5th failed Google reconsideration attempt, can you help? (are scraper/related news sites the issue?)
-
(sorry for the long question - I thought it would be useful to give the background!)
I am really struggling a Google's reconsideration request for my site, and although we thought we had removed almost all the 'bad' backlinks I am still getting no-where...
We are really wanting to focus on building our brand, and establishing our site as an authority but this penalty is really holding us back.
The latest response from Google:
There are still many inorganic links pointing to your site. At this point, we believe we’ve evaluated these links appropriately, and no further action from us is required. In order for your site to have a successful reconsideration request, we will need to see a substantial, good-faith effort to remove the links, and this effort should result in a significant decrease in the number of bad links that we see. We do not recommend that you submit another reconsideration request until you have been able to make a good amount of progress. Once you’ve been able to get the links removed, please reply to this email with the details of your clean-up effort.
My Website: http://bit.ly/KXg8y1
History:
- This is a new domain - approx 6 months old
- Old domain received a Google links warning
- We decided to start a new website, launch a new brand and start from the beginning
- We 301 re-directed the old domain so we didnt lose customers
- We then got a Google links warning for the new site
- We assumed this was related to links from the old site and so removed the 301 redirect on the 20th August
- Our old sites links still show in Google webmaster tools
Reconsideration History
-
1st re-consideration request: Explained the 301 redirect had been removed, assured we would now be focussing on high quality content/brand building and after 2 weeks received a standard message to say that still had inorganic links
-
2nd Request: Went through the new sites links (using open site explorer, AHREFs, SEO Majestic and GWM) and removed those we identified as low quality (mostly directories built by an SEO company we had started working with). We complied a spreadsheet with all the links in it (including 301 redirect links) and explained which had been removed, webmaster contact details etc. We also uploaded our template email and screenshots showing contact with webmasters.
-
3rd, 4th and 5th Request: We went through the new site links and were able to remove a few more links which were thin or could be seen as inorganic, and the end result is that apart from 6 links we have removed all those we have identified as inorganic.
Links
- The old site had some pretty poor links
- We have done no paid linking, no blog networks, no spammy web 2.0 sites on this site.
- We've added good quality content to our blog, focussed on social media, published an infographic, and are committed to long-term brand building
- The links mostly come from guest blog posting.
- An SEO company (who told us they were 100% content based) built some directory links - but 99% of these have been removed
- There are some links from
- Scraper/related news sites (ones that have related blog posts or scrape images etc)
- Press releases which were picked up and re-published (some of these include anchor text)
My Question/s:
- Do you think Google is still seeing the links from the previous 301 redirect in Google webmasters and including these still?
- Are these scraper/related post sites causing the issue? (organic links - but some dubious sites)
- Are sites re-publishing our press releases causing the issue? (organic links - but includes some anchor text
I really appreciate your time on this one, I have tried really hard to identify and remove links, but am now struggling!
Many Thanks
-
Thank you very much for both of your responses, its good to know Antonio that I can recover.
Marie you comments have made me go back my link profile and look again, I thought the press releases would be seen as organic, but now i can see the anchor text looks that manipulation of page rank.
Wish me luck as I remove links and prepare for take 6!
-
Good job, Antonio on getting your penalty lifted from your site!
Tom, I have found that most failed reconsideration requests happen for one of two reasons:
1. Webmasters do not take a big enough hatchet to their links. Those press releases with anchor text are one example...they need to go.
2. Not being thorough enough on your request.
When I do a reconsideration request I attach a copy of every single email sent and received (both to email addresses on the site and also whois emails) for sites for which I couldn't get the link removed. I also attach a screenshot of every contact form I submitted.
-
I have got my website back from reconsideration. I suggest to only focus on the links that shows up in your Google Webmaster Account. Also, I suggest creating two Google Docs and coping all of your email correspondance and pasting them into one google doc. Save it and share it. Copy the url of that Google doc.
Next, create a Google excel doc. Copy all the url backlinks that you have requested to be removed that corresponds with your emails and paste them in the excel doc. You can easily download these links through Google Webmaster Tool which you may already know.
