@Teginder, you asked "But I think, it is really tough to understand what type of a link is organic ? Sometime I feel a links seems pretty natural is also gets caught under Google violation radar. WHY?"

The likely answer is your thoughts about whether a link is organic or manipulative are not calibrated to how Google views links. It takes a lot of time and experience to consistently reach the proper diagnosis for each link.

@Monali, you asked about links from "your sister websites". In my experience, people who ask this type of question have many "sister websites" and the links are likely deemed to be manipulative. Why offer the link from "500 pages"? Is the link relevant for users on all those pages?

You need to be VERY careful when you create a link from one of your owned websites to another, especially if you have been already caught violating Google's Quality Guidelines. The safest approach is to either remove, nofollow or 302 the links from your own websites which point at each other.

If you operate two websites where website A sells sneakers and website B sells socks, then it may make sense to provide links from the sneaker site to the sock site on most pages. With that said, it would likely be best to simply combine the websites into a single site.

The summary here: it is possible for a site owner to provide links between two sites which are not manipulative, but the links need to be presented in a high quality manner. The overwhelming majority of site owners who ask me this type of question operate many websites, have a manipulative link issue, and the interlinking between their own websites is a contributing factor to that issue.

Hi Monali,

You asked "do we need to contact websites which have domain authority more than 75 or 85 ? Or the point is, even if the website is 99 domain authority , do we need to contact them to remove it?"

Once you compile a list of site backlinks, the next step is to review links from each domain to determine if the links are organic (i.e. comply with Google's Quality Guidelines) or manipulative in nature. To that end, DA is irrelevant.

I am sure no one at Google considers the DA or PR of a page when making a determination of a link's authenticity. For example, all links from any subdomain on wordpress.com, blogspot.com, plus.google.com and so forth have very high DA, but they can still be manipulative. There are new sites created daily with a DA of 1, yet their links are organic.

You also asked "There are few forums and websites, where our links are showing from forum signatures, etc. "

In most cases, forum signature links would likely be considered manipulative. If you provided a forum signature which sincerely added value to each and every post, those links could be considered organic, but if you are asking the question, that is likely not the case.

@Teginder, you commented "...you just need to remove links only if those domains have no relevancy to your niche"

Relevancy to a site's niche is not a metric in determining whether a link is organic or manipulative. The link's compliance to Google's Quality Guidelines should be the focus.

I could have a site which sells shirts and gain links from a graphic design or UX site that talks how good or bad my web site design looks. That link would not be relevant to selling shirts but would still be perfectly organic. On the other hand, many links are built from relevant sites that are manipulative.

You each are focusing on what value a link offers to the site. The link's value is not relevant to determining if it is organic vs manipulative.

There are tens of millions of active websites will ???trillions / quadrillions or some other number which is beyond the boundaries of human concept of web pages. Each company, including Google, sets their servers to crawl the web each month. Even large companies cannot provide enough web servers to crawl every page every month, not to mention every day.

Accordingly, each offers a piece of the puzzle. Google's WMT report shows approximately 50% of the backlinks for your site. The other reports each fill in part of the remaining data.

If you earn a link from high quality sites like the New York Times, it is likely all the tools will show the link. When you are dealing with web spam, a lot of it comes from low quality sites which are not frequently crawled. OSE is a fantastic tool but you cannot depend on it to show all the links to your site.

There are numerous tools which provide backlink data. You will find each tool provides different data, which can be frustrating. The best solution is to use a combination of tools. In my experience, the combination which always works to resolves Google penalties is: Google WMT + Bing WMT + OSE + AHREFS + Majestic.

OSE, for example, provides a maximum of 25 links per domain. The important thing is to obtain a representative sample of links from each domain to determine if the domain is providing organic or manipulative links. In most cases, if you have more than 25 links from a domain, you likely have a site wide link or a common link, such as in the sidebar.

I am working on a moz blog post which will include an e-mail template. I'll get back to you on this request.

