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We used to sell text links on our site WebDesign.org , I told about that via Twitter in public, Google penalized us and here’s the history of the issue in more detail. I write it here to ask if you guys know how to sort out this issue coz I’m not exactly sure at this point. Before I tackle the issue itself, here's some background. OUTBOUND LINKS ISSUE Jun 22, 2013 We received an Unnatural outbound links penalty (Manual spam action message in our Google Webmaster Tools account) from Google July 1, 2013 We nofollowed all homepage links and submitted a reconsideration request July 10, 2013 Google replied that we still violate their quality guidelines July 15, 2013 We removed links to low quality and irrelevant  sites (such as Chinese stores, etc) and submitted another reconsideration request July 22, 2013 Manual Spam Action revoked INBOUND LINKS ISSUE November 8, 2013 We got a message from Google about Unnatural links to your site - impacts links (Message in our Google Webmaster Tools account) November 27, 2013 We Submitted a Disavow file with Deadly Risky links (found via generating a LinkDetox report) and submitted a reconsideration request December 15, 2013 Manual Action revoked (main keyword ranking got from 41 to 4) February  6, 014 And here's the actual issue: OUTBOUND LINKS ISSUE (Again) I told via Twitter in public that our site sells links. Matt Cutts noticed that and we got another Unnatural outbound links penalty (Manual action). Main keyword ranking decreased from 9 to 65. We removed all outbound links on the homepage and submitted a reconsideration request. April 15, 2014 Google replied that we still violate their quality guidelines. We nofollowd all outbound links with JavaScript (wrong move because Google did not take it as nofollowed) and submitted another reconsideration request. April 19, 2014 Google rejected our reconsideration request and said that we still violate their quality guidelines. April 23, 2014 We nofollowed properly this time (with PHP) and submitted another reconsideration request. May 4, 2014 Google replies that we still violate their quality guidelines. So, at this point I’m kinda lost in terms of what to do next because we've nofollowed all our outbound links (both paid and natural ones). What would you recommend?

I have a custom CMS. I offer a few affiliate products through my site. Now I need to update all my aff. links and I'm not sure how I can find all the pages (posts) on my site that have affiliate links. What's the best way to do that?

I've found a bunch of nofollow links with the help of Link Detox. Now, should I disavow such links (after contacating site owner directly and unsuccessfuly) or i can just filter my nofollow links and handle dofollow ones only?

Here's the deal. I got a message in the Manual Action section in GWT: Unnatural links to your site—impacts links On one hand, Matt Says that I need to do my best to take down links on sites that Google hinted me about (I've got a sample link) and it that does not work, I can apply the Disavow tool. Matt says it on this page in his video: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604772?ctx=MAC On the other hand, if you take a look at the text on the same page, it says that I'm not supposed to do anything at all if I got this message. Here's  the quote: "If you don't control the links pointing to your site, no action is required on your part. From Google's perspective, the links already won't count in ranking.  " I am not sure why I need to apply the Disavow tool if, " the links already won't count in ranking".

Is it me or you don't get (and not supposed to) email notifications when your site gets a manual action penalty? I mean I can see it in the Google Webmaster Tools interface, but I never get notifications in my Inbox.  Is that how it works or I just need to set it up somehow?

I have two accounts with Moz.com Account One (about a year old) has both the options to switch over between Moz Pro and Moz Analytics. Account Two (a trial so far) just has the option to use Moz Analytics. So new or trial accounts don't have access to Moz Pro?

I'm guest posting on some sites and one of them placed my back link as follows: mysite.com I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve with the help of rel="noindex"? The first that jumps into my mind is that Google will index the post but skip my backlink. So, there's no sense in such a bakclink, ringht?

Hey guys, I really hope that such a tool exists out there. Here's the problem. My boss asked me to create a graph that shows the traffic, rankings and notes on our site updates in one place. Here's what I did I just made a screenshot of my Google analytics and rankings from RankTracker. Then I added it all in one Photoshop file and tried to combine them so that I can see if traffic drops coincided with keyword drops. Also, I added some manual notes about the updates on my site (like text updates on the homepage, etc). So, is there a tool that allows to combine Google traffic data with ranking data. Plus it should allow to add my own comments ? Here's the result of my crazy drawings so that you understand why I'm not happy about doing that in Photoshop 🙂 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_oX-XIT7OSCRC1jWUcxR3AwdkE/edit?usp=drive_web

Here's the deal. I keep track of my keyword rankings with the help of Rank Tracker from seopowersuite.com for the most part. I ran it on a daily basis and my keyword was not in top 100 for a few months. Moz.com panel shows pretty much the same (not in top 50) for the same months. That said, if I check that keyword ranking in my Google Webmaster Tools (avg. position) it says that its position (ranking?) was on average: 49, 7, 7, 8 (for the last four months). So, I'm not sure how it's even possible? How come Rank Tracker and Moz don't see any rankings and Google gives me sorta decent avg. positions at the same time. I assume that avg. postion means that same as avg. ranking, right? I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

Hey guys, Here's the deal. I know that Google is fighting private blog netowrks and directories. That said, does it also mean that it does not make any sense to buy listings on directories like dir.yahoo.com ? Thanks in advance.

Here's the thing. I need to find bad external links pointing to my site. Is Link Detox the only option or I can actually use Open Site Explorer for that. If OSE is an option, please give me an idea how I need to go about it. Thanks.

Hey guys, I'm sorta at my wits end here. I know that some link building methods (such as private blog networks) used to work before the latest Google update (Penguin 2.1), but I have evidence that it's not working any more. At least not with the private blog networks that I used. So, my question is if there's a sure fire way to quickly and efficiently build back links nowadays? Do private blog networks still work for you? If so, which ones? If not, what do you use instead?

