Bad Backlinks and Copied Website
-
Since last fall our rankings have been steadily decreasing in position and now we are no longer showing in Google Local positions. We still have decent organic rankings but Local is our primary concern.
My website: http://www.petmedicalcenter.com
I did some digging and found a ton of spammy looking domains linking back to my site. I took a screenshot from Google Webmaster Tools - Links to Your Site page. http://screencast.com/t/8yYh65xlOU2y
I am not sure how this happened as I did not add our URL to most of those websites. Also, I found that this website: http://justinchina.co.uk - has copied our entire website. Every time I make an update to the site, that webpage updates as well.
At this point I don't know how to go about cleaning up this mess. Most of those linking domains do not have a contact button and I doubt they would remove my links at my request. Should I use Google's disavow tool? Any thoughts on that? or ideas?
Thanks for your help!
Brant
-
Hi Brant,
It's always a good thing to be aware of all of the links pointing to your website. I would look at the Webmaster Tools link data, but realize that it's not necessarily going to give you all the links. I would also look at Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, and ahrefs links, as well. If you find there are links that you think are low quality, I would use the Disavow Tool to disavow them.
If there is a site that has copied your site, then consider filing a DMCA request with Google and the web host to get the content removed. You might look at your site's log files to see which IP addresses are hitting your site and getting the content and try to block it from happening.
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
-
I have created a simple website, but one of the panels moves
All right, I've created a simple website (http://fontvilla.com) and I have had a problem for personal reasons. When you execute the code below and see the whiteboard at the right-hand side labeled as the.newsLetter and change the screen size, it moves away unlike that I have just floated right above. But if I float this one right then it floats to the middle of the screen, so works as I want it. In order to do that, I am going to make this reactive, and need to have it like the one above. You got a fix...?? Help, please! Thank you. Thank you. <title></span></p> <p><span>Home </span></p> <p><span></title> <nav> Contact Products About Home </nav> Here is just a simple title This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. This is just a little bit of dummy text. Welcome to A dummy website!! Latest News March 28, 2015 New advanced update with double speed and a whole bunch of cool new st.. more>> March 28, 2015 New advanced update with double speed and a whole bunch of cool new st.. more>>
Local Website Optimization | | fbowable0 -
Multilanguage Website
Hi, I am responsible for managing a multilingual website. I have two questions regarding SEO, based on the structure of the website. Question 1. At the moment we have one website for UK English and one for US English .com/en-gb/ .com/en-us/ Which would be the pros and cons of merging the two website in one? Question 2. For the German website they moved it under .de dominion, I think it would be better from an SEO perspective to have it as the Italian and French, under .com/de Which would be the pros and cons of migrating German website under .com/de? Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | albertoalchieriefficio0 -
Using posts to make static pages - A best practice or a bad idea?
I have started working with a few law firms this year. They already have websites and I am doing various marketing tasks such as copywriting, redesigns, and, of course, SEO. In a couple of cases I was surprised to find that they had made the pages describing their various practice areas post content. I'm not sure why. But I suspect that the idea might have been to have the phrase: /practice-areas/ as a part of their URL. I didn't really like the idea of treating pages like posts. It seems a bit like working the system. But apart from that, wouldn't pages have a higher value as "permanent" content? As posts - their publish date has more weight, right? And they'd get old? But maybe the previous developers were on to something and the category/post approach to listing practice areas is the way to go? I am starting a new site for a new firm and I'd like to feel more confident about the right structure to choose for this kind of website before I start. Does anybody know the right answer? Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | Dandelion1 -
Google still indexing home page even after with 301 - Ecommerce Website
Hi all,
Local Website Optimization | | David1986
We have a 301 redirect problem. Google seems to continue indexing a 301 redirect to our old home page. Even after months. We have a multiple language domain, with subfolders: www.example.com (ex page, now with a redirect to the right locale in the right country) www.example.com/it/home (canonical) www.example.com/en/home (canonical) www.example.com/es/home (canonical) www.example.com/fr/home (canonical) www.example.com/de/home (canonical) We still see the old page (www.example.com) in Google results, with old metadata in English and, just in some countries (i.e.: France), we see the correct result, the "new" homepage, www.example.com/fr/home in first position.