You are welcome to use nofollow links in any manner you see fit. If these links actually drive quality traffic to your site, go ahead and leave them.

As a note, not all vB forums provide nofollow links. It is up to each forum operator.

Monali,

As a general rule, I strongly discourage your submission to either link directories, article directories or blog directories. I would also discourage your linking to your site from various other websites you create be they from tumblr, blogger.com, wordpress.com, etc. These methods as you are describing them at worst would be deemed manipulative links, at best would add little-to-no value to your site.

Instead, create the maximum amount of value you can for users on your site. Create content that others will WANT to share, tweet, like, +1, and link to. You did not share your site URL so I'll use the Joomla extension concept you mentioned. Let's talk about that for a moment. Take your extensive knowledge of Joomla and think about how site owners wish to extend the core functionality in ways the software does not support. This gap creates the market for extensions.

When we look for extensions to add to client websites, we have a few considerations:

1. Who is behind the extension? Some extensions are produced by a single individual, others by development companies, and still others are produced by larger companies. For example, Janrain is a major provider of social integration software and they produced an extension for WordPress. The support they provide for their extension is world class. They have a ticketing system where experienced techs promptly respond. On the other hand, some extensions are produced by individuals or companies who are completely non-responsive to support requests.

2. How much experience does the producer have with the extension's purpose and the platform. Ideally, you want to work with an author who is experienced in both Joomla and the particular area (let's say an SEO extension produced by a SEO company for example). Is this extension the first one produced by the individual or company?

3. Joomla has extension standards. Were these standards met and is the extension listed on Joomla Extension Directory (JED)?

4. Does the extension fill a gap which adds value? Let's say you make a 404 log extension. That adds value by offering site owners a way to understand more about broken links. The basic extension can be greatly improved by adding more features such as:

• having the 404 log accessible via the admin panel rather than a regular log file which is otherwise difficult to read

• having the 404 log update live

• capturing the referring URL so the site owner can see where the link came from

• capturing the search term used (practically an outdated concept now, but still...)

• possibly automatically redirecting users to the most closely related URL

Such an extension could add real value to users. If you review posts on Joomla.org or various SEO and forum sites, you may step into a conversation where users are discussing problems and add value to the conversation by mentioning the extension as a solution. The site can also categorize extensions by their ratings and other factors.

Understand Joomla already provides an extension directory so what added value does your site offer?

My recommendation is spend 100% of your "link building" time and effort addressing the above areas. If you do a fantastic job, you will EARN better links then you could have ever built yourself, and none of the earned links will be viewed as manipulative.

TLDR - build VALUE, not links

The first part of the battle is knowing your links. Each source of backlink information, including Google, has advantages and disadvantages. I have been resolving manipulative link issues for clients since 2011 (i.e. before Penguin) and what has worked in 100% of cases is a backlink report comprised of data from the following 5 sources: Google, Bing, AHREFs, Majestic and OSE. This combination of backlink data has always worked. That is not to say there are not other sources of backlinks which can be used.

Once you have a comprehensive list of all linking domains, the next step is to visit each site and determine if the links are manipulative or organic. Covering that topic fully would be a very lengthy article but in brief:

1. Closely examine Google's Quality Guidelines.

2. Remove any links you, or anyone else acting on the site's behalf (i.e. "SEO", link builder, developer, etc) built.

3. Remove links you created to the site from other sites you own

4. For each link ask "How did this link get here?" If the answer is the site owner independently created the link for their own reasons, that is great. This type of link is a naturally EARNED organic link. If there was any undue influence from the site owner which caused the link to be created, it is likely a manipulative link.

5. Take a look at the other links from that site. If the site offers links to other spammy sites, that is a very bad sign. Would you be ashamed for your customers to see this link?

6. Where is the link? Is it in content (which is strongly preferred) or is it in a sidebar or footer where spammy links are more likely to be found.

