Spam Back Link Removal Problem.
-
I have just paid a lot of money to have spam back links removed from directories owned by the same person, the links were on pages that were set up for me without me knowing, at the end of each url is my domain name, the links have been removed on the page leaving a directory page with no other links on however the url is still there with my domain name at the end of the url and in each search box is my domain name, I have asked for the pages to be removed altogether as I did say before I paid the money I did not want my domain name on any of his directories, he has come back and said leaving my domain name in the urls is not a problem as far as Google is concerned, can anyone please advise, I can ask for a refund from PayPal, there are over 768 links on different sections of a number of directories.
Thank you inadvance.
-
Chris
Thank you for all of your help.
-
I'd say the domain name does show up in the url and the search box. They're not links, however.
-
What about thedomainnaWhat a bout the domain name in the search box, do you still think I should claim my payment back from PayPal, the agreement was that I did not want my domain name on any of his directories.
-
That's certainly a real page, alright, but it won't do any additional harm your site as it stands right now.
-
I don't think that's the right url.
-
I think you're saying that the webmaster did remove the hyperlink but left evidence of the link by way of the anchor text that was used for the link. It also sounds like the webmaster had said the page that the link was on would be removed but is now refusing to remove it.
I would say that if you have it in writing that they would remove the page, you certainly have reason to dispute the payment with paypal, as Tom says. If not, at least the worst of the problem is over. I'd at least document the transaction and the conversation and let the webmaster know that those details will be included in your reconsideration report to Google if he/she won't also remove the page. Then you may just forward it all to Google anyway.
So, if the links aren't there any longer they're not going to count against you. But let me tell you, the rest of your link profiles doesn't look that great. Be sure you're working on dealing with those other links, as well.
-
Thank you for a good reply, we have used the disavow tool six months ago but it has had no effect at all, our main keyword is the backbone of our business we have got to do something or else we will not have a business.
-
Hi John
I'm not going to get into whether removing these links was worthwhile (in short: I can't see them having either a positive nor negative effect. The effect would be nil) but let me be clear about the main matter at hand: get your money back ASAP.
There's no reason at all for you to have to pay for links to be removed when something like the disavow tool exists - in fact I'm fairly convinced it was one of the reasons why it was developed in the first place. You've essentially been extorted. There is no sense in this - otherwise, I could easily find your website, build thousands of bad links on a crap network I could set up and then threaten you with them until you paid me to remove them. I'm not going to do that of course, that would be despicably evil!
If you're concerned about those links then disavow those links - don't give into demands like this.
Now, as for getting your money back - I think you could successfully dispute this with PayPal. You have paid for a digital service and the seller has failed to deliver (and refuses to). The work implied the links would be removed, yet the links still exist in some form. The seller is effectively in breach of contract, so you should get your money back. For better of worse, PayPal does favour the buyer in the majority of cases - this case it is definitely for the better.
I hope you get the money back in full.
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
-
Too many "nofollow" outgoing links are Okay?
Hi all, Our forum have so many discussions and topics where our users leave their websites and oter URLs which will be marked "nofollow" by default. Beside spammy websites, is that Okay to have so many "nofollow" outgoing links? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Linking from high ranking sub domain pages to less ranking main domain pages to benefit latter
Hi all, We have our product guide pages on sub domain which are years old, so have some backlinks and high ranking for the beand related queries. Now we created new guide pages on our main website and we want these new pages to rank top beating the old pages from sub domain. Again we can't deindex or rel canonical to solve the issue as there are some part of users still using the old pages. We are planning to give a link from every old page of sub domain to same new page on main domain. Will this linking increases the authority of new pages technically and helps in ranking better? Like we give a link to "Moz guide 1" page to "Moz guide 2" page to rank latter better. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Keyword cannibalization or linking structure?
Hi all, Recently I got an answer from this community about "why our login page is ranking but not my homepage for primary keyword"? Possibilities are keyword cannibalization or linking structure. In our case, our homepage is not ranking for "primary keyword" but ranking for other keywords. If it is linking structure, what might be wrong? Like do we need to unlink login page from many internal links? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Footer menu links: Header tags or list items?
Hi, I would like to know header tags (h5 or h6) or list items ( ) works better for footer menu links for the best linking structure. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
Are links from directories still good practice?
Ok, so I am new at "link building"....which of course I have read furiously on how that philosophy is changed, it's a goal, not so much a process. I am focusing on great content, social sharing, etc. BUT, I see competitors still getting links from some of the directories that I have found listed on Moz as being "good" directories to list in. For example, yelllow pages, manta, ibegin, hot frog, etc. Do I have the terminology totally twisted here? Is it still good practice to get a couple links from these directories. Or is this practice completely the wrong thing to do post Panda & Penquin. Thanks guys!
Algorithm Updates | | cschwartzel0 -
Direct Domain Name Anchor Text Spammy Links
Hello! I have a website that has been hit with around 120-150 spammy bookmarking sites which I believe are just scraping content from one another or were added by someone that was hired earlier or maybe some other action, but that really doesn't matter. My question is whether I should be worried about that many domains linking to the site in question with anchor text that is "www.domainname.com" and linking to the domain itself? I have done quite a few researches on this issue and the general conclusion is these don't help, but they don't hurt your rankings either. I wanted to hear from the SEOMoz community about it though. My opinion is Google doesn't take them seriously and we shouldn't worry about them, try to take them off and we should simply work on our content, guest posts, produce our generally great deals on our services and move on. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | Njave_MCP0 -
Has Google problems in indexing pages that use <base href=""> the last days?
Since a couple of days I have the problem, that Google Webmaster tools are showing a lot more 404 Errors than normal. If I go thru the list I find very strange URLs that look like two paths put together. For example: http://www.domain.de/languages/languageschools/havanna/languages/languageschools/london/london.htm If I check on which page Google found that path it is showing me the following URL: http://www.domain.de/languages/languageschools/havanna/spanishcourse.htm If I check the source code of the Page for the Link leading to the London Page it looks like the following: [...](languages/languageschools/london/london.htm) So to me it looks like Google is ignoring the <base href="..."> and putting the path together as following: Part 1) http://www.domain.de/laguages/languageschools/havanna/ instead of base href Part 2) languages/languageschools/london/london.htm Result is the wrong path! http://www.domain.de/languages/languageschools/havanna/languages/languageschools/london/london.htm I know finding a solution is not difficult, I can use absolute paths instead of relative ones. But: - Does anyone make the same experience? - Do you know other reasons which could cause such a problem? P.s.: I am quite sure that the CMS (Typo3) is not generating these paths randomly. I would like to be sure before we change the CMS's Settings to absolute paths!
Algorithm Updates | | SimCaffe0 -
Link Deletion - Reputation Management
Hi Team, For our client, Forum thread was created some where in Feb 2011 on a US based Forum site, but on to that forum; client has been abused through comments and now in 2012 same link is on top for some important keyword. So we approached to the forum owner to delete the thread or the comments but we got negative response from owner. So do we have anyway to remove that link completely from Google search result apart from creating new links and bringing them on top so that targeted link is moved to later pages. We need some solution/ trick through which we can completely remove the thread link. Awaiting your reply.
Algorithm Updates | | NevilRohinton340