Disavow Dead Links?
-
I haven't found a good answer to this yet. I know the whole "disavow" tool is still relatively new but we have a ton of dead links, actually most of the dead links are sites that have 404'd. Is it necessary to disavow these?
-
I came across that article when looking for an answer to this question. That is a great point though. Don't want to tell on ourselves here!
Thanks a lot for your help on this!
-
That is pretty much what I was thinking (and hoping). I just needed some confirmation.
Thanks so much for the help!
-
Well played Matt
The main reason I am saying 100% confident is that you can mess up your website VERY easily using this tool. So you need to be very cautious in choosing to use it.
This is a great article: 6 Things To Think About Before Disavowing Links from Search Engine Land. It states, "If you haven’t actually been penalized and you start disavowing your links, you’re essentially outing yourself to Google that you manipulated the system. Make sure that you equivocally know you were penalized and it’s not just some random fluctuation in rankings, a sitemap or indexing problem, or an accidentally no-indexed page."
Just sayin' be careful.
Good luck!
Mike
-
Different domains. So I would disavow at the domain level.
There are spammy links in my analysis. These dead links are some of them. If I go through the whole disavow process, it's recommended to get them all. I just don't know if dead pages or domains should be included.
We haven't gotten any warnings. We've seen some drop in traffic, but most rankings have held steady. The site has paid for links in the past, pre me of course.
and you are 100% confident they are causing issues with your site.
Can we really be 100% confident in anything SEO?
-
Hi Matt,
It is fair and reasonable for a site to be decommissioned from time to time (or a page or two OR say a category of pages). As the page no longer exists, you can't ask the admin to remove your link (which is what Google expects you to do before disavowing a link), so I would simply ignore these links in your exported list. They will disappear from GWT and OSE over time as they are no longer in existence.
Disavowing links amongst other things helps Google determine a sites intent on the web and therefore they only want you to utilise this service if you no longer trust the relevance of the link and have had no joy requesting it's removal.
Hope this helps,
Dan
-
Are they all from different domains or the same domain?
And regarding the Disavow links tool, Google specifically states, "We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you." - I would not recommend using the tool unless you have been warned by Google or you have thousands of spammy footer links or something and you are 100% confident they are causing issues with your site.
Mike
-
Yes, Dan, that is correct.
Either the page that contained a link to oursite.com from someothersite.com is gone or the whole site is gone yet they still show up as an external link to oursite.com.
If it was only a few I wouldn't worry about it but there are a lot like this, hundreds probably.
So, for links like these, would that be a use for the disavow tool?
-
Hi Guys,
I edited my response above to clarify the confusion. Can you confirm Matt...
You are discussing a page on an external site that currently 404's. This page used to have a link to your site and subsequently was added to Webmasters and OSE in the past. Now this page no longer exists, but the reference still remains in Webmasters and OSE. Correct?
Dan
-
Here is how I am understanding your situation and how I would either fix it or not worry about the 404s. Please correct me if I mistook what you are saying:
randomsite.com has a link pointing to yoursite.com/randomarticle.
yoursite.com/randomarticle no longer exists, so when Google or a visitor clicks on the link on randomsite.com they receive a 404 error (saying that page does not exist).
you can set up a 301 redirect on your server so when someone clicks on the link to yoursite.com/randomarticle from randomsite.com they are redirected to an applicable page (for instance, yoursite.com/newarticle) instead of getting the 404 error.
Mike
-
These are external links. Can't 301 them.
-
So you have two options:
-
create redirects to point to relevant content.
-
let the links continue to 404 and Google will eventually remove them from the index.
Mike
-
-
I didn't explain that right. These are external links pointing to our site. These show up in GWT and OSE. I exported the external links from those two sources and ran them through an http status tool.
-
404 client errors can either be concerning or not. If an external website is pointing to a non-existent page on your site and it returns a 404 page, that is normal.
If you have a bad or broken internal link and visitors receive a 404, that is bad.