There is no hard and fast rules. There are guidelines. Ultimately you look at links and determine if they possess the qualities of an organic or manipulative link.

With respect to automated link identification services, there are two problems. First, they will typically identify some organic links as manipulative. Secondly, they will identify some manipulative links as organic. Both issues are highly problematic. You get what you pay for.

Good Luck.

You are welcome to work with the URLs in search results. I am unsure what numbers you are attempting to match.

You can check the redirects by uploading the LIST of URLs to Screaming Frog, which will then crawl the list and inform you of any header responses (301, 302, etc)

I am unclear on your second question. You previously stated the site involved is not a client and you do not have access to Webmaster Tools. What exactly are you asking or suggesting?

Your original question expressed a desire to locate "all" redirects for a given URL. It is highly unlikely to locate all such links without access to the link data in Google WMT and Bing WMT, along with the referrer data in GA.

The best you can do to find external URLs is to build a comprehensive backlink report using data from multiple providers (OSE, AHREFs, Majestic, etc). You should know from the start you will not cover all the links unless you are working with pages which have a low number of links.

I used to use Xenu until shortly after Dr Pete shared this blog (http://moz.com/blog/crawler-faceoff-xenu-vs-screaming-frog) which introduced me to Screaming Frog. Both will work, but you will find XENU is more like using DOS whereas Screaming Frog has a very nice interface.

For internal 301s, you can clearly crawl the site and export a list of all 301 redirects to the target page.

For external URLs, there is not a simple method. I suggest two tactics:

1. Examine your analytics for referring URLs

2. Examine your backlink reports for links to the page

You can then crawl the list of URLs and determine which pages are being redirected. With the above understood, the primary concern should be your internal URLs.

"would the formats with the highest results (2400 & 3600) ALSO include all the results in the lower number formats?"

The search volume information provided is Local Monthly Searches based on Exact Match. You can read more about Exact Match here: http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497825?hl=en

"In cases where you want to mention the state, would presenting it like this be harmful?"

Each time you add a new term to a title tag, you are increasing the page's relevancy to the new keyword at the cost of decreasing it to the previous keyword. Let's enter the theoretical world where all things are equal:

Title 1 - Homes for rent in orlando

Title 2 - Homes for rent in orlando fl

Title 3 - Homes for rent in orlando fl | florida

The problem with the 3rd option is it would never result in an exact match, which is the strongest relevancy boost possible. Personally, I cannot think of a scenario where I would ever use such a format.

All things being equal, if a user search for "homes for rent in orlando" then the first title wins (i.e. ranks highest). If a user searches for "homes for rent in orlando fl" then the second title wins.

The reality is this keyword is so competitive that anything short of a perfect match is not likely to get you in to the top 5 results.

Homes.com, Trulia.com, craigslist.org, Realtor.com, rentals.com, ForRent.com, etc. These are the sites which rank for the term. In fact, if you don't break the top 3 results, then the local results push you so far down the page, you might as well not exist.

When optimizing a title tag, the approach I take is to think as if I needed to rank #1 for the term. Once you achieve that goal, you can change your strategy and diversify. Until then...eye of the tiger.

"Does Google know that VT = Vermont?"

Yes. Try this search: https://www.google.com/search?q=vt&gl=us&pws=0

Notice on the right side of the screen Google offers information on two topics: Virginia Tech and Vermont. Google knows your query likely pertains to one of these topics but is unsure which, so it offers both.

"Should State names be abbreviated and/or fully spelled out in title tags, meta descriptions and body content?"

In content, you should use whatever format you feel would best connect with your reader. If I was to mention Los Angeles, I would not typically feel the need to mention California since the city is recognized world-wide.

For Miami, there is both Miami, Ohio and Miami, Florida. If I was writing about Miami Ohio, I would definitely mention the state name. If I was writing about Miami Florida, most readers would automatically make the connection to Florida, especially if I mentioned anything to do with the ocean, a major city, etc.

