How vital is it to get rid of spam links?
-
We have about 40, between 1-4 flags. Do you see this as a problem? We looked at the disavow feature, but it seems you need to be cautious about using it. Please advise. Thanks!
-
Ok, that's good to know. I think for now, I"ll leave them alone, unless there's one that seems really irrelevant. Thanks to both of you for your help.
-
Hi,
As Gastón said, you can disavow one by one.
It is not considered an spam link if under 5, a reasonable amount of them and highly related to the industry/niche.
I forgot to mention a basic, that almost all active websites have as normal an spam score 1/17 - 2/17 - 3/17 up to 4/17. Even Moz has 1/17. It might be due to the site has too many inbound links and little outbound links - algorithms might see that as unnatural - it is highly probable, we do not know for sure, that the amount of inbound/outbound links should be according to other websites in the same industry and location. Although, Moz has a lot of inbound links due to is the best SEO source of knowledge and SEO tools.
If as you said, your inbound links are from clients, do not disavow them unless the spam score goes over 6 or 7.
Ma Verónica B.
-
Yes you can disavow one by one
-
Thank you both for your responses. Our spam links are mainly ones back from our client's sites (which are churches/non-profits, so they seem relevant) or from blog posts I have commented on (also relevant to churches.) So, I"m not sure why they are considered spammy.
Question: Can you disavow individual links (and not the whole group of them?)
Thanks again.
-
Hi,
in addition to what María said, remember to use your own and unique knowledge about your niche. Use backlink explorers such as Moz OpenSite Explorer, Ahrefs, MagesticSEO or anyone you like best. Analyze every link and if you think that it should not be part of your link profile.. Disavow them.That's my 2cent.
Best luck!
GR. -
You are most welcome! Ruled out the spam score, although it is important to keep an eye on them due to spam score changes over time.
A second consideration: are those inbound links damaging your website?, are they relevant to your site business/interests? For example, your website is a Corporate Bank having a lot of inbound links from gambling sites which have spam score 1, that is not a good signal, not due to the spam score, but as a bad signal for trust.
Or your website serves a community, with pizza delivery service in Canada, if having a bunch of inbound links from shoe stores in Australia, those are not relevant nor a good signal either. At the time somebody looks for a pizza, Google algorithms might decide to show other pizza delivery, instead the one with that bizarre signals related to interests and locations.
If neither of those issues are in place, as a general rule no action is necessary.
Mª Verónica B.
-
Thanks for your response. I checked our website spam score which is 0. So, do I really need to worry about the spam links? As I mentioned, they are between 1-4 flags, most under 4. Thanks again:-)
-
Hi,
Good question. It is highly important!
Although, there are various considerations to determine what to keep and what to disavow.
Inbound links are like letters of recommendations in the real world.Therefore, it is perfectly natural and very important, to have recommendations from other operators in your industry/niche, universities, linkedIn accounts, as some examples.
Other natural good websites might be, serious aggregators/directories, serious websites for announce your events, high quality press, as some examples.
A second and equally important factor, is the spam score of the website. You can check with the Moz Site Explorer or the MozBar. Also highly important factors are the page authority "PA" and the domain authority "DA".
If you consider that is not relevant for your website and having high spam score, I recommend to disavow, both in Google and Bing.
Of course, it is a task that should be done carefully, studying each link, one by one and following the Webmasters recommendations from each search engine due to they are not equal.
Here is a complete guide by Marie Haynes.
Ma Verónica B.
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
-
links
Hi, in our Google Search Console account, all of our links, built up over a long time have disappeared. they just vanished. it was for a Cardiff demolition company, we work for. any idea why links would just vanish?
