Questions About Link Detox
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Greetings:
In April of 2014 an SEO firm ran a link removal campaign (identified spammy links and uploaded a disavow). The overall campaign was ineffective and MOZ domain rank has fallen to 24 from about 30 in the last year and traffic is 20% lower. I purchased a basic package for Link Detox and ran a report today (see enclosed) to see if toxic links could be contributing to our mediocre rankings.
As a novice I have a few questions for you regarding this the use of Link Detox:
-We scored a domain wide detox risk of 1,723. The site has referring root domains with 7113 links to our site. 121 links were classified as high audit priority. 56 as medium audit priority. 221 links were previously disavowed and we uploaded a spreadsheet containing the names of the previously disavowed links. We had LinkDetox include an analysis of no-follow links as they recommend this. Is our score really bad? If we remove the questionable links should we see some benefit in ranking?
-Some of the links we disavowed last year are still linking to our site. Is it worthwhile to include those links again in our new disavow file?
-Prior to filing a disavow we will request that Webmaster remove offending links. LinkDetox offers a package called Superhero for $469.00 that automates the process. Does this package effectively help with the entire process of writing and tracking the removal requests? Do you know of any other good alternatives?
-A feature called "Boost" is included in the LinkDetox Super Hero package. It is suppose to expedite Google's processing of the disavow file. I was told by the staff at Link Detox that with Boost Google will process the disavow within a week. Do you have any idea if this claim is valid??? It would be great if it were true.
-We never experienced any manual penalty from Google. Will uploading a disavow help us under the circumstances?
Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!!!
Alan
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Hi there
A lot of this sounds extremely odd to me - I have never heard of anyone being able to expedite a disavow file and you shouldn't automate link removal requests, too much can go wrong if people reach out to you. Instead, try this:
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Collect your backlinks
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Google Webmaster Tools
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Majestic
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Ahrefs
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Assess your data
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Good links
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These links help your business
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These links are relevant to your site
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These links are relevant to the content they link to
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These links don't have spammy or low metrics
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Bad links
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These links aren't relevant to your site or content
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These links are part of template directories (example)
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These links do supply traffic to your site
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These links tend to have low metrics
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These links come from sites that look untrustworthy
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Neutral links
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Nofollow links
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Disavowed links
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Not active
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Prioritize your bad links
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What ones are you removing?
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Reach out to those webmasters 3 times with 4 days between each message
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I outlined a
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Create your disavow file (yes - they work)
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Links removed - in case they come back or webmaster misses a link
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Links you couldn't remove
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Links that requested payment
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Links previously in disavow file
I have never used LinkDetox, but from what you described, I'm skeptical. I have used LinkRisk and I liked it a lot, you can learn more about it here.
Try this manually one time through - you could learn a lot about how this all works and what to look for. I included other links in my answer to your other question as well that will help you.
Hope all of this helps! Good luck! Let me know if you have anymore questions or comments - would love to help!
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