Identifying Bad Domains
-
In the past week my website has not been doing well.
How can I look at a list of domains linking to my website to identify which ones are harmful and need to be removed. Is there a checklist of criteria that a linking doamin to meet for me to remove it?
Thank you for your help.
-
You've gotten some excellent advice already. I'll add a few of my thoughts.
First of all, have you been doing link building? If not, then this may not be the right road to go down. If you've noticed a drop just recently, it may be that the Panda algorithm is affecting your site and Panda really isn't about link quality. There was a big Panda update on May 20 although many sites started seeing changes a couple of days before that.
If you have been doing link building and you want to clean up your links then the goal is to find ones that were self made with the intention of gaming Google and then remove or disavow those. William's list is a good place to start.
-
Even with a tool like Link Detox (which I use and think is great), you'll still need to manually review every site as there will for sure be false positives. You'd probably be better off hiring someone to do this for you than trying it yourself.
-
Thank you for all your responses.
-
You are actually talking about link audits and identifying the bad links from the system. When it comes to link audit there are multiple tools available for it. If you are using Moz.com (Open Site Explorer) will give you the detailed insight of the links that are pointing back to your site. You can try other tools like Majestic SEO and Ahrefs.com for this. It is ideal to use the data of multiple tools like a data combination of GT, Moz.com, Ahrefs.com and Majestic SEO will be mind blowing.
Above tools will only give you the link profile but how to find the bad links out of it is another job. There are two ways here:
- Do it Manually
If you are going to do it manually then you need to set the parameters like which link is bad and which link in the system is worth including in the good list. Try to remove all the bad links and if they does not remove include them in the disavow file and submit it to Google.
- The Tool way!
There are tools like Link Detox and Link Risk that can do this job using their signals to identify a bad link. This is a little costly ideas as these tools are a little on the high end.
Although there are tools available but it is always a better idea to go manually on this as tools can guess wrong so you always have to check the things manually even after get passed by the system.
Hope this helps!
-
There are tools out there you can pay for to do this work for, things like linkdetox.com can be helpful to identify the bad links. Something like Rmoov is great to then begin to removal process.
If doing it on your own, you'll need to check out each questionable domain manually. You can rule out big domains that you know are not spammy, and focus on the ones you have no idea about. When looking at a domain, ask yourself the following:
-
Is this site indexed in Google?
-
Could I easily create a followed link from this domain to mine? OR pay for one?
-
Does this site seem to be scraping information of mine from other sources?
-
Is this site in English (or whichever language your site is in)?
-
Is it a crappy directory site? Article submission site? Other easily exploitable kind of site?
These are the sorts of things to look out for. Google doesn't want to count links for you if you made them for SEO purposes, or paid someone else to. If you look at a site, and it appears that their business model is building links, or they are spammy in anyway, you know it's a red flag.
Also, I'm learning more and more that when you're on the fence about a domain, disavow it.
-
-
Do a site:www.examplesite.com search in Google. This will show if Google has penalized them. Also you can run them all through SEMrush and see if they have been hit by Google, you can Identify that by their drop in organic traffic. That's two of many way to do the research.
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 2 linking root domains on my URL. But I don't get the whole Root domain thing. So I don't understand how I can improve it?
I have 2 linking root domains on my URL. But I don't get the whole Root domain thing. So I don't understand how I can improve it? I copy and pasted this, from my Links page in my campaign because I can't seem to grasp what a root domain is: 'A higher number of good quality linking root domains improves a page's ranking potential'. Can some one explain to me what this is. As simply as possible. Here's my site www.Thumannagency.com Thanks in advance:)
Moz Pro | | MissThumann0 -
High Page Authrority, low Domain Authority. Good?
I am seeking links from real estate content sites to promote a free course I have about apartment investing. The response has been good from the first five sites I approached, with three granting links. In putting the linking pages on Open Site Explorer though I noticed on had a PA of 40, but a DA of 28. Of course I am grateful for the link, but usually it is the DA that is higher. What does it mean when the PA is higher than the DA, and would a link from this page help me? Any help is much appreciated.
Moz Pro | | HankR0 -
Why is my domain not being crawled anymore?
