Disavow Links - how do you know if it's worked?
-
I asked another SEO company to analysis my link structure (as I was too busy!) As I was flat lining on some work I was doing. They said I potentially had an algo penalty and that i need to do a disavow , even though I had no messages from Google saying I had unnatural links. stupidly I agreed to the disavow. Looking at Webmasters tools it seems they've submitted a bunch of links. Since they've done this traffic dropped by 60%, ranking dropped massively. In google Webmasters all the links which are meant to be removed are still showing. How do I know if the actual disavow has been done? And should I do a reconsideration request? Even though Google hadn't flagged an issue ??
-
Thank you for this, it answers the question. I am going to get the sites which shouldn't of been cleaned out back into the mix.
-
I agree with Bill. Your disavowed links will still remain in GWT. You can download your current disavow file here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main
Even if you don't have a manual penalty, it's still not a bad idea to do some disavowing if you may have been affected by the Penguin algorithm. You won't get a message if this is the case. And, as Bill pointed out, you can't file a reconsideration request unless you have a manual penalty.
I'd download your disavow file, and review it to make sure that it contains obviously spammy links. One area that is grey are directory links. If the company has disavowed directory links that are from non-spammy looking directories it might be a good idea to re-allow them.
Another iffy area is guest posts. Right now, guest post links are working really well. But, I am quite suspicious that the next Penguin update will hit sites hard that have used guest posting extensively as a way to rank higher. For one of my own sites, I have just disavowed a number of guest posting links and yes, I took a hit in rankings. But, if I'm right, when Penguin refreshes, my site will come out ok whereas my competitors will be in trouble.
And one final thought....if your rankings drop happened any time around May 20, you may be dealing with a Panda issue and not a disavow problem.
Back to your disavow file....if you remove the links that you want to start counting again and re-file, then the next time Google crawls those links they will be credited back to your site again.
-
Thanks Bill, I can see some sites on the list so I can resubmit without these key urls
-
Here is my thoughts based on experience.
First the links don't disappear from Webmaster tools. You will still see them there. A reconsideration request only helps if you got hit by a manual penalty not algorithmic ones. If your traffic dropped after the disavow list was supplied it could be that you told Google to kill some valuable links and now you are missing that link juice. Though with that the flip side from mantra of causality and correlation that Rand preaches. Google has been rolling out some changes so your traffic drop could be unrelated.
I would go back to the disvow list though and see if they put some links in it that shouldn't have been flagged as spam and resubmit the list.
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
-
Does anyone know if it is possible to get a "dofolow" link from YouTube? All advice currently available seems a bit outdated,
I see that some competitors have links from youtube but i can not see ay advice on how to get do follow links from Youtube - is this possible and if so can anyone advise how? The only advice i can see is a little dated,
Link Building | | SimonButterworth0 -
Disavowing Links
I need some advice... I've noticed our link profile has increased with many comments links --- something I certainly have not pursued manually. I'm new to disavowing links. However, before I go ahead and disavow them, I'd like to ask how harmful these links are and would you recommend this is something I can do myself (relatively novice SEO) or if you'd recommend someone who could do this for a reasonable cost. In one instance, the link from this comment thread is with the anchor text, "porn"... Certainly not something we want to rank for, haha! I look forward to your advice
Link Building | | LukeBTDT0 -
How does a business have a link back where I can't see the anchor text?
So, I'm running competitor websites through Open Site Explorer and following the link from Moz to where their link is coming from. It has the anchor text 'Christmas Gifts'. When I go to that page there is no mention of this anchor text. No mention of that persons website. No display ad's that could be providing that link. How is this link pointing to their page?
Link Building | | Byron_Bay_Gifts0 -
To Disavow, or not?
Hi - I'm working on a site that has somewhere between 1200 and 1500 backlinks. Somewhere around 800 or 1000 of the links have one of four or five exact keyword phrases that this company paid a former seo to create links for. They ranked well for those phrases until last fall and then almost overnight they fell completely out of the first 50 SERP results. They did NOT receive a manual penalty. This leads me to two questions: 1. This sounds like they were hit by Penguin, rather than Panda. Do I have that right? 2. Is there any value in disavowing the 800 or so spammy links? Is there any danger in doing so? Thanks!
Link Building | | tcolling0 -
My website has no links to it at all :(
I paid good money for a company to build me a website, I just put my domain into open site explorer and I have no links at all, how do I get links to other domains etc ? Thanks for any help -James
Link Building | | Stoz0 -
Joomla's weblink component, do the links count as backlinks?
If your using the default Joomla weblink component do the links you add to others sites count as backlinks to those sites? example: http://www.yakangler.com/helpful-links/26-fishing-blogs-sites
Link Building | | mr_w0 -
How many nofollow links should we build to have a natural link profile
Hi guys, As with many link builders we have been building lots of dofollow links for our site, so many that mainly our incoming links are dofollow. Some pages have 99.5% dofollow external links which I know is not very natural. In your experience in terms of percentage how much should you have in terms of nofollow external links in your link profile. I noticed SEOMoz has about 12-13% nofollow external links, shall I go with this figure? Thanks guys. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
Great idea to get back links in short order; however the links would be unrelated. . Is it worth the effort . BTW, it's a white hat method. Should I proceed?
I have come up with a very creative way to get some great back links using white hat methods. The problem is that the back links to the site would be to an interior page or external promotional website which then have links back to the main website. What kind of value for the main domain would this potentially achieve. What are peopLes thoughts on this idea?
Link Building | | FidelityOne0