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To Disavow or Not?

by accessted
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I seen a few answers on this but still not quite sure what to do.

My site has some backlinks from a few years back that are not to good. Within the last year i have been getting back links done and think they are ok Different diversity back links. I do not have any manual penalties, but I know I did get hit by "Phantom" pretty hard. Before that I was in Pos 1-3 for most my keywords, and in the last year I have been around position 10-12

So I was thinking of getting someone to do a back link audit and try to help me get these Disavowed or removed.

But someone told me if I do not have a manual action against me if I do that it could raise a flag to Google telling them about my bad links and in turn harm me.

So I really do not know what to do. I have continually been building better Back links, but seems this could be why I am not getting my 1-3 pos rankings back.

Also got hit by Hummingbird. I am redoing my site with fresh new content. (loads more) as mine is pretty thin. So hopefully that will help also. Also doing a silo structured site this time hoping it will help me.

Would it be wise to do a Back link audit and disavow or should I just stick to keep adding better BL and leaving old bad links alone? I know a new update will be coming as well so trying to get this fixed up.
#disavow
  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    I suggest you start over with a new domain name. It's hard to restore a penalized site to it's previous ranking positions especially when the site in question was penalized algorithmically (the way your site was penalized). Manual penalties are easier to recover from.
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    ONE HOUR INDEXING - STOP WASTING MONEY ON LINKS GOOGLE NEVER FINDS
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    • Profile picture of the author accessted
      Originally Posted by SEO Power View Post

      I suggest you start over with a new domain name. It's hard to restore a penalized site to it's previous ranking positions especially when the site in question was penalized algorithmically (the way your site was penalized). Manual penalties are easier to recover from.

      I actually have 2 more sites now that I am working on in the same niche.

      I just would really hate to give this one up. (I guess I am attached) to it. It is about 10 years old and has some good links to it as well. DA 35 PA 44 couple thousand back links. Although I know some would laugh at these stats.. I have a DMOZ listing (hard to get in this niche) and also a lot of local citations with the url.

      If I need to just trash it I guess it is possible, but with so much time/money invested in it I would hate to do that. Although I would also hate to keep spending time/money on it if I am doomed for failure.

      I actually have just spent about a month redoing the site and have about 30 pages of content to add to it. I would also hate to do that and not get any results.

      Maybe I should just quit working on it and let it go.

      On a side note, what if I used it as a pbn type site? Maybe just leave it alone but link out to my other 2 related niche sites for a little link juice?

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        If thats an algo penalty then it must be one weak one. Position ten is first page. I think the idea of giving up on it is ridiculous especially if its a thin site. It may simply be that your content just sucks as far as the algo is concerned. If you have picked up some PBN links that look suspect then no I wouldn't submit it to disavow. I'd take them off wait for them to clear as no longer showing and then submit.

        but giving up on a site in position ten that is several years old to me is last resort which you are nowhere near.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
      Originally Posted by SEO Power View Post

      I suggest you start over with a new domain name. It's hard to restore a penalized site to it's previous ranking positions especially when the site in question was penalized algorithmically (the way your site was penalized). Manual penalties are easier to recover from.
      ^^^Probably the worst advice on WF record^^^

      The truth is that none of us here can really tell you for certain what you should do. Your judgement of what a "good" or "bad" link is, Is probably alot different to someone who builds "good" links for a living.

      What does a good link look like anyway?

      Getting a so called backlink audit can be a little tricky too, as again it depends on who exactly is doing the audit? Some third world hippy with a dream and a free piece of software, or someone who knows what "quality" and "good" actually means.

      Take Mike Anthony and SEO Power for example.

      It would take Mike Anthony all of about 20 seconds to establish that my sites link profile is made up of garbage, and should be exterminated from the web. On the other hand someone of SEO Powers knowledge would see my links as the holy grail of Google.

      See it all depends on who's looking.

      So my only qualified advice to you would be to reach out to someone like Mike privately, and ask him to make a proper assessment of the site for you.

      Good luck with everything and don't give up so easily. I bought a domain last year that nobody in their right mind would touch. 1.2 million live links, pure spam. + a manual action for paid links. I bought it only on the basis that it was a premium high ticket domain name. If it had 0 historical links it would auction for around $25k.

      Guess what?

      I dug out every possible link I could find and disavowed it all. At the same time notifying Google it was not my spam. With 7 days the site was completely back with a clean slate.

      I really must develop that domain out more. Lazy...
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMister
    You probably have a Panda low quality content penalty.

    I tried the disavow and it never worked, if you have a links penalty you will almost always get a message or manual spam action in webmaster tools for bad back linking.

    The Panda penalty is the algo penalty they never warn you about or try to help you on, and its one of the hardest to recover from, because you have no clue what to pinpoint to fix it. I read some guy trying to recover from a panda penalty and he spent 10 hours a day trying to retype and edit all his articles which he thought was thin and would add more content he did this to over 10,000 articles and guess what? nothing, no recovery at all, talk about gutted, working so hard and it didn't even work, and not getting any Adsense income to boot due to the traffic not coming in anymore.
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    • Profile picture of the author Xelaetaks
      Originally Posted by MisterMister View Post

      You probably have a Panda low quality content penalty.