I just noticed that right around 12/1/2012, SEOMoz stopped crawling all but two pages out of the 400 or so on my website at www.TrustworthyCare.com . I speculate that this is probably due to some dumb mistake I made at that time, but I can't for the life of me figure out what that mistake was. Before that, the weekly crawls included all 400 or so pages. I wonder whether it's something that changed in our .htaccess file. Here's how that file looks now; can anyone see what is wrong there, or perhaps offer other suggestions if it doesn't look like anything is wrong in it? Thanks! Tim PS - I'm a small business owner, not an SEO or software engineer. PPS - I found and read this page, but I've pretty much tried the things described there (I think): https://seomoz.zendesk.com/entries/409821-why-isn-t-my-site-being-crawled-you-re-not-crawling-all-my-pages ================================= RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartcare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartcare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartcaremanagement.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartcaremanagement.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartgeriatriccare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartgeriatriccare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartgeriatriccaremanagement.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartgeriatriccaremanagement.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantshearthomecare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantshearthomecare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartseniorcare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartseniorcare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^aservantsheartservices.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.aservantsheartservices.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^careforparents.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.careforparents.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^eldercareradio.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.eldercareradio.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^helpforyourparents.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.helpforyourparents.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^privatedutyseniorcare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.privatedutyseniorcare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sandiegocaremanagement.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.sandiegocaremanagement.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sandiegocaremanager.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.sandiegocaremanager.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sandiegogeriatriccaremanagement.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.sandiegogeriatriccaremanagement.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sandiegogeriatriccaremanager.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.sandiegogeriatriccaremanager.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^servantsheartcare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.servantsheartcare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^servantshearthomecare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.servantshearthomecare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^servantsheartseniorcare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.servantsheartseniorcare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^tlccare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.tlccare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^tlcseniorcenter.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.tlcseniorcenter.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^tlcseniorhomecare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.tlcseniorhomecare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^tlcseniorservices.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.tlcseniorservices.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] #php_value upload_max_filesize 8MRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^trustworthycare.com$RewriteRule ^(.)$ "http://www.trustworthycare.com/$1" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://blog.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://blog.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://test.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://test.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.blog.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.blog.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.test.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.test.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.trustworthycare.com/images/files_for_service_inquiries/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.trustworthycare.com/images/files_for_service_inquiries$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://sandbox.trustworthycare.com/.$ [NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://sandbox.trustworthycare.com$ [NC]RewriteRule ..(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^ashsc.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.ashsc.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://trustworthycare.com/" [R=301,L] # BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css application/x-javascript text/x-component text/html text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon <filesmatch ".(css|js|htc|css|js|htc)$"=""></filesmatch> FileETag None Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.5" <filesmatch ".(html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|svgz|txt|xsd|xsl|xml|html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|svgz|txt|xsd|xsl|xml)$"=""></filesmatch> FileETag None Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.5" <filesmatch ".(asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mpp|otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|wav|wma|wri|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip|asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mpp|otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|wav|wma|wri|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip)$"=""></filesmatch> FileETag None Header set X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.5" # END W3TC Browser Cache# BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^(./)?w3tc_rewrite_test$ $1?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 [L] RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} gzip RewriteRule . - [E=W3TC_ENC:gzip] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ="" RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =www.trustworthycare.com RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /$ [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (sitemap(index)?.xml(.gz)?|[a-z0-9-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml(.gz)?) [NC] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail).php|/feed/|wp-.*.php|index.php) [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (wp-comments-popup.php|wp-links-opml.php|wp-locations.php) [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp-postpass|wordpress[a-f0-9]+|wordpress_logged_in) [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !(W3\ Total\ Cache/0.9.2.5) [NC] RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/sitectrl/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_UA}%{ENV:W3TC_REF}%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" -f RewriteRule .* "/sitectrl/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_UA}%{ENV:W3TC_REF}%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" [L]# END W3TC Page Cache core# BEGIN WordPressRewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L] # END WordPressRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^privatedutycare.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.privatedutycare.com$RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://www.ageassistance.com" [R=301,L] =================================
Moz Pro | | tcolling0 -
Why Doesn't Open Site Explorer show Domain Links from Twitter, WordPress or Feedburner?
I commented on a few blog posts and wanted to see the domain authority of those sites. When I look at our domain links, I notice the links are not there from the blogs (which I now know I have to give it time to show up). But I also noticed that domains with links to our website (regularly) were not showing up either. i .e Twitter, WordPress and Feedburner. I know we have links in these locations, especially Twitter. Why would these domains not show up? Much thanks!
Moz Pro | | SydisNey0 -
What is more important, page authority or linking root domains?
I have 2 pages in my report that are identical: www.ferringway.com (more page authority......21 vs. 1) www.ferringway.com/index.php (more linking root domains...... 40 vs. 21) Which one should I delete or should I do something like a 301 redirect? Your help is greatly appreciated! Sheryl
Moz Pro | | TOMMarketingLtd.0 -
What web page and domain analysis / error checking / testing tools do you use for competitor analysis? sites like webpagetest
Just wondering what everyone is using, I am looking to get as much insight and detail as I can on websites that are not currently being monitored by me... i.e. potential clients. I use tools like pagespeed, webpagetest, loadimpact and open site explorer, google adwords, ispionage, alexa, semrush and well, looking for more. I really just want to rip a website to the tiniest pieces possible in an organized and coherent manner... is there anything out there? I have tried several other's which i no longer use (compete, 4q, woopra, nuestar, to name a few), I am not sure if I know exactly what i want, i just want more.... damn the human condition. lol
Moz Pro | | atb9900 -
How fast can Domain Authority be established?
I am wondering how much time it takes to grow a new site's domain authority. More so, based on a consistent stream of links, syndication, and content, how fast can a website grow from 0-20, 21-40, 41-60, etc. in terms of domain authority?
Moz Pro | | NickEubanks0 -
Domain Authority: Sites with lower numbers get higher ranking.
We had a question about your online tools for http://pro.seomoz.org/campaigns/30642 The Domain Authority for http://pucherinsurance.com/ is 67: Higher than most of our competitors such as <cite><cite>bluecross.ca which has a rank of 54. </cite> </cite> We show up lower in the actual search results. An example phrase would be Visitors to Canada health Insurance. We get an A grade for onsite reports and we are working on the duplicate content and titles. We appear to be doing everything right but still rank lower than expected. Any thoughts?
Moz Pro | | northerncs0