Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
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
-
How long does it take Google to remove links after using disavow tool?
Hi guys, So we're currently in the process of removing some of the less useful and more suspect links from our profile, and used the Google disavow tool to do so. We uploaded the .txt file to the search console on 7th July this year, 2 months ago now, and according to our most recent site crawl, the suspect links are still showing up on our link profile. Do we have any idea how long this is roughly supposed to take? The ideas I've found online are conflicting - anything from 3-4 weeks to 6-9 months. Which is it? Is there any way of fast-tracking this process? Thanks!
Link Building | | rawdog0 -
Value of Links? What is each link worth?
Morning Everyone, I just had this thought and wondered what everyone's opinions were in terms of link value in monetary terms. We'll assume for the purposes of this that the links come from contextually relevant sites and that the sites in question have got the Moz DA from being high quality and have a good quality incoming link profile. Its a bit of a theoretical question, but i guess imagine if the only way you could get links was to pay for them, what would they be worth to you. This is link value for SEO purposes, they will have in addition value from traffic from good sites, that no doubt varies wildly depending on topic. I assume everyone also agrees on: The first link from a domain is the most valuable High DA sites are worth more than low ones. So could anyone who has an opinion on the link value suggest a monetary value for links. Its really just using a monetary amount to see how best to target my time. Here is my example of what might be expected, but I am hoping people with more knowledge will perhaps correct it. DA Rating First Link 2nd-5th Link 5th-10th Link 10Plus Links 5 $5 $2 $1 $0 15 $7 $3 $2 $1 25 $25 $10 $5 $2 35 $45 $20 $7 $3 45 $65 $30 $11 $4 55 $95 $45 $19 $5 65 $200 $100 $45 $6 75 $350 $120 $65 $9 85 $700 $240 $95 $15 95 $1100 $450 $200 $30
Link Building | | wellandpower1 -
Back link from site with DA of 72 to a website domain. Clicking on the link redirects to our website not the attended one.
Hi,
Link Building | | JIMBO16
I've ran a back link check and discovered a good back link to a site which then gets redirected back to my company's website. I have a feeling that an old SEO agency has purchased a small website which has a decent link back from a relevant organisation with a high Domain authority and then redirects the domain to our website to get the link juice. What are your thought on this? Is this really bad practise and possibly damaging? Thanks, Jim0 -
Should i disavow yellowpages.com. Webmater tools shows 656 links coming from it.
We do not have any manual penalty warnings but I am still concerned that Google will see this as unnatural and be penalizing us to a lesser degree.
Link Building | | Jason_C0 -
How good is a backlink that's in the footer
Hello, The strongest site in our industry (according to domain authority and excluding wikipedia) said that they would put a sitewide link to us in their footer. We're good friends with them. It would be right next to the copyright. Our site is nlpca (dot) com The partner site is nlpu (dot) com The link will say something like "More NLP Training" with the "NLP" as the link. We're targeting the keyword "NLP" How much will this move us up for the keyword "NLP"? Right now we're on the 3rd page for that term. I also want to make sure that it's a white hat move. Thanks!
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
How many links per week is too fast in link building?
For a new website/blog how many links per week looks suspicious or hurt the rankings?
Link Building | | aaran1 -
Why doesn't the Better Business Bureau show up in my link analysis
I've been working on SEO for one of the companies I've designed a website for and I'm confused by the company's lack of Better Business Bureau backlinks. The Company in question does have a BBB account and that account links back to the company's website. However, when I check in the link analysis for the site, the BBB link doesn't appear. My competitors, on the other hand, do have BBB links in their analyses. So, I'm wondering if I somehow don't have the right type of BBB account. The BBB seems to be a pretty good place to have a link from, and the company pays $300.00 per year for the membership, so I'd like to get the most out of it. Here's a link to the BBB page for the company http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/plumbers/platinum-plumbing-services-in-west-jordan-ut-22199778#bbblogo And here's the company's website www.slcplumbing.com Now, the company site I've just listed is 301 redirected to www.platinumplumbinginc.com, but even when www.slcplumbing.com was the main site, the BBB backlink didn't show up. Thank you Blake
Link Building | | BlakeMcGillis0