I need de-spam help/advice
-
For one of my sites I am working on I outsourced SEO about 3 years ago. One of the "tricks" the SEO used at the time was to pay for several Blog posts to be "sponsored" by this web site using exact match keywords for the domain.
1 Where do I look to determine the spammy links pointing to this site?
2 Have you had success getting rid of these bad links?
-
The purpose of OSE is to show you links to your site. There is no way to accurately determine which links are organic vs manipulative without visiting the site.
DMOZ links would not be considered as manipulative.
-
Is DMOZ really a spammy link? It's the first one that came up using those filters.
-
Thanks very much for your reply, really appreciated your advise.
Now im going through Paddy blog,
Thanks for your help
-
Ryan,
This is excellent and clear:
"The message Google is sending is very clear: stop building links and start earning them."
As to expecting Penguin to keep improving over time, Google has already said it will, just like Panda.
There are a ton of ways to earn links, the first is to create great content that people want to link to. Look at how Google News works in terms of ranking articles. One of the SEO variables considered most valuable by those using Google News per Search Engine Land survey was cites (links) from other high authority Google News sources. Those sources don't link unless it is quality content.
Great point.
-
The first step is to ensure your site architecture is solid. If your site is unattractive, has broken links, is difficult to read, etc. then fewer people will want to link to it. Set up a Responsive Design mobile site, have a graphic designer improve the look and feel of your site, crawl your site to ensure your internal links are solid, gather user feedback, etc.
Next, you want to build "best on the web" type of content. Your content should be sincerely helpful, original and something readers want to share.
Find out who the influencers are in your niche. Ask them what content they need and give it to them! Each time you are likely to earn a link and be exposed to a new audience. Forget about search engines. The direct traffic value is fantastic.
There are countless articles on the subject of links. I would suggest the above advice is your best bet but if you require more direct tips, then I recommend you learn from a link building expert. Of course, great advice does not come cheap. Make sure you are prepared to pay him in the proper currency.
Otherwise, you can read some of his articles on the topic:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-power-of-using-lists-for-link-building
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/actionable-link-building-strategies
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-links-without-fancy-tools
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/eight-link-building-tips-whiteboard-friday
-
thanks i will create a new questions but ,
any tips how to earn links , i do article and infographics.
-
Sharing your experience is great! It is what this Q&A is all about
Regarding your competitor's anchor text, I would suggest not spending a moment of time thinking about it. Fairness is based on perception and none of us have all the facts. When it comes to penalties, we should each focus on our sites and let Google sort out our competitors. It can be frustrating at times, but focusing on others only allows that frustration to build.
63% is still a VERY high anchor text percentage. If that site belonged to a client of mine, I would begin a manipulative link removal campaign. There is simply no way to earn enough quality links in a reasonable amount of time. I have repeatedly seen very fast recoveries after link removal campaigns. I hope this information is helpful.
-
I do Agree with you but to be honest, unfortunately clients dont have patience to wait they would like to get quick results. And to earn link you need to have some help from your client in terms of any incentive but they don't want to spend anytime just like us to get on with things,
I had the same issue with a site in april it was hit by penguin, i then started removing link , and had to request for link to be remove numerous time from sites and then wait for google to get index.
i did it till end of june nothing happen also send a request to google the reply was there is no manual penalty but it could be algorithmic penalty I checked my competitors link profile they were about 70 to 80 % direct keyword anchor then i compare it to mine and it was 63% after the analysis i start working on link building . start creating industry niche research content in our blog then some social activities and focus on guest blogging, but my anchor where all brand name or naked anchor . It work for me the SERPs are improving but still a long way to to go. sorry but im just sharing my experience.
-
That method is likely to cause more trouble then it solves.
Many site owners and SEOs seem to be confusing the Penguin mechanism with the message. The message Google is sending is very clear: stop building links and start earning them.
You are proposing to build links to manipulate the Google algorithm into not detecting the other "over-optimized" anchor text links. I have seen this advice and frankly, it is horrible. Most site owners have far too many manipulative links to "balance out" with legitimate links. Therefore you are building manipulative links without using anchor text to bypass the current Penguin detection system. I would bet a lot the next Penguin will not only continue detecting the original manipulative links (even if you change the anchor text) but also the new ones. Even if I am wrong, then the Penguin update after will. I expect Penguin to be just like Panda. It will keep improving over time.
