Advice needed on spammy backlinks removal project

by syedirfanajmal

Posted: 10 years ago 23 replies

I am working on a site which has lots of (hundreds) of spammy backlinks created by an seo guy we have kicked out. I have tracked down all the backlinks along with their PR, HTTP Status Code, Anchor Text, Domain Authority and Page Rank.

The ones that are spammy are easily identifiable as they use 3-4 particular keywords (i.e. over optimized anchor texts).

Now that I have a list of over 1200 such backlinks most of which are spammy, should I delete all of these spammy ones? These backlinks are usually comments at a blog which offer nothing of value (no wise good comment) but just say something vague and post a link to our site.

So what should I do now? I am a bit perplexed on whether I should remove all of these (by requesting the webmasters first and then by google disavow) or if I should leave some of these? Not that it makes any sense to leave them but also concerned about our traffic as our traffic has already dipped from 4000 impressions to 1000.

Please let me know your views. Thanks

#advice #backlinks #comments #disavow #needed #project #removal #spammy

HJdev 10 years ago

Best way is like you said: remove all the spammy links. A trainee is handy for that kind of work.
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Moneymaker2012 10 years ago

First analyse all the spammy backlinks, and then use disavow to remove all those low quality links, but removing all those links at once can be dangerous. You can also manually remove those links yourself or let someone do it for you.
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DizenSounds 10 years ago

Yes, remove the links. You pretty much answered your own question when you noticed the dip in traffic.

Do you have any links from article directories by chance?
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syedirfanajmal 10 years ago

Thanks for your comments guys. Appreciate it.

There are not so much comments from directories to be honest but most are these very low standard evidently spammy blog comments.

Could you let me know why could doing it all at once cause a problem? Do you mean it can cause lower seo rankings? If yes how would it benefit me if I do it slowly?
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syedirfanajmal 10 years ago

Also, this spammer has been posting using 3-4 particular anchor words in each comment. My questions, what percentage of anchor text usage is okay and when does it becomes over optimized?
I don't think there is a number but would still like to know what you guys interpret as over optimized. Thanks
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seekdefo 10 years ago

anchor text below 20% is ok
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- syedirfanajmal 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by seekdefo
  
  anchor text below 20% is ok
  
  Thanks. Is this your personal view or something backed up by some sort of research findings?
  
  Thanks
  
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DizenSounds 10 years ago

As I asked above do you have any article directory links?
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- 1 reply
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- syedirfanajmal 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by DizenSounds
  
  As I asked above do you have any article directory links?
  
  I've already answered that I said we don't have any article directory links but mostly blog comment spam.
  
  Thanks
  
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John Romaine

10 years ago

Has your site been negatively affected because of the links?

Thanks
1 reply

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syedirfanajmal

10 years ago

Originally Posted by John Romaine

Has your site been negatively affected because of the links?

Good question. Our site's impressions went down by 75% and so we did a link audit and discovered lot of spamy low quality blog comment links and we assumed that these links must have caused the impressions dip.

Is there a mechanism that will help me know which particular issues (or which particular links) has negatively affected my site's seo rankings? If there is please do enlighten me as I am new to this.

We are now getting the links removed and will then use google disavow.

Please let me know if you have any alternate suggestions. Thanks

Thanks
1 reply

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John Romaine

10 years ago

Originally Posted by syedirfanajmal

Always correctly identify and diagnose the problem BEFORE taking action. There's no point running in circles with a fire hose if there's no fire.

What you need to do is match up when the cheap seo commenced, and see if that ties in with any major dips in traffic or impressions. This is not always possible, but it should act as a starting point.

Also check WMT to see if there's any manual penalty notices.

I do backlink cleanups if you want help. I'm not cheap, but it will be done right.

Do that stuff I suggested above first though.

Thanks

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netanel23 10 years ago

Yes that is a good idea the way you are doing it. My site also receive penalty so I use best link removal service to help me with the link removals. You want to be sure that you are working on all links possible you see because if you forget some links that you dont think are bad your site is at risk in future.

