Having all links removed or move to a new domain? What is best?

8 replies
  • SEO
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Hey guys,

Seems like we were hit by a google update about 8 weeks ago. We weren't ranking fantastically well for most keywords (bottom of 1st, 2nd or 3rd page), but now we are not even in the top 100 search results for 90% of the money keywords.

We are still ranking for some low competition keywords, but that's it, and they have almost no traffic.

We previously used an SEO company to build links (not used for past 2 years though), which were built on crappy sites, and all with keywords in the anchor text.

I checked all the backlinks to our site, and of the 380 main backlinks, 330 are the keyword stuffed ones made by this company.

If the SEO company will not remove these links, would moving to a new domain help?

Our current domain has been operating for over 5 years, but we have very little link-building except for what this SEO company did.

The way I am thinking at the moment is that we have hardly any traffic coming to the site right now, so why not just move everything to a new domain to get away from this mess?

Do you think this is a viable option? Is there anything I need to be careful of if I move the website to a new domain?

Sorry for long post, but thanks to anyone who is kind enought to help me
#domain #links #move #removed
  • Profile picture of the author Berkinb
    Hi there,

    If your website is not a company or branded store website, switching to a new domain could be the way to go. Trying to remove all those backlinks will be a real pain. Especially if the SEO company you hired used automation. If that is the case, it would almost be impossible to have all those webmasters delete those links.

    In addition, remember that the links you see with link checking tools are not the whole story. Nobody really knows which links Google sees and counts, so there can be hundreds if not thousands of other links that you don't see.

    Starting over with a new domain can be much easier. Just make sure that you go with fewer but high quality links this time instead of hundreds of low quality links. If your keywords are easy/moderate and if you can get 10-20 high PR links to your site, you can start ranking in a few weeks.
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    • Profile picture of the author M Thompson
      I read something on an seo website recently (maybe SEOMOZ) that said google isn't penalizing you for having crappy links they are just ignoring them.

      If true you don't need to remove the old links
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      • Profile picture of the author dfs_dean
        Originally Posted by M Thompson View Post

        I read something on an seo website recently (maybe SEOMOZ) that said google isn't penalizing you for having crappy links they are just ignoring them.

        If true you don't need to remove the old links
        Even if they are currently ignoring crappy backlinks, with each new panda update or penguin update (or new anything that is clearly black and white ) there is always the chance that crappy backlinks will be penalized. Leaving things as is might be okay for the short term, but is it worth the risk for the longer term?

        Bkkboy88 - since it sounds like you are pretty much sitting on square one anyway, it would probably be best to grab a new domain and start fresh. I'm sure there were things that you thought you'd do differently if you had it to do again. Well, this could be your chance.

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  • Profile picture of the author Bkkboy88
    Hi guys,

    Thanks for the responses.

    @BerkinB: Your advice seems sound. We do not have a huge presence on the internet (even though we have been around for a while), so the domain change certainly seems like something to consider! Like you said, cleaning up the mess would be very difficult.

    @M Thompson: Do you happen to have a link to that article? From reading around, my understanding is that google changed their minds on this, hence the reason why so many sites have lost rankings? Also, I have read about people receiving messages in webmaster tools for having "unnatural linking patterns", and google still not improving their rankings after submitting reconsideration requests, because they still had a lot of bad links pointing to the site. Anyway, if you have a link would be very grateful
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    • Profile picture of the author M Thompson
      I can't find the article at the moment, it was in relation to Matt Cutt's recent speech at SESSF



      Originally Posted by Bkkboy88 View Post

      Hi guys,

      Thanks for the responses.

      @BerkinB: Your advice seems sound. We do not have a huge presence on the internet (even though we have been around for a while), so the domain change certainly seems like something to consider! Like you said, cleaning up the mess would be very difficult.

      @M Thompson: Do you happen to have a link to that article? From reading around, my understanding is that google changed their minds on this, hence the reason why so many sites have lost rankings? Also, I have read about people receiving messages in webmaster tools for having "unnatural linking patterns", and google still not improving their rankings after submitting reconsideration requests, because they still had a lot of bad links pointing to the site. Anyway, if you have a link would be very grateful
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  • Profile picture of the author Bkkboy88
    Thanks a lot for the advice Dfs_Dean.

    You are certainly right. We used the seo company several years ago, when our seo knowledge was limited. Even at the time, I always wondered how these kind of links would actually benefit the website long-term, but I guess we just got fooled by the usual babble as so many others did. Hindsight is a marvellous thing

    Do you think buying an aged domain would help? Or should I just start afresh?

    One other thing, for existing customers, how would we deal with the fact that we had moved sites? I would be wary of linking the old domain to the new one, as wouldn't want all the badness of the old site affecting our new site!

    Any thoughts are much appreciated
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewWoodward
    Why don't you just do the simple things to fix your current problem isntead of worrying about complicated solutions like buying a new domain and dealing with 301's which should be an absolute last resort after all other avenues have been explored.

    If your ranking problem is purely because the exact match anchor text % is to high then just start building links to push that % down to an acceptable level and your rankings will return.

    Drip feed out some social bookmarks or something like that
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  • Profile picture of the author rightseosteps
    Just build more relevant links and you'll be fine.
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    Click Here- Guest posting service, per relevant post just 20$. Includes links for safe rankings to push your rankings to the top! Can't get this at a better price.
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