Remove the bad links. Stop "building" links and start earning them. Site owners who follow the advice to change anchor text or bury the "over optimized" links are going to be hurting really bad, really soon.
-
Another way is to balance your link profile by creating backlinks Using generic , nacked and brand anchor links to balance things out,
-
The worst ever was my first campaign in 2011. My most recent campaign we had about a 60% response rate which was awesome.
-
What kind of success rate do you find you get Ryan? Mine really varies from niche to niche but is nowhere near 80%+
-
lol yup, if you had fun doing 8+ hours of link building, you can enjoy it even more when you have to remove them. #damnthegoogleoverlords
-
If your traffic dropped on April 25th and you know there are bad links pointing to your site, then the likely cause is Penguin. It's always important to understand the exact cause of the drop as Google makes approximately 50 algorithm changes each month. There were also Panda changes in April.
To gain an initial look at the spammy links, simply go to Open Site Explorer: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/. This tool is part of the SEOmoz tools. For most sites affected by Penguin, you can locate spammy links pretty fast. At the top of the page there are 4 drop down boxes. Set the first three drop downs as follows:
followed+301, only external, pages on this root domain
As far as getting rid of the bad links, I have had a lot of success. The process is very manual and not a lot of fun, but it works. You need to contact site owners and very politely request they remove the links. If the first attempt does not succeed, do not give up. Keep trying.
Best of luck!
-
A lot of things happened in April. There were Panda refreshes on April 19 and 27 and Penguin hit on April 24. I'd be wary about cutting links until you are sure what you are dealing with. You could do more harm than good.
If this is a Penguin issue then no one knows exactly what has to be done to recover. Many webmasters will advocate getting spammy links removed. But the problem is that in order to beat the algorithm you may have to get 85-95% of the links removed and in most cases that is near impossible.
If you'd like me to have a look at your site I do a diagnosis package for a very reasonable fee. I have a good look at your analytics data and webmaster tools to give you an idea of what you are dealing with. You can contact me through my profile page.
-
Good rule of thumb, if you're getting links from:
- .info
- .ru
- .biz
They are usually poor links and should be avoided of removed.
Check your site's links in OSE (Open Site Explorer)
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
If they are:
Directory links or article submission links it should be easy to log in and delete them, assuming you were provided with the credentials.
-
The site hasn't received any unnatural links warning. I just know that rankings dropped DRAMATICALLY in April.
I also know that the mozTrust of this site is pretty low compared to the competition. I attribute it to this.
-
Have you been hit with an unnatural links warning? Penguin? Not sure?
It's important to know what you are dealing with before slashing links.
If I'm trying to get an unnatural links warning penalty reconsidered then I generally try to get removed any and all links that an SEO may have made. So, if it's an anchor texted link from an article, 98% of the time it's unnatural. I find though that most website owners are too lenient on themselves when they are trying to decide which links to remove.
I have had success in getting some webmasters to remove links like these - but you won't be likely to get them all.
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
-
I want to rank with this page http://www.servicesarab.com/%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84-%D8%B9%D9%81%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA/
i want to rank with this page http://www.servicesarab.com/%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84-%D8%B9%D9%81%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA/
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | saharali150 -
How/Why do I have so many Spam backlinks?
I was looking in GWT yesterday and found we have several thousand "spam" backlinks...I am curious why this happens and how this happens? There are some links from websites/domains that are not mine that appear to be spam. However, we own a large group of domains and have noticed some of the links are coming from 2 of those sites/domains we own to my main site. The sites/domains are not active, we just own them. I am wondering how someone could access these domains that are not active and create spammy backlinks to my main website? (They created about 20,000 links). Thanks.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | carlystemmer0 -
Do Ghost Traffic/Spam Referrals factor into rankings, or do they just affect the CTR and Bounce Rate in Analytics?
