A few questions about unnatural links
-
i have just had another reconsideration request rejected by Google. In my rejection message they have given me 3 examples of unnatural links, but two of them I have had nothing to do with.
My website is http://www.seoco.co.uk
Here are the 3 links they mentioned:
- http://www.pyjamapeople.com/articles/authors/107/David-Eaves
- http://www.timeandattendance.co.uk/blog/?tag=access-control
- http://www.worx.at/blog/und-punkt/
the 1st one is just a website that republished one of my articles, I never submitted there or anything. Do I need to contact every single website that republished one of my articles and get those removed? Are they not classed as natural? Also, the page is not even cached by Google, why are they telling me to get rid of links that are not even in their index?
The 2nd link is a client site and is definitely unnatural, I removed my link from the main part of the site a while ago but the blog footer was not updated, I will take care of that one.
The 3rd link is a totally natural blogroll link that I had nothing to do with. What do you think I should do about it? Should I mention to Google on my next reconsideration request that it is in fact natural, or should I just bite the bullet and get it taken down?
Also, there are a few pretty decent links out there that I am thinking about getting taken down on good sites, what do you think I should do with these two:
2. http://www.webpronews.com/10-reasons-why-i-hate-shout-outs-on-digg-2007-10
-
Hi again David,
I haven't heard of this particular company - could be good if the 40 penalties stat is true, but get your research in and you should be fine.
Also check out the Recommended Providers list - there could be some good options on there too.
-
I didn't do too much research, I just looked at the moz profile and the elance.com page.
I take it you are from New Jersey. I love Kevin Smith man, he is one of my favourite film directors.
-
I don't know this person... He has a blog here that you can read with google translate... http://faktor.biz/ban-lub-filtr-od-google/
I have gotten great work from people who live in non-English speaking countries. Fantastic work... and gotten really bad work from people who live in New Jersey. Stay away! lol
-
I received a message from a Moz user called Faktorbiz before who claims to have taken care of over 40 penalties, I have checked out his prices and I might be able to afford him. I am a little concerned that he is from a non-English speaking country though, can anybody vouch for this guy?
-
they did not believe me when I said I had nothing to do with those two links, but I can assure you that I am telling the truth.
I believe you. I have sites that have never received linkbuilding work and they have links from all kinds of spammy mash-up sites, computer-built directories, etc. Awful.
Google is incompetent and thinks that they ain't.
-
Hi Egol, I would like to hire someone who knows what they are doing, but people like Marie Haynes are too busy and I don't think I could afford her anyway.
I agree that Jane and Andy were quite generous in their responses, I got far less generous replies from the people at Google webmaster forums - they did not believe me when I said I had nothing to do with those two links, but I can assure you that I am telling the truth. They basically said that all of the links that I mentioned were pure spam and had to go.
Do you know anyone who you could recommend to help me out who is very affordable?
Once I get a few more opinions I will come up with an action plan that will hopefully get this nightmare of a Google penalty lifted.
I know you are an old school SEO who has been at it for years and I appreciate your response, thanks.
-
I think that you have received generous opinions from Jane and Andy.
I am looking to get as many opinions as possible on the questions I have asked.
So, when you get 50 opinions how are you going to decide what to do?
If I was in your situation, I would go straight to a person who has done a lot of successful reconsideration requests for Penguin, hire them to look at your links and give you copies of their communications with Google. I think that will be more efficient than listening to fifty people kibitzin' and then shooting into the dark.
-
Both the answers I have are great and I appreciate them, but I am looking to get as many opinions as possible on the questions I have asked. Please feel free to chime in and give me your two cents
-
Hi David,
Sorry I missed out those ones! I'd say you'd want to remove the "search engine optimisation" anchor text for sure if you're under penalty / suspicion in general. The recent furore about guest blogging has been quite focused on footer author bio links too unfortunately. I can't say for sure whether all or many footer bios are going to get nuked or considered very suspicious, but I would say that I'd be wary of the practice if you're already penalised. It seems ridiculous, but sadly you aren't the only person who's wrestling with nofollowing or removing what were otherwise considered to be good links.
Perhaps start with changing these to purely brand links, either the company name or your name. If you're still having trouble after getting rid of the links Google has cited, move on to removing or nofollowing these types of links. I agree that it's painful to consider removing links without being sure if they're hurting.
-
Hi Jane, thanks for the response, what do you think I should do about the 2 articles I mentioned at the bottom of my question? Should I leave them as they are? Try to get the anchor text changed or get them nofollowed or removed?
-
Hey David,
That is really infuriating - they pick off natural and scraped links way too often.
http://www.pyjamapeople.com/ certainly looks like it contains some questionable links, so whilst you had nothing to do with the placement, they're going to get snide about it. Agree with Andy that you'd be best asking for removal but if you have no luck, include it in a disavowal and explain the situation.
It's really annoying that they cite blogroll links as unnatural when linking to sites you like has been common practice in blogging since blogging began. Unfortunately, if they're calling it out, you'll need to do something about it. It could be that the site has been selling links to others and you've been caught up in the mix despite not actively seeking the link.