Lastly, keep your consideration short. Just state that you have completed working on removing bad backlinks and below are links to two docs showing my effort.
Paste your two Google docs below.
It is important to make sure that your backlinks in your Google Webmaster tools have shown some sort of decrease from when you were penalized. If the number of backlinks haven't gone down any then the work above is useless.
Also, when you email the webmasters of the bad backlinks, make sure you attach a file showing them the links that you need removed. This makes it easier for the webmaster to go through and remove them. They will also be more app to remove your backlinks if they have a list to go off of.
Email me if you any questions.
Hope this helps.
Tony
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
-
Website DA Decreased Issue
Hi Team, I Have A website named pescobill.pk Today DA of my website decreased what could be the reason Please help me what about issue? Thanks in Advance!
Link Building | | MarkJerry0 -
Backlinks From Scraper Sites - Should I Disavow Them?
I'm going through all the links (hopefully) to my website and I've found so many links from site scrapers. For instance: http://www.fzccg.com/cmsteam/dvbbs/boke.asp?zkhod76681.showtopic.148760.html ... which links to my site with anchor text "abercrombie uk How To Change Your Wiper Blades" It is surely not realistic to think that I can contact all the scraper site owners. So what should I do with this kind of links?
Link Building | | sbrault740 -
What do you when the wrong site links to you?
In doing research of our backlink profile, I've found a couple dozen of links from off-topic websites linking to us. You see, our domain is Voices.com and tends to scoop up links from unrelated sites that are clearly trying to link to another site such as evp-voices.com or areavoices.com or dozens of others. What would you do? Ask the webmaster to remove them because they are completely unrelated? Or would you keep them if you believed they aren't causing any harm?
Link Building | | voicesdotcom0 -
Related Charity Directories
Hi Mozzers, Any suggestions on link building for charity/non profit sites. Any lists specific to charities would be super useful. Cheers, SEO5
Link Building | | SEO5Team0 -
A few questions I need help with and would appreciate any help.
I am currently building links to our website via estalished blogs ect (2+ years old), As far as I understand even if they are unrelated to what we do (print) as long as the post is about print the link should offer some value is this correct? Other questions I have which I would greatly appreciate advice in are as follows........ (1) Do charity websites or company websites with link pages ( about5-10 other links) or links / logo's on the front page offer value even on unrelated sites? (2) What happens if 80% of the link building I am doing comes from blogs? (3) If I have links that are clearly spam that have been built to our site can they be damaging our potential to rank and how can I remove them as I have tried to contact the relevant parties but fear pressing the button on the google tool may harm our site should I? (4) If I have a page that genuinely has a lot of mentions of a keyword (not so much the money keyword but part such as wanting to rank for pool table but end up with the different versions of keywords having table mentioned 5 - 10% of the time). Thank you for your time.
Link Building | | BobAnderson0 -
Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to http://www.loveandlucky.com/
On FEB I got a message on my Google Webmaster Tools saying "Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to http://www.loveandlucky.com/" How can I know what inbound links Google considered as unnatural? thanks.
Link Building | | cardif0 -
If I create articles with my keyword phrases and find sites to post them on, will this help wiith my search engine rankings for keyword phrases?
Also, if I use my web site name for the anchor text on backlinks will it still help getting me ranked for my keyword phrases?
Link Building | | katiasm0 -
Site stuck on 2nd page on Google - how can it improve?
Hi I am working on a site http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk that for search terms such as 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' appears near the top of the 2nd page of Google. When looking at what is listed on the 1st page for 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' I would appreciate any advice/guidance on what else could be done to give the site a final push to get on the 1st page of search results. Over the past 2 weeks I have been building inbound links from local citation sites yelp, qype etc along with sites from competitor analysis via opensiteexplorer. Looking at the sites that are on the 1st page I cant understand why many of them are ranking higher than me? Any insight and plan of attack would be most appreciated from any search experts on the forum. Many Thanks
Link Building | | idv0