So, by now I'm sure everyone that pays attention to their Analytics/GWT's (or Search Console, now) has seen spam referral traffic and ghost traffic showing up (Ilovevitaly.com, simple-share-buttons.com, semalt.com, etc). Here is my question(s)... Does this factor into rankings in anyway? We all know that click through rate and bounce rate (might) send signals to the algorithm and signal a low quality site, which could affect rankings. I guess what I'm asking is are they getting any of that data from Analytics? Since ghost referral traffic never actually visits my site, how could it affect the CTR our Bounce Rate that the algorithm is seeing? I'm hoping that it only affects my Bounce/CTR in Analytics and I can just filter that stuff out with filters in Analytics and it won't ever affect my rankings. But.... since we don't know where exactly the algorithm is pulling data on CTR and bounce rate, I guess I'm just worried that having a large amount of this spam/ghost traffic that I see in analytics could be causing harm to my rankings.... Sorry, long winded way of saying... Should I pay attention to this traffic? Should I care about it? Will it harm my site or my rankings at all? And finally... when is google going to shut these open back doors in Analytics so that Vitaly and his ilk are shut down forever?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seequs2 -
Website starts ranking on Google then always drops - Targeted for Australia but most traffic from U.S - Bounce Rate at 94.49% - HELP!
Hi everyone, Thank you for your time. During the past 8 months I have been working on this website which is a .com.au . I have fully optimised the website which is targeting Brisbane in Australia and I have setup everything (Sitemaps, Geo location on WMT, Fetched as Google etc..) However the website just does not want to rank at all. I know that the previous SEO company were not too good but since then I have disavowed all unnatural links, we have moved the hosting to a new company and the website content has been updated. Only recently the Website has started ranking for it's brand name (not even in top of Google) and whenever a keyword starts ranking above the Top 50 of Google it suddenly drops again. The other issues is that even if I have setup the website to target Australia the majority of traffic comes from the U.S. Last month out of the 127 Session - 85 from United States - 29 from Australia - 3 Brazil - 2 India - 2 Italy - 1 Canada etc... Because of this the website has a Bounce rate of 95%. If you would have any advice, tips or recommendations that I could do to try and fix this it would be much appreciated. I suppose we can consider this as some kind of penalisation - potentially due to the past work and issues that occurred before the business became our client but I am not sure what more I can do to stop the wrong traffic and improve the rankings. Thanks for your help. Lyam
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AlphaDigital20 -
Competitor outranking you with link spam. What would be your next steps?
FYI: I've already searched the forums for previous posts on this topic and although some are helpful, they don't tend to have many responses, so I'm posting this again in the hope of more interaction from the community 😉
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | adamlcasey
So can I please ask the community to tell me what course of action you would take, if this was happening to you? We have been ranking in position 1 for a major keyword in our space for the past 18 months. Today I logged into my Moz account and to keyword rankings to find that we have dropped to 2nd. So I placed the competitors website; who's now in 1st position, into OSE and looked under the "Just Discovered" tab. There are 258 newly discovered links, 95% of which use keywords in the anchor text!