For meta descriptions, most of the above applies but you are once again focused on connecting with your reader. The main goal is to improve click-through-rate for your search listing.

For Title Tags, this should be decided first. The title should be closely aligned, or perfectly matched, to the keyword focus of the article. Otherwise, it again can depend on the situation. Take a look at the following example:

Miami Dolphins start the season 6-0. It is unlikely you would ever wish to add FL or Florida to that tag.

You can perform keyword research to determine which version has more traffic. Many SEOs will make the decision in that manner.

Consider the following exact match local monthly search volume in Google.com:

homes for rent in orlando  2400

homes for rent in orlando fl 1300

homes for rent in orlando florida 260

Clearly, the preference is not to use state information based if your focus is finding the maximum search volume for this query. But what about....

homes for rent in jacksonville  110

homes for rent in jacksonville fl  3600

homes for rent in jacksonville florida  210

In this instance, adding the abbreviated state name to the query is very important.

As with most SEO related questions, the topic can go a bit deep. Keyword research is a critical component to a successful SEO campaign, and takes time, testing and experience to find the optimal variation of the term.

Best of luck.

"Off site should i really remove ALL the previous links and then just work on Quality. Surely that level mentioned is not too excessive for any business trying to promote itself? or is it"

If you "built" the links, they should be removed. I would do such without hesitation.

To be clear, the overwhelming majority of "built" links are manipulative. There are some limited methods where you can create a link which offers value, but the ones you shared and the manner in which you shared them are the type you should pay (if necessary) to remove.

"I guess its the regular quality blog and off site I may struggle with getting the right level. Blogging is "OK", social media is "low to OK" and will work on these."

"OK" is not enough. Neither is "good" nor "great". You need to be exceptional.

When you perform a search for <insert keyword="">how many results are there? Let's say Google offers 1 million result pages. Where do you think an "OK" page ranks? </insert>

Strive to be nothing less then exceptional. Search engine rankings is a pure competition. If you do not have the "eye of the tiger" mentality, then you should consider hiring a quality SEO to promote the site. To be clear, any "link package" site should be avoided.

"Ryan If SEO is not to manipulate or try to rank your site than what it is?"

There are some people who would agree with you Christopher. I am not one of them. SEO is working with clients to help them understand and provide the maximum value to their site's visitors. Of course, that sounds nice but I will three of an almost infinite amount of examples of how this goal can be achieved:

• Some clients have very poor quality content when they come on board. We work with them to engage a professional, quality writer who can significantly improve the site's content. A few qualities of the resulting page are:

• easier to read and understand
• more likely to covert a visitor into a customer
• more likely to be +1'd, tweeted, liked, etc
• earns a better AdWords quality score
• ranks higher in search engines

• Some clients have low quality websites. A few issues we commonly find:

• broken links
• poor navigation
• server error pages
• poor design

Correcting these issues tend to improve the user experience and search rankings.

• Some sites do not embrace social media. By leveraging the power of sites such as facebook, pinterest and others, site traffic can dramatically increase leading to more social interaction, links and positive signals which can benefit SEO.

"Not all link profiles are as natural as SEOMOZ/SEL."

You are right. Most sites are no where near as spammy as the SEOmoz back link profile.

"I see (using  open site explorer) my competitors have 10's of thousands of external links, so even if I kept at this rate it would be many years before I caught up. That is based on my current understanding, so how do I get to those levels, even if it is over a year or two?"

Hi Simon,

Your situation is very common Simon. At a very high level, here are the steps:

1. Build the best quality site possible. There are literally hundreds of pieces to this puzzle but a few are:

• hire a great graphic design to provide your site a high quality look and feel

• engage a professional web developer to develop the best possible website

• provide a mobile website which appears correctly in smartphones, ipads, etc

• ensure your site works as intended i.e. no broken links, forms work correctly, etc

• ensure the site appears correctly in various browsers (IE, FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera)

• provide an intuitive layout along with solid navigation

2. **Provide the best content possible. **

• Create "best on the web" type of content

• Create content for users, not search engines

• Ensure your content is engaging and relevant

• Strive to provide content related to current events

• Ensure any images are sharp and clear

• The site's content should ideally encourage users to like / tweet / +1 / share / link

3. Promote the site.

• Once you have a solid website platform with fantastic content, tell the world about it!

