SEO" links are not very important. Here is an excerpt: "**Local SEO is very different when compared to traditional SEO. The importance of backlinks in local SEO isn’t as important. In other words, links simply don’t matter as much when it comes to local SEO. Googles’ local search algorithm treats links completely differently than its standard algorithm." How accurate is this statement? Wouldn't more links help your local pages rank better in non-local organic results such as the results outside of the new carousel?
Algorithm Updates | | pbhatt0 -
How Does Google Treat External Links to URLs with # Anchors?
Here are two URLs to explain this example: **Original URL: **example.com/1/ **URL that points to anchor within the webpage above: **example.com/1/#anchor Does Google treat these two URLs as separate entities or the same? For example, does an external link to the anchor URL pass full PageRank value to the original URL? How does Google handle this? Is there anything negative about this situation? Are there any risks associated with links to the anchor URL? Finally, is it more valuable for an external link to point to the URL without an anchor?
Algorithm Updates | | SAMarketing0 -
External Linking Best Practices Question
Is it frowned upon to use basic anchor text such as "click here" within a blog article when linking externally? I understand, ideally, you want to provide a descriptive anchor text, especially linking internally, but can it negatively affect your own website if you don't use a descriptive anchor text when linking externally?
Algorithm Updates | | RezStream80 -
Affect in SERPs when moving footer links off the homepage
I have several pages that rank highly in the SERPs and these pages are linked directly to my homepage in the footer. I want to clean up my footer because I have too many site wide links but don't want to hurt the SERP rankings during the transition. Will removing these page links from the footer impact SERP rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | braunna0 -
Since authorship markup requires a domain email, how can a community website allow users to link their Google+ profile?
It seems that Google now requires authors to have a valid email on the domain. This is easy for the traditional web publication. But what about community websites like SEOmoz? How can a community website allow users to link their Google+ profile? Will community websites like SEOmoz be required to 1. Give all users a domain email 2. Ask users to validate the email address with Google? Seems overly complicated.
Algorithm Updates | | designquotes0 -
Blog problems
I have a portfolio of blogs, and have just had 9 de-indexed by google. What worries me more than anything else is that :- 1. there is no interlinking whatsoever 2. content is all unique and on topic 3. most have no outbound links This is truly bizarre - you stick to the rules and get de-indexed ! Has anyone else had a similar issue, advice or comments as I am truly perplexed. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | blocker04080 -
How much posting product links to Social Media affect your ranking? Any use ?
Google has Google Plus. Facebook has partnership with Bing. How much social media affect your ranking ?
Algorithm Updates | | rahijain0