So I reviewed the rankings for all of these other keywords being targeted and sure enough they are now dominating the top 1-3 spots for most of them. (some of which we are also attempting to rank for and have subsequently been pushed down the rankings) Their links are made up of: Forum and blog comments - always using anchor text in the links Article's posted on web 2.0 sites (Squidoo, Pen.io, Tumblr, etc) Profile page links Low quality Press Release sites Classified ad sites Bookmarking sites Article Marketing sites Our competitors sell safety solutions into the B2B market yet the topics of some of the sites where these links appear include: t-shirts sports news online marketing anti aging law christian guitars computers juke boxes Of the articles that I quickly scanned, it was clear they had been spun as they didn't read well/make sense in places. So my conclusion is that they have decided to work with a person (can't bring myself to call them an seo company) who have provided them with a typical automated link building campaign using out dated, poor seo practices that are now classified as link spam. No doubt distributed using an automated link publishing application loaded with the keyword rich anchor text links and published across any site that will take them. As far as I was aware, all of the types of links we're supposed to have be penalised by Google's Penguin & Panda updates and yet it seems they are working for them! So what steps would you take next?0 -
SEO expert advice needed :)
So I have a niche site that I'm pretty sure has received an over-optimization penalty. This was about nine months ago or so. I haven’t really done much with the site since however I’d like the site to start appearing in the serps again, as I am adding fresh content and trying to create a really useful resource. I don't appear in the serps for any keywords related to my niche anymore. The site IS still indexed though. I didn't get any messages telling me that I was penalized so I don't think it was manual. I didn't use any spam or anything like that but I believe the penalty was probably for anchor text over-optimization and/or too many links to non-home page urls in comparison to the total amount of links the site had. I know removing these links or changing the anchor can help but the thing is the site only has about 30 total linking root domains pointed at it. So I was wondering if I could just add more links to other pages/the home page and add more links with varied anchors/naked urls to change the ratios and make it appear more natural. Now, would/could this fix my penalty? I am frustrated that I even received a penalty at all because much of my competition is ranking for fairly competitive terms with no real solid links pointed at their site and tons of comment spam. I have some relevant links/quality links so I am hoping that fixing this penalty could help put me back where I was before I got knocked into oblivion. There is one example of a competitor with a PR0 site getting good traffic and ranking for some nice keywords with only a bunch of self-set up web properties (and some comment spam) containing one only page for the purpose of linking back to their money site (blogspot, wordpress, weebly, mywebstarts ect). On top of that a lot of the sites I'm competing again are MFA, garbage sites that are written by non-native English speakers that offer zero value to the visitor. I need to start out ranking these spammers again. What should I do? thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jmckiernan86_gmail.com0 -
EXPERT CHALLENGE: What link building strategies do YOU think will work after the latest 3/29/2012 Google algorithm change?
FOR ALL SEO THOUGHT LEADERS...What link building strategies do YOU think will work after the latest 3/29/2012 Google algorithm change? NOTE: My hope is that the responses left on this thread will ultimately benefit all members of the community and give recognition to the true thought leaders within the SEO space. That being said, my challenge is a 2 part question: With the 80/20 rule in mind, and in light of recent algorithm changes, what would YOU focus most of your SEO budget on if you had to choose? Let's assume you're in a competitive market (ie #1-5 on page 1 has competitors with 20,000+ backlinks - all ranging from AC Rank 7 to 1). How would you split your total monthly SEO budget as a general rule? Ex) 60% link building / 10% onsite SEO / 10% Social Media / 20% content creation? I realize there are many "it depends" factors but please humor us anyways. Link building appears to have become harder and harder as google releases more and more algorithm changes. For link building, the only true white hat way of proactively generating links (that I know of) is creating high quality content that adds value to customers (ie infographics, videos, etc.), guest blogging, and Press Releases. The con to these tactics is that you are waiting for others to find and pick up your content which can take a VERY long time, so ROI is difficult to measure and justify to clients or C-level management. That being said, how are YOU allocating your link building budget? Are all of these proactive link building tactics a waste of time now? I've heard it couldn't hurt to still do some of these, but what are your thoughts and what is / isn't working for you? Here they are: A. Using spun articles edited by US based writers for guest blog content B. 301 Redirects C. Social bookmarking D. Signature links from Blog commenting E. Directory submissions F. Video Submissions G. Article Directory submissions H. Press release directory submissions I. Forum Profile Submissions J. Forum signature links K. RSS Feed submissions L. Link wheels M. Building links (using scrapebox, senukex, etc.) to pages linked to your money site N. Links from privately owned networks (I spoke to an SEO company that claims to have over 4000 unique domains which he uses to boost rankings for his clients) O. Buying Contextual Text Links All Expert opinions are welcomed and appreciated 🙂
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seoeric2 -
For traffic sent by the search engines, how much personalization/customization is allowed on a page if any?
If I want to better target my audience so I would like to be able to address the exact query string coming from the search engine. I'd also like to add relevant sections to the site based in the geo area they live in. Can I customize a small portion of the page to fit my visitors search query and geo area per the IP address? How much can I change a web page to better fit a user and still be within the search engine's guidelines?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Thos0030