      I tried the disavow and it never worked, if you have a links penalty you will almost always get a message or manual spam action in webmaster tools for bad back linking.

      The Panda penalty is the algo penalty they never warn you about or try to help you on, and its one of the hardest to recover from, because you have no clue what to pinpoint to fix it. I read some guy trying to recover from a panda penalty and he spent 10 hours a day trying to retype and edit all his articles which he thought was thin and would add more content he did this to over 10,000 articles and guess what? nothing, no recovery at all, talk about gutted, working so hard and it didn't even work, and not getting any Adsense income to boot due to the traffic not coming in anymore.
      The penguin algorithm is without getting sent a message though.

      Maybe it is before the point of pure link spam like thousands of links but there certainly seems to be a penalty for having links that algorithm picks up as being low quality even without getting a message in webmaster tools.

      Also the consensus seems to be that to have a penguin penalty fixed it takes the penguin algorithm to be updated for disavowing links to take effect from what has been said on it.
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  • Profile picture of the author accessted
    Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

    If you have picked up some PBN links that look suspect .

    No PBN links to this site. At least not from me.


    Thanks Kevin for the advice. Maybe I should get someone who knows what they are doing to check my BL and access them. I know it is ok to have some not so great links right? To make things look natural.

    So who would be able to do this for me? Not looking for free work, just someone who can point me in the right direction.

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
      Originally Posted by accessted View Post

      No PBN links to this site. At least not from me.


      Thanks Kevin for the advice. Maybe I should get someone who knows what they are doing to check my BL and access them. I know it is ok to have some not so great links right? To make things look natural.

      So who would be able to do this for me? Not looking for free work, just someone who can point me in the right direction.

      Thanks
      It's some of the best you could get around these parts. Home

      That's the guy above site. : Mike Anthony
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      • Profile picture of the author accessted
        Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

        It's some of the best you could get around these parts. Home

        That's the guy above site. : Mike Anthony
        Yes Mike and I have talked before. He is definitely on my list to get a PBN He knows his stuff
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  • Profile picture of the author accessted
    I guess it is ok then to disavow links from Google? and not raise a red flag.

    Any link checking and disavow service you guys recommend? Need to know which ones I need to get rid of. Maybe I should do this before the big animal comes back soon...

    I know Mike is the man for PBN.. Will be getting one from him shortly
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    • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
      Originally Posted by accessted View Post

      I guess it is ok then to disavow links from Google? and not raise a red flag.

      Any link checking and disavow service you guys recommend? Need to know which ones I need to get rid of. Maybe I should do this before the big animal comes back soon...

      I know Mike is the man for PBN.. Will be getting one from him shortly
      Anyone telling you to just give up on your domain and move on advice shouldn't be considered. They don't know SEO and really don't have enough skin in the game to be offering advice in the first place.

      Disavowing links won't tell Google anything, but it also will not help you. Take a minute and look around forums and you'll see countless posts about how weeks and months later the disavow submissions just aren't working.

      If you want to clean up your links you need to remove them. There are no shortcuts to link removals, and disavow was never intended to be one of them.

      You will need to hire a link removal service to help you. Recovery is 100% possible and with Penguin coming having a poor backlink profile is a huge risk.

      If you are serious about your domain and rankings, start the clean up before it is too late.
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      • Profile picture of the author accessted
        Originally Posted by sweezeter View Post

        Anyone telling you to just give up on your domain and move on advice shouldn't be considered. They don't know SEO and really don't have enough skin in the game to be offering advice in the first place.

        Disavowing links won't tell Google anything, but it also will not help you. Take a minute and look around forums and you'll see countless posts about how weeks and months later the disavow submissions just aren't working.

        If you want to clean up your links you need to remove them. There are no shortcuts to link removals, and disavow was never intended to be one of them.

        You will need to hire a link removal service to help you. Recovery is 100% possible and with Penguin coming having a poor backlink profile is a huge risk.

        If you are serious about your domain and rankings, start the clean up before it is too late.
        I have to much invested for sure to throw in the towel. I am ranking 5-6 position on some keywords so I know my site isn't that bad compared to the competition. Just want to get those top 3 spot.

        Yes that is what I am planing on doing. I reached out to someone from WF. Not sure if you know any other company that does this that is recommended. I think they will try and get them removed by emailing the company first and then try the disavow if that is unsuccessful. Not sure there is another way....

        Time keeps on ticking............
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        • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
          Originally Posted by accessted View Post

          I have to much invested for sure to throw in the towel. I am ranking 5-6 position on some keywords so I know my site isn't that bad compared to the competition. Just want to get those top 3 spot.

          Yes that is what I am planing on doing. I reached out to someone from WF. Not sure if you know any other company that does this that is recommended. I think they will try and get them removed by emailing the company first and then try the disavow if that is unsuccessful. Not sure there is another way....

          Time keeps on ticking............
          Good to hear that you won't just give up at the first sign of trouble. It's far too common to hear people giving advice of just starting over, maybe that's so that they have less competition? I'm not sure. I've recovered quite a number of sites and it's really not all that hard.

          I've used linkdelete.com, check them out they can probably help you if you need links removed or have bad links pointed to your website. Anytime I need help like that I just outsource to them, my times worth more than $100.
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