The real problem is that Google is still indexing and showing www.example.com as the "real" and "trusted" URL, even if we set: a 301 redirect the right language for every locale in Google Search Console a canonical tag to the locale url an hreflang tag inside the code a specific sitemap with hreflang tag specified for the new homepages Now our redirect process is the following (Italy example).
www.example.com -->301
www.example.com/en/home --> default version --->301
www.example.com/it/home --> 200 Every online tool, from Moz to Bot simulators see that there is a 301. So Correct. Google Search Console says that: on www.example.com there is a 301 (correct) in the internal link section of Google Search Console the www.example.com is still in first position with 34k links. Many of these links are cominig from property subdomains. Should we change those links inside those third level domain? From www.example.com to www.example.com/LOCALE/home? the www.example.com/LOCALE/home are the real home page, they give 200 code Do you know if there's a way to delete the old home page from Google results since this is 301? Do you think that, even after a 301 redirect, if Google sees too many internal links decides to ignore the 301? Thanks for your help! Davide0 -
What are these strange backlinks?
Hello everyone! Ive recently taken on a client that has a fairly large plumbing company. We're doing okay so far at almost number 10 on the local search for plumbers on google. Our #1 competitor however.. has an interesting backlink profile that I simply cannot understand. They are linked and yes, the links are followed, from a bunch of comics? Heres an example of one of their links. http://endlessorigami.com/comic/modern-day-fight-club-2/ moz reports that the link text says "Brooklyn Plumbing" .. Where are the links on these pages? I don't see a single link... how is this even related to a plumbing company? Im so puzzled, and it appears this is where the majority of the link juice is being passed to my competitor. There are at least 15 links that are just random comics.. Thank you everyone. I hope this isn't a silly question.
Local Website Optimization | | Ant-Built0 -
Australian local business website on a dot.com - how do I ensure its indexed/ranked by Google.com/au as priority
look forward to your advice My client is a local business in australia but has a dotcom site which is hosted in US. We are just moving it to wordpress and new hosting. I want to ensure that Google.com/au will be able to index and rank the content. How can I tell google its a site for people in australia? I thought best to set up a subfolder like this hissite.com/au and redirect anyone from australia to go to this url? Thanks for your recommendations
Local Website Optimization | | bisibee10 -
Where to find documentation about UX for Chinese websites?
Does anyone know useful websites, blogs, blogposts or forums about how UX is different in China? We are planning on creating a Chinese version of our ecommerce website. We are already aware of the legal and cultural differences but we still require specific information about the browsing and clicking habits of the Chinese public. Also, figures about the Chinese buying behavior would come in handy. Our webshop contains design items intended for a high-end audience.
Local Website Optimization | | jef22200 -
How slow can a website be, but still be ok for visitors and seo?
Hello to all, my site http://www.allspecialtybuildings.com is a barn construction site. Our visitors are usually local. I am worried about page speed. I have been using Google Page Insight, and Gtmetrix. Although I cannot figure out browser leveraging, I have a 79 / 93 google score and for gtmetrix 98/87 score. Load times vary between 2.13 secs to 2.54 secs What is acceptable? I want to make sure I get Google love for a decent page speed, but for me these times are great. Bad times are like 7 seconds and higher. I have thought about a CDN, yet I have read horror stories too. I have ZERO idea of how to use a CDN, or if I need it. I just want a fast site that is both user and Google speed friendly. So my question is, what is a slow speed for a website? Is under 3 seconds considered ok? or bad for seo? But any advice is greatly appreciated.
Local Website Optimization | | asbchris0