Be careful with who you hire in the future as well because they can ruin your rankings with tese kind of links.
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affilorama-portal

10 years ago

Could you let me know why could doing it all at once cause a problem? Do you mean it can cause lower seo rankings? If yes how would it benefit me if I do it slowly?

>> Just remove all the spammy, low quality links. Removing everything at once won't cause you any problem but at least having a low number of backlinks from the usual.

However, you may also continue to build good backlinks from high PR sites while you try to get rid of your spammy links.

Also, this spammer has been posting using 3-4 particular anchor words in each comment. My questions, what percentage of anchor text usage is okay and when does it becomes over optimized?

>> Yes, putting too many keywords in one page make it over-optimized aside from being spammy.

You need to always analyze your backlinks and ask: How many backlinks show your target keywords? How many are branded terms? And how many are generic terms? What I do is I make sure that my top 5 keywords will at least contain 2 branded terms. If not, you should start building more branded and generic terms instead of having all anchor texts as target keywords.

Also if it may help, here are some useful info on SEO/backlinking:

5 Negative SEO Techniques That Could Hurt Your Website | Affilorama
How to Do SEO in 2013 - YouMoz - Moz
How to Protect Your Website against Google Algorithm Updates | Affilorama

Thanks

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pepes4329 10 years ago

You guys think google will remove ALL LINKS from a URL
or

How long before I shut down a URL will most baclinks not count ?
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- 1 reply
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- affilorama-portal 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by pepes4329
  
  You guys think google will remove ALL LINKS from a URL
  or
  
  How long before I shut down a URL will most baclinks not count ?
  
  Could you rephrase your questions or perhaps provide more details? Sorry I cannot seem to place what you are exactly inquiring about.
  
  If you are talking about the disavow tool. Do not rely much on this tool. It is still best that you take control of things by removing the bad links to your site. It may be tedious but it can be done. There are a lot of sites penalized by Google but they managed to get back on track by cleaning up the bad links and improving their site's content and on-page SEO
  
  Thanks
  
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tcrews 10 years ago

Don't use google disavow tool. I haven't heard any success story with this tool yet. It could be a trap. Hire someone to contact the webmasters one by one.
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Royalking 10 years ago

If it was my site then I would have bought a new domain and redirect 301 to this new website from the old one that has been under negative seo. Then start building some quality contextual backlinks from relevant sites..

What ever comes your try making good of it...
Just my thoughts.. Hope this helps..
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ksparks30 10 years ago

Two important things are the best for removing your bad links.
Send individually request for removing link.
After that, there may be some of links are not removed hence you should have to create one notepad file including links which you not have to consider as your back links. Upload that file at diswow in Google webmaster tool.
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Campbell24

10 years ago

The best thing in your case would be to just create a new site. Disavowing and attempting to remove spam links in mass quantities is too labor intensive and usually doesn't garner results anyway.

Thanks
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DizenSounds

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Campbell24

The best thing in your case would be to just create a new site. Disavowing and attempting to remove spam links in mass quantities is too labor intensive and usually doesn't garner results anyway.

Far from the truth, I have had much success with link removals and my sites recovering from both manual and algo penalties.

Throwing away a website is plain stupid unless the site doesn't have any real foundation anyways. Undoing some link building and recovering is faster than starting over.

Thanks

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dimazgyba 10 years ago

use disavow to remove all those low quality links in google webmaster tool
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- Dokemion 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by dimazgyba
  
  use disavow to remove all those low quality links in google webmaster tool
  
  Follow his advice and submit those backlinks to be disavowed.
  
  You have to take time and consider before making a decision on the list of links to be disavowed. (Disavowing links is not to be taken lightly.)
  
  Thanks
  
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  Contact me for any SEO Services you need I'm glad to be of your service.
  
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Advice needed on spammy backlinks removal project

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