Link Pharming
-
My company has been using an SEO company for a while and have built up our pagerank to a 6. However, we have noticed that they're involved in link pharming - they're buildng extra websites and linking to our site on them. We are not happy with this as we know it will only be a matter of time before Penguin hits us. The contract with the SEO company is coming up for renewal soon and we're thinking of cancelling it. However, we are not sure if the company will delete all our backlinks, which will probably decrease our PageRank too.
Has anyone here ever had a similar experience? What did the SEO company do when you cancelled the contract? Does anyone here work for an SEO company and what do you do when someone cancels your service?
-
Yeah--half of all seo firms are below average
-
If I would use the words "most" and "typically" in this context I would be meaning about 50.1%
That would leave about 49.9% "without equity" to word it kindly or "screwed" to word it more accurately....
....but after all they were renting from the start. They just didn't understand.
-
Does anyone here work for an SEO company and what do you do when someone cancels your service?
Typically, "honest" firms will leave all links as is (as that is what you paid for).
Many people underestimate the work needed in the formulation of the initial contract. Always put a clause in that sums up that all seo initiatives will remain published for a certain amount of time (ideally indefinitely) and if you need to "get rid of the work" the cost to do so (ideally free). Most seo firms will agree to do this automatically to get the job.
Good luck!
-
If they have access to the domains they will, if they are that kind of company, delete them. If they are on blogs where they have outreached to webmasters etc.. I think they will probably leave them be, as it would be a lot of work to get rid.
Another big problem, which some 'snake oil' SEO's use is to build links to a URL that redirects to your site. That means if you cancel, they just remove the redirect and you lose all your links.
By the sounds of it they have done outreach and i'd be leaning more to say you would probably be safe if you cancelled, but again I wouldn't be 100% certain without being able to have a look.
Have a chat with your SEO consultant and maybe just ask how they build their links.
-
From using webmaster tools, the highest proportion of our links comes from blogspot - rubbish blogs linking to us with relevant anchor text. From what I see there are only a few domains they created with links on them.
Am I correct then in assuming they will delete the links from the domains they set-up but there is nothing they can do about the liks on sites like blogspot?
-
What happens when you cancel?
That depends where the links are coming from.
If they are placing your links on a private network those links will be gone before your SEO goes home from the office and your site will start slipping in the SERPs over the following weeks.
If they have gotten you valid mentions on blogs and other websites the links are more likely to stay.
If you go into a contract with a new SEO or renew with this person. Find out exactly where the links are coming from and what the deal will be when you leave their service.
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
-
Link Audit
Reviewing a list of links from webmaster console for a client and there are links to their website which render a page but there' s no mention of the clients website on that page. Why does this happen? Why is Google thinking that there is a link to the clients website yet on the page there is no mention of that clients website. There's no comments etc. I don't understand this and if anyone can shed a light??
Link Building | | AL123al0 -
Minimize risk with links
I have a site with top position within my nish. I have got maybe 40 links in the last 6 months and now im wondering how i can minimize the risk for penalty. Totaly i have maybe 100 links to my site. So my question is what kind of links do i need to minimize the risk.
Link Building | | Rob-0 -
If you discount a subscription when the client links to you, does that classify as a paid link?
For example, we all subscribe to MOZ, but if we received a 25% discount on our subscription if we linked back, would that be considered by Google as a paid link, or would it be seen as a sales tool / promotion?
Link Building | | JonathanSmith0 -
Link building
Hello everyone, I am building links for an e-commerce site and I need to increase the value of the links we get by placing them on specific pages in order to pass more juice to inner pages. Which part of the website should I point the links to? Because there is no content section on the site what I can do is either link to the homepage (not an option) or link to inner pages such as category/subcategory/product pages. My doubt is that it wouldn't look natural to link to products pages from a piece of content or from a site where people go with the intention not to buy but to get information. Any opinions on this?
Link Building | | PremioOscar0 -
Link Building
I noticed another SEO builds backlinks (tons) on a social media profile that then has a link to his client's site. Another site he builds backlinks are a bitly account that 301's to the clients account. Why would you do this? Is it that you can build links indiscriminately to build a page up in PR to 3-4-5 PR, then pass that higher PR to your site (safe). Is that PR building method better than placing 100's of smaller PR links on your site? It seems logical that if you passed in a tremendous amount of juice to juice a site up to PR4, you won't make your main site PR4 by JUST that link. You would need to build a lot of PR4 sites to make your site PR4. Why not just put all the backlinks on the main page instead of building up secondary social profiles etc... Please reveal this secret. I know a lot of SEOs are using this method. Help 🙂
Link Building | | JML11790 -
Are the following considered bad links for Link Building.
I've been doing a lot of research lately on link building & I've read a lot about having a diverse amount of links. Social links, Blog links, comment links, footer links, No follow links, Directory links as well as links with Anchor text URL match, brand match, partial brand match, non-descriptive, and with keywords. But there is a lot of talk of removing those links that look like a site that's built just for link building purposes.... but Directories are basically built for link building are they not? I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if they feel links from the following directories would be bad links. (Non-Paid) http://www.yoganza.com http://www.wkool.com http://www.wee-directory.com http://www.voicelet.com www.hotfrog.ca http://www.webdirectorieslist.com http://multiplelistingboard.com http://mozdirectory.net http://freedirectorypr.info Industry specific below: http://bestautolinks .com http://automotivedome.com http://automobilebuzz.com http://craigsautolinks.com Thanks so much for the help!
Link Building | | DCochrane0 -
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 -
Link Building: No linked to content in industry
Hello, I'm doing link buidling for a small ecommerce niche. There's no resource content in the niche (looking at OSE Top Content) that has attracted backlinks (on any sites) How should this effect what resource content I should create. Thanks!
Link Building | | BobGW0