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
-
Are these links helping
Hi, We have had a few new links for a client and we are hoping that we can get some feedback on whether these have any link juice. We dont want to waste our time with links that dont benefit the website. Thanks http://thebestmealplancateringbiz.strikingly.com/blog/diet-meal-plan-delivery-services http://mealplanguide.home.blog/2018/11/02/importance-of-diet-meal-plans/ https://besthealthymeals.tumblr.com/post/179669447854/benefits-of-diet-meal-planning https://lauraberbenaj2.wixsite.com/mysite/blog/healthy-diet-meals-delivery
Link Building | | Caffeine_Marketing0 -
Whats the best way to get credit links from sites i've built?
Hello! I've build 100's of sites. They mostly have site wide footer links pointing back to me. I know this is now frowned on. But does anyone have a good solution to get maximum value back from these? A few have a footer link to a credit page that then links back. I get quite a lot of work back from them. So I don't really fancy removing them. Many thanks in advance.
Link Building | | SolveWebMedia0 -
Should you do a disavow even if you don't have a manual penalty?
If you are working on a website which has a history spammy links, but no manual penalty by Google... is it still worthwhile to still go through the link removal and disavow process? Thoughts appreciated.
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Ecomerce: Would 4 link sections leak too much link juice?
Hello, In my content management for our ecomerce site, I've found that there are sometimes links to sites in our industry that have "helpful links" sections. Several strong sites link directly to these resource sections. There are 4 different topics that fit this trend in our industry. Would it leak too much link juice to make 4 comprehensive link sections and place a link to them on our "Useful Articles" page? Or should I stick to one comprehensive link section? Or perhaps a small link section? Or none at all? Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Whoa 1000's of links from Industrial Interface?
Hello all! I just took over an account, and in webmater tools the site has thousands of links to its homepage from a site named http://www.industrialinterface.com. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. (thinking bad) Tried to contact the webmaster, and the contact form does not work, so that right there is a bad sign. Does anyone have an opinion on industrial interface? Anyone have luck in reaching them? Appreciate the feedback! Dorian
Link Building | | drufast10 -
Does a hashtag link pass the same amount of link juice as a link without a hashtag?
Example 1: link to: http://www.domain.com/#something-inside-the-page Example 2: link to: http://www.domain.com/
Link Building | | adriandg0 -
Links built by previous SEO company are mostly 'dead' - will this affect me?
Hi, This is my first post/question in the forum - so apologies if this topic has already been covered - or if the question seems daft! Here's the issue: I have started working on two websites, and have been doing a lot of on-site work, increasing valuable content, etc... I'm now slowly moving onto more off-site stuff and have noticed that a lot of the backlinks to both websites (built by SEO companies before I got here) are 'dead' and simply return 404 errors (yet they still show up in site explorer). I'll be honest, the links aren't great; the SEO companies have taken the word 'relevant' and completely re-defined it in their books! Will these links - from sites that aren't relevant... but are dead - have any impact on my SEO efforts from now on? Or should I treat these sites as a kind of 'clean slate' and work on building the brand naturally through social media and user experience, etc? Also - I'm re-structuring the internal pages of the site... would it be worth re-directing the old URLs (with all the dead in-bound links - that may have suffered a -50 penalty) to the new ones, or just start fresh with the new pages? Any advice, tips or stories to share (relevant ones, of course!) will be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Nick
Link Building | | Danapollo1 -
I don't know if i should post my articles to other forums or sharing sites to create back links?
All the articles on my blog are written on my own. I write about 5 ones per month. I don't know if i should post my articles to other forums or sharing sites to create back links? I have heard that it may cause adverse effect because my blog will be crawled more slowly than those forums, so Google will consider the articles on my blog (as) copies. Is that right?
Link Building | | tranduchieu0