Are these sites spammy links or should I just let it go?
-
I have a new client who had an old SEO firm that I believe was putting spammy links together for them. The firm has very good links mixed in with them so I am wondering if it even matters. They are ranked 4/10 and have a DA of 47. So it doesn't seem it is really hurting them too badly.
Below are some examples of some of the sites I found in the Open SIte Explorer. I wanted to get another opinion on if the below hurt/help/does nothing. I was thinking it hurts more than helps. Topic of his website is a marketing firm.
http://directoryol.com/united-states/page-17.html
http://360surfcamp.com/links-37
http://www.kdbx.rojo.jp/kdbx/index.cgi?action=kategorie&k_no=1&mk_no=0&page=10681
Thoughts? Should we use Google's disavow tool or just leave it alone?
-
Start putting your disavow file together. And where are you getting your list of those links from?
-
Those were just samples. There are hundreds of these types of links!
-
The couple links that you shared are low quality but just those few would not incur a penalty for your site. If a high percentage of your links were similar to those it would be good cause for concern and prompt action on the disavow tool.
Don't go by DA or PR to determine if you've been impacted negatively by your link profile. Go back over the history of your organic keyword traffic and note whether that traffic has dropped significantly and not recovered. If it has, purge with the disavow tool and start working on building real authority. If it hasn't, target the lowest quality links with the disavow tool and keep building real authority.
-
In Webmaster Tools you can see if there are any manual action penalties. Just because there are none there doesn't mean the site isn't penalized, but if there is something there, then it's time to take action right away.
This little tool can help indicate as well if you don't see a manual action, but without historical data like analytics and ranking reports, it becomes more difficult: http://feinternational.com/website-penalty-indicator/
-
Thanks William - how can I tell if they have been hit with a penalty? In web master tools?
-
Some SEOs say not to disavow until you know you're hit with a penalty, but I like being proactive.
These links are definitely spammy. These are the kinds of links that take down websites, and when I get a new client with a lot of this kind of stuff, I'll submit a proactive disavow report.
Recovering from a link spam penalty isn't exactly the easiest or fastest thing in the world, so making sure it never gets to that point is important.
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
-
On-Page / Site Optimization+Link Building -check help!
HI all, have also Question One, i don't understand how is this website : competitor website http://hack-clash-royale. com/ beter them my website i analze i have more more backlink and my website is strong have good seo but not on first position, you can tell me what is problem, my website is 4-5# and competitor 1-2# .. thanks
Link Building | | Fahad5Saleem0 -
Should I work with current site or start a new site with more keywords?
I have been working with my site for some time. Sadly, I am moving lower and lower in ranking. I am wondering if I should just transfer my site to a new URL (this time including keywords). I don't understand the whole disavow link thing. I hired someone about 2 years ago, when I lost my ranking due to malicious software. Well, it turns out that, she submitted my link to weird sites that I don't even know what they are. It is like sites with thousands of websites just listed. Things have never been half of what they were and I am really just growing frustrated. I understand that having an a URL for awhile is helpful, but I appear to have lost many of my good linking sites. Any thoughts?
Link Building | | tiffany11030 -
What is the best way to remove a link that redirects to a spammy site?
I've got a new client and I'm trying to clean up their backlinks. There are several links that all redirect to this spam site http://www.expert-lender.com. All of the websites appear to be real, i.e. http://www.sammorganhomes.com/ but the actual links i.e http://www.sammorganhomes.com/wp-fav/backup/supplement/semitruckleasing.html are in a sub-directory and redirect to the spam site. I don't know if these links were from the previous SEO company or if they paid someone to create these or if these sites have been hacked. Can anyone tell me what is going on here and what should I tell these site owners?
Link Building | | Total-Design-Shop0 -
Link Building - Affiliate Link Programs
I'm getting some conflicting information when researching this... I want to create the most organic link building strategy that not only gets high authority sites linking to a website, but relevant websites. I'm creating an affiliate link program where I link to partner and affiliate companies, who in turn link back to me. The question is where to put these links. I was initially thinking of putting them in the footer so they add credibility to every page, and in turn ask my affiliates to do the same thing. However; some sources say that Google no longer looks at links in the footer section. Is it true that Google doesn't count links in footer sections? And do you have any tips on creating this Affiliate Link Program?
Link Building | | reidsteven750 -
I have just read an article that says no follows now leak link juice?
I have just been reading a really interesting article about link juice. The way I read the piece the author was saying that there has been a change in the way link juice is blocked with 'no follows.' The author seemed to say that there has been a change and now even if you add a 'no follow' onto a page that the page will still send link juice to that page. I may have read this wrong. I just wanted to check if anyone else had heard this at all? Many thanks
Link Building | | mblsolutions0 -
Link building for ecommerce site
What are your recommendations for the best link building strategy for a B2C ecommerce site?
Link Building | | DenverKelly0 -
Anything to bear in mind when setting up a related 'family' of sites with linking between them?
We've spun out content from a single finance related news/analysis site (running for about 2 years) into several topic-specific sites on individual topics (markets, investment etc etc). They're all on the same server, use the same CMS (using a multisite setup), and share largely the same codebase, though obviously with customisations for the site names, and we've made sure each has a distinct identity. At the bottom of each page, we're linking to 'latest posts on the network', aggregating the 5 most recent posts from all the sites and displaying them in the footer. We've obviously made sure the actual content is completely unique on each site though. Just wondering if anyone has any tips about ensuring we don't dilute our SEO too much. and how to maximise our effectiveness?
Link Building | | topnotch180