If you are seeing these 404 errors in Google Webmaster Tools, they can be from either external sites or your own site. You can choose to either set up 301 redirects if applicable OR you can simply let them die. GWT is simply alerting you that you may need to research the link. If you removed the page from your site and you do not have any other relevant content that replaced it, letting the link return a 404 is acceptable and Google will eventually remove that link from their index.
The Disavow Tools is mainly for spammy links pointing to your website and you have received warnings from Google for having a bad backlink profile.
Hope this helps.
Mike
-
Hi Matt,
A link (to your site) that is no longer accessible from a page (external site) it was on due to a 404, no longer counts. Why does it still cause you concern, is it still listed on webmasters or OSE? If so, I would suggest this is because the page has not been recrawled, or attempted.
If you're concerned that the page may reappear, I would recommend writing to the admin of the site to request it be removed. Disavow should always be your very last option.
Hope this helps.
Dan
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
-
We are moving to HTTPS and wanted to know if our link building efforts were in vain or will the link juice pass to HTTPS?
We are switching to HTTPS and want to make sure the links we've gotten in the past will still transfer since they are pointing to HTTP? I'd hate to go back through and ask people to please add an s to the link.
Link Building | | bryant25560 -
Are links from charities really better than 'normal' links.
Hi Guys. Just wondering about this idea that links from Charities are particularly good. I've heard people say that links from .org sites are particularly strong. But anyone can get a .org domain, it's just that charities tend to use them more often. Right? I just don't get the logic. Can anyone give more detail about this? Is it a myth? Is there quality info on this topic I can check out? We're working with several charities at the moment, and they all seem happy to blog and link to us...so I just wanted to know a little more. Isaac.
Link Building | | isaac6630 -
Internal Links - First Link Rule Confusion
Hello All - I would like to create a guide for my team of rules for internal links and I could use some help. My understanding is that Google only counts the first link to a page, so any crafted keyword text links within the content do not count if the page in question is linked to from the main navigation. Is this correct? For example, if the menu or drop down menu in main site nav (which exists on all pages of the site) includes a link to a particular section that will be the only one that ever counts since the menu is on every page? Example: let's say a website selling cat toys includes a drop down menu on the homepage with links to "holiday cat toys". Does this mean that no other text links in content on the site will support that page from an SEO perspective since the link is in the main nav and will always be the first one counted? In the past we have added text links in the content on the homepage to important pages on the site. It seems to work, though now I'm questing these tactics based on the first link rule. I would appreciate some advice, clarification, thoughts, etc. Thanks!
Link Building | | JBMediaGroup0 -
Link Value
My question is how valuable is getting a link from a PA 71 with roughly 20 links on it. I guess I am saying how many links from a PA of 30 would be a comparable indicator. I understand there is an almost exponential value of authority as they go higher, but I am looking for a good explanation from a technical aspect. Hypothetical Scenario Would a person be better off pursing 20 links from PA25 pages, or would you be better only getting 1 from the PA71 all things equal.
Link Building | | mbarden260 -
Is providing a paid scholarship to schools and receiving a back link, classed as a paid link scheme?
I've always wondered if it is classed as paid links in Google's eyes?
Link Building | | ResumeGenius0 -
How might Google differentiate between an artificial link exchange and partners linking to each other?
Hi, All! Artificial link exchanges (contacting a vaguely connected site and requesting to exchange links to increase your PR) is, as far as I know, considered an outdated, not-so-smart technique, as Google might devalue them. Yet, for real business partners to exchange links seems to be an entirely accepted and encouraged technique. While that would be intuitive to a human who's viewing the pages. how might Google detect when two sites that link to each other are linking because they are trusted business associates (valuable) as opposed to when they are doing a link exchange (devalued)? Thanks! Aviva
Link Building | | debi_zyx0 -
Link Directory
I am not an SEO expert by any means, just trying to improve the ranking of my own personal real estate site. Are directory links good for backlinks, or are they a waster of time?
Link Building | | CalgaryRealtor390