How to check quality of backlinks possibly causing penalty?

[Rucco]

I recently got a google minus 50 penalty, and have cleaned up most of the on-site errors I think may have possibly contributed to receiving this. I was told by an SEO firm that I had a great deal of inbound links coming from a single IP (or close) address and this could have happened. I have a feeling why this may have happened, however does anyone know how I can check this, and what steps to take to get any links removed if this is not only the case, but in fact a legit problem?

I want to submit a reconsideration request asap, however I don't want to ruin credibility without going over everything and showing all steps to rid my site of the problems.

Thanks!

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by Rucco

I recently got a google minus 50 penalty, and have cleaned up most of the on-site errors I think may have possibly contributed to receiving this. I was told by an SEO firm that I had a great deal of inbound links coming from a single IP (or close) address and this could have happened. I have a feeling why this may have happened, however does anyone know how I can check this, and what steps to take to get any links removed if this is not only the case, but in fact a legit problem?

I want to submit a reconsideration request asap, however I don't want to ruin credibility without going over everything and showing all steps to rid my site of the problems.

Thanks!

Ok listen. If incoming links could cause your site to receive a penalty, then people would just bomb their competitors with bad links.

And it is my opinion and the opinion of many other SEO's that there is no such thing as a -30 or -50 penalty or any Google penalties at all. The only Google penalty that I'm aware of is a de-index.

If your site took a hit in the SERPS, it may be because you have lost some backlinks, your current backlinks were devalued, or you've done something else ON-SITE that has caused some issues with your ranking.

The best way to fix this situation in my opinion is to go over your site with a fine-tooth comb. If everything checks out there, build some new backlinks.

That should do the trick to get your site moving in the right direction.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Rucco

I was told by an SEO firm that I had a great deal of inbound links coming from a single IP (or close) address and this could have happened.

You should fire them because they're feeding you inaccurate information.

[trooperbill]

you can get a -50 penalty, ive seen this and other things like it happen on a few of my sites. tho the cause of this could be many things.

The most obvious is a paid link from a high trust/authority site that has been devalued with a knock on effect for your site... so maybe look into those first

Have you tried a link atrophy tool to see what links are passing reduced value?

You could also try cleaning up your on site link profile, make sure you're not linking sitewide or appear to have any paid link types (side bar/footer etc). if you clean this up and submit a reinclusion you should be fine.

also recently google has become more focused on brand terms so make sure you're adding this into anchor text and off-site descriptions of new links in addition to your keywords

[Rucco]

Originally Posted by trooperbill

you can get a -50 penalty, ive seen this and other things like it happen on a few of my sites. tho the cause of this could be many things.

The most obvious is a paid link from a high trust/authority site that has been devalued with a knock on effect for your site... so maybe look into those first

Have you tried a link atrophy tool to see what links are passing reduced value?

You could also try cleaning up your on site link profile, make sure you're not linking sitewide or appear to have any paid link types (side bar/footer etc). if you clean this up and submit a reinclusion you should be fine.

also recently google has become more focused on brand terms so make sure you're adding this into anchor text and off-site descriptions of new links in addition to your keywords

Well whether it's called a -50 or not, we certainly dropped 50 spots for every keyword we were ranking for. I did have multiple links on every page that had "keyword:state name" for each state going to internal pages, I'm hoping this alone is what did it. However considering I did not build the links myself I didn't know about the quality of them.

You sort of answered my question with a link atrophy tool. I have no idea what this is, can you tell me where to find one and what to look for?

Thanks much for all your replies.

[trytolearnmore]

You can find quality backlinks like this:

1) Find a website where they collect the spammers ID's
2) Find which website is this spammer promoting
3) Using SEO Spyglass you can find which of the forum backlinks have sticked