I'm a fan of removing links rather than just relying on disavowal, but of course you can't be sure that the webmasters will cooperate. If a link consistently brings visitors, I'd try to nofollow instead. Again, I totally sympathise here because examples 1 and 3 seem ridiculously totalitarian and pedantic (what's wrong with Google just nullifying any authority they passed?) but there's not too much we can do once they cite specific examples, even if they're wrong.
-
Hi David,
If Google are mentioning links, then I would do something about them all. There is obviously a reason why they don't like them, and although you consider the Blogroll link to be natural, this is amongst the sorts of links that Matt Cutts has said they don't want to see. They don't know you didn't ask for it.
If you have no joy with requests to have them removed, just disavow and then advise Google again.
If you are worried about the other sites, change the links so they are not keywords (just something like visit me at <url>. You could even go for a mention and remove any direct links altogether? Perhaps see if the links can be no-followed as well, but as these are not your sites, you will need to make the request.</url>
-Andy
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
-
Backlinks vs External Links vs Referral Links vs Outbound links
Hello all, I was just wondering if you could explain the difference between all the links above? I'm confused as they all seem to be the same or similar and I would just like to clearly know what distinguishes them from eachother. Thanks for your help, Jayne
Link Building | | NCOREGSEO0 -
Relaunching a site that has had thousands of posts linking to the same 20 articles. How to properly setup internal linking?
I'm in the process of relaunching a music news site (www.prefixmag.com) that once did quite well in search (over a million monthly search visits in its prime). The site got crushed by Panda, etc. and we stopped updating it. I'm starting to do more research but one thing that I noticed was we have modules in the right rail (desktop) that are found on all of our article pages that point to the same posts. (Edit: Added attachment. The links in the right rail under Editor Picks, Features, News, Media, etc. are found on every page of the site). In other words, we have thousands of posts that all link to the same 20 or so articles. Should we not do this if we're not trying to emphasize these posts in Google? Assuming this is the case, what is the proper way to do internal linking? Do we simply setup a sitemap and link to it? I'm hoping to have the thousands of articles we've published over the years have a chance to rank in search again. Also, we have a number of posts that are thin in content should those pages not be submitted in the sitemap? Thanks in advance! 2KmX0
Link Building | | leggo0 -
Questions About Link Building .
Hello Moz Community, I am about to hire a SEO firm for my website ranking. I have few questions about their link building plan. http://priceperlink.com/SEO-Link-Building/ Their link building plan ! I have purchased package 4. I have noticed they will use same article and PR again and again . Is that acceptable ? This plan is not authenticated to me. I hope google will catch me for duplicate content. Anyone can clear it please ? Another question is , If i provide unique articles , will that plan be helpful ? Still i have confusion. As I read few days ago, google don't give any value to article submission and press release distribution without any news ! So, help me quickly and suggestion as well. Will i continue with them or not. Thanks
Link Building | | businessowner0 -
Unnatural Linking Using Webdsite Themes
I am working on a website that last year received an email from Google via webmaster tools talking about the linking profile. The email suggested that the website had unnatural activity (links) and that the webmaster needed to investigate before filing for a reconsideration. After having looked at the link profile using OSE, it was easy to see the problem. Thousands of inbound links with the exact anchor text. Here is the BIG problem. The tactics used by the unamed SEO agency prior to me were to embed links in to the footer of web themes? At this stage it is unclear as to where you can downlaod or purchase the web themes but it's obvious that the problem is simply going to escalate. The domain in question is www.teamtactics.co.uk Any thoughts on the above would be much appreciated - at this point I am trying to find the place were the themes are available for download. Any ideas much appreciated. shivun
Link Building | | seohive-2227200 -
Reciprocal links
I've heard that reciprocal links don't count anymore. If i stop linking to a person that links to me, will that link to my website start counting? Do reciprocal links count at all in google? Anchor text? anything? Thanks in advance! Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Deleting links
I've got 280 links on my wordpress blog site, apparently it's recommended to keep under 100 links. How would I know which links to get rid of and which links to keep?
Link Building | | gimes0 -
Remove links after Penguin?
My site did not get hit. I am worried that Google will come back and get me for those anchor-text links I built a while back. They are of low to medium quality guest posts. Should I remove my old low-quality links? What about those on sites and pages that have been deindexed by Google? Any point in removing those? I know we can only speculate at this point, but would really appreciate some opinions on this. Has the trend in the past been a slight rollback after a big algorithm update like this? Or could we expect to see more and more sites being penalized? -Mathias
Link Building | | mathiasppc0 -
Back Link: Is LinkedIn keywords in profile good Link building strategy?
I distribute industrial products B2B with e commerce. I have a personal profile on LinkedIn. I listed the products I sell and I could have all my partners and associates list my web site on their profiles. Do search engines review LinkedIn personal profiles or company profiles and is it a good marketing strategy to have my web site, keywords, and my two largest selling products on LinkedIn?
Link Building | | Wales0