Link Building | | sarahwalsh0 -
Nasty links
Hi My first q on here (hoorah!), and it's about links (boo!). I've got what appears to be a handful (but worryingly, increasing in number) of links pointing to my site like this: http://condos.mrgulffront.com/florida-condos-for-sale/320-scenic-gulf-drive-miramar-beach-fl-32550-mls-567591/ I've made contact with the sites concerned, and had only one positive response who flatly denied all knowledge of it. The issue (as far as I can see) is that as in the above example the links (on the bottom right in the grey box) are forever changing so not always visible. Can anyone offer any guidance as to these kinds of nasty links.... I'm right at the v beginning on this "path of seo understanding" so please don't assume prior knowledge! Thanks in advance.... tom
Link Building | | T-J-I0 -
Linking Etiquette
Hi Moz Community, Long time lurker, first time poster. I work for a real estate firm and have recently done some link analysis. I'm noticing that my company is not getting linked to as frequently as we should be. Several news outlets (including NYT & Bloomberg) have cited our reports, interviews with employees and other original content belonging to my company without linking back to our site (although they do mention us).Some publications are even linking back to our competitors for similar content but not ours. Is it appropriate to reach out and ask for links from these outlets after they've been published? Does anybody have tips on making others aware we want links shared for future articles? Thanks in advance!
Link Building | | rlaughlin0 -
What are inbound links worth after Panda and Penguin, since a site ranks for the NATIONAL keyword "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS!?!?
ARE INBOUND LINKS TODAY ALMOST WORTHLESS??!!? After having been the KING of SEO, down to the toilet? Today I got a great sample from a fellow SEO professional showing a site, rockymountainfurniture.com rank for "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS FROM 3 DOMAINS and a domain trust of 14!!!! ON A NATIONAL, VALUABLE, HIGH QUERY VOLUME KEYWORD!! I was stunned, but is this the "NEW SEO WORLD" we live in, so we should skip spending hundreds of hours on link building? There are over 32 different types of inbound links but this is much MORE than a radical change, this is turning SEO as it was up-side-down. Any input, thoughts, ideas?
Link Building | | yvonneq0 -
Finding links online that already exist as link juice based on search results
I'm curious about this, I can't find anything on the net that talks about it. I wrote an article about it on squidoo and have had no responses so I am thinking this is very rare subject. The question is I have done some backlink research with my competitors with linkdetective.com and found many links (even follow ones) related to sites that provide search results. Here are a link about what I am talking about as an example, I have found many more besides this one. http://search.lphant.com/es/webResults.html?q=free%20scrabble%20dictionary&hl=en&page=1&src=hmp_es&ref=1 My site appears in those results. When looking at the source there is no "nofollow". I found this page because linkdetective.com had this link listed pointing to my competitor. Are these valid backlinks? What I have been doing is adding these links to http://www.google.com/addurl so that Google knows about them. Is there something I am missing or are these valid?
Link Building | | cbielich0 -
Are Directory Links a Good Source of Branded Links?
I am trying to increase the number of branded links for a few of my sites since the links are too heavily weighted on anchor text. If so, would you recommend a service like Directory Maximizer?
Link Building | | rise10 -
Building Links
Hi everyone, I am new to SEO and in the process of building links the clean way. Any suggestions on how exactly I can find websites that are linking out to quality websites already? I went thru most of my competitors link building strategy - and 90% of their links are done either thru link exchange or paid links. So looking at my competitors strategy does not really help. So I need to find websites/blogs/forums that are ready to link to me if I can show them some useful content. How do I find these websites first? Please help! Cheers! Arjun
Link Building | | ArjunRajkumar0 -
New ways to get links (excluding on site link bait)?
Fellow SEOs, I’m looking for a new way to reach out to bloggers and site owners for links. There are quite a few link bait techniques to lure bloggers thanks to = amazing content, infographics,...but there are not so many articles on ways to contact bloggers/webmasters and ask for links... We all know that contacting site owners directly and politely asking then to place a link on their home page is as useful as a comb in Bruce willis’s hand. Link exchange is as dead as the Dodo and business partner links are usefull and easier to get but opportunities are often limited. I have been organizing contests for bloggers recently and it has been quite successful up to now, but I always like to have a spare trick up my sleeve. So if any of you have a decent method to reach out to bloggers/webmaster and get decent links please let me know, I will be forever thankful ; ) Cheers
Link Building | | ref.price0