• Use social media to connect with others who have an interest in your product / service

• Read industry blogs to find current information and influencers

• Ask your audience what content they want to read about

• Take every opportunity to tell everyone about the site

Hi Simon,

I find it amazing that in 2013 questions like this are still asked.

The link plan you shared above is great.....if you are intentionally attempting to get your site penalized. This plan is a perfect outline of what some site owners look for in an effort to build links to a competitor's site and try to get them penalized.

You are absolutely free to earn as many links as you want to your site. Neither Google nor Bing would have any problem with it.

What you are talking about is building manipulative links in an effort to manipulate search rankings. It is a very bad idea. Those links are highly likely to damage your site. My recommendation would be to remove every one.

"in a case like this is it sensible to preemptively remove the links with the disavow tool?"

Once again, the Disavow tool was offered as a last resort by Google. Many webmasters seem frustrated the tool is not working as they expected, and the issue is typically they ignored Google's instructions for the tool's usage.

Prior to using the Disavow tool, you need to make an exhaustive effort to remove the links. Send a polite letter to the WHOIS address for the domain explaining the problem and identifying specific links from that domain which are pointing to your site. If there is no response within 3 days, send the same letter to an email address found on the site itself. If you still do not receive a response, check for a Contact Form on the site.

Try to learn what is going on with the site. Ask site owners how these links were created. It surely can be the result of negative SEO, but in the overwhelming majority of cases I have worked with, it is either the client or an agent acting on behalf of the client. Try digging a little deeper.

There are not any general endorsements I can share. Your chosen expert may vary depending on your hosting environment, site software and budget.

"As for the client's site hacking, as far as I'm aware their webmaster & in-house team dealt with that when it happened."

The webmaster and inhouse team likely had a gap which was exploited. It may be best to bring in an outside security consultant to review the matter.

"if our messages go unacknowledged, what else can we do about it?"

In my experience, 25 - 60% of removal requests are honored, depending on the site. If you are working with numerous site owners, either some of them will respond or you are likely doing something wrong. Ways to contact a webmaster:

• use the WHOIS information to send an email

• use information from the site. Before you say they don't have anywhere, check thoroughly.

• use the site's Contact Us form

• call the site with the number on the site or their WHOIS phone number

• mail the site

• check for social pages such as facebook and contact them via that method

You shared there are around 20 sites linking to your client's site. Some of them should respond.

"The client's site was compromised a few months ago and had a bunch of spam links inserted into the homepage code."

Has the issue been fully resolved? What steps have you taken to ensure the site's code is clean and remains clean? Some examples:

• placing the code on a test server and having an expert examine the code
• crawling the site and examining all links
• upon completion of the code analysis, implement a system which detects any coding changes and notifies you of the change
• ensure you are using professional development services with professionally developed extensions
• check your hosting. At a minimum, VPS hosting should be used. Do you have a firewall in place? What type of precautions does the host take (i.e. are you with a major host such as Rackspace, HostDime, etc? Or a host no one has heard of?)
• Use a service such as Symantec or McAfee SSL which offers daily site malware scanning

Every time I have worked with a compromised site, there have been major gaps or a complete lack of site security.

With respect to the links, the Disavow Tool can be used as a means of last resort. Google is very clear the tool should not be used until all other methods have been exhausted.

Have you tried contacting any of the webmasters to inquire about the links? That would be a start. You stated they are from independently owned sites. If that is true, then some of those webmasters will likely be cooperative and help you understand why they are linking to you.

We are happy to help Matthew. There is a lot more detailed information required which is missing from your question. There are dozens of possible causes and solutions.