Anybody knows any Link Detox alternatives? http://www.linkdetox.com/

I have a site where all broken pages are redirected to the homepage. I've been told that it's a bad idea in terms of SEO. I just can't figure out why 🙂

My sit is http://www.webdesign.org/, but the other day I found these sites that have duplicates of my original site: <a>http://wordpresswww.webdesign.org/</a><a>http://fdsfsdswww.webdesign.org/</a><a>http://gfdgdfgdfgwordpresswww.webdesign.org/</a><a>http://w54354353w.webdesign.org/</a>http://wojhkhjkhw.webdesign.org/What really freaks me out is that the content on those sites is 100% up to date. Same as on http://www.webdesign.org/. Now here's my question. 1. Since my site http://www.webdesign.org/ is the root domain, I take it that I can somehow disable those sites (subdomains) from my domain 'admin panel' or what not?2. If you can use those subdomains even if you don't own the root domain (http://www.webdesign.org/), it looks that some negative SEO has been done to my site?Which of my assumptions are right? Please help me to figure that out.

Hey guys, could you help me with the following issue. When I leave a comment via Disqus, it adds my url as plain text to the code of the page I left my comment on. At the same time, a backlink to my site is in my Disqus profile (once you click on the user name in your comment)  So, my question is if Google will consider such a backlink as a legit link to my site and if it makes general sense for SEO to leave Disqus comments?

I'm thinking to add free Lynda.com's video to my blog posts. The idea is to boost my textual content with some video. It's totally a good idea for the user. I get that part . 🙂 Problem is, the videos are embedded with the help of iframes, for example: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.lynda.com/player/embed/137348?fs=2&tr=utm_medium=ldc-partner;utm_source=SSPRC;utm_content=11889;utm_campaign=CD14853;aid=CD14853;bid=11889;subID5=137348" frameborder="0"></iframe> The question is if it makes any sense for SEO?

About two months ago, I received an unnatural inbound links message from Google. Then I disavowed 58 (the worst ones) and now I can see that right after the date I submitted my disavow file I'm losing rankings. What would you suggest? I don't really want to revoke my disavow file because it has totally bad links. I  have  this idea to build 58 links from high quality sites (instead of the 58 I disavowed). Do you think it'll work faster (if at all) or I just need to remove my disavow file?

My robots.txt file looks like this: User-agent: * Disallow: /*? Disallow: /search So, it should block (deindex) all dynamic URLs. If I check this url in Google: site:http://www.webdesign.org/search/page-1.html?author=47 Google tells me: A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more. So far so good. Now, I ran a Moz SEO campaign and I got a bunch of duplicate page content errors. One of the links is this one: http://www.webdesign.org/search/page-1.html?author=47 (the same I tested in Google and it told me that the page is blocked by robots.txt which I want) So, it makes me think that Moz campaigns check files regardless of what robots.txt say? It’s my understanding User-agent: * should forbid Rogerbot from crawling as well. Am I missing something?

Hey guys, I'm on a Mac and that's why I can't use the usual PC software for checking if my links have been indexed. Here's the deal. I ordered some guest posts. The guest poster did it for me and put my back links. Now, I want to quickly check which pages (with my backlinks) have been indexed. I have a lot of guest posts. So, I need something  that can check if those pages have been indexed by Google. I need an online tool or something that will work for my Mac. Help. 🙂

I'm thinking about checking the amount of deep backlinks on my site because I have a hunch that I don't have enough of them. Now, the problem is that I have no idea what tool (on-line or offline) I need to use. I did some Google research but it did not give me any results.

Hi guys, I've started used a Mac the other day and I  got a problem in terms of keep track of sites I've obtained links on. I used to use SEO Administrator for that but it won't work on a Mac. What Mac software (preferably free) could you recommend so that it keeps track of the links I got (and notifies me when a link is gone or if the admin changed it somehow.

I'm not exactly new to SEO but totally new to local SEO. How do I check monthly searches for a specific city so that I know if it makes sense to develop a site for that a particular area.

I want to remove this category http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ and all the pages in that category (e.g. http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/7386.html ) from Google's index. I used the following string in the "Reomval URS" section in Google Webmaster Tools: http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/* is that correct or I better use http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ ? Thanks in advance.

So, I have the following dilemma. I have certain amount on my budget and I'm thinking where to invest it better. Would you recommend obtaining blogroll links or focus on links that put in author's byline (for instance when you write a guest post). Could you also explain why you think so? 🙂 Thanks beforehand.

I can't figure out what that means.

Can anybody give me an example of 2-4 sites that have lower PR on the homepage and a higher PR on secondary pages (about us, etc)? And is there a way to search for such sites in Google? Thanks

I am seeing these terms, but for the life of mine I can't understand what they are. Could anybody explain that in layman's terms? Thanks.

I mean if it will be beneficial for my project (site) to get listed at web-designers-directory.org  Any thoughts on that or you had the experience of working with that site?

I have the following question. Is it OK to set a desination url to text that did not have it previously? Can it cause SEO (SERP) issues? For example, I have this sentence: The tool you're using is great, but this template will help you. Say, the "this template" text has been just plain text for like a year. And now I want to add a certain destination url to the "this template" phrase. So, can it cause some SEO issues to me or not?

Hey guys, I'm having the following issue. My keyword position in SERP is usually 10-11 but sometimes (like once a month or so) it drops to like to position 46 or something of that kind. Why would that be happening and what can I do to avoid that stuff?

I've got an interesting situation. I hope you can help. I have a list of links but I'm not  sure which pages of my site they are from. How do I know which page a specific link is  from? Thanks in advance.