8 replies to this topic

[redux]

I admit, I used to use spammy backlinks to generate backlinks for my clients (at their request). Worked for years.... after the Penguin and Panda updates its now made matters worse.

 

My client wants me to now remove 3 years worth of backlinks from spammy sites. I've tried contacting some of the sites, but appear to be zombie sites. Even tried email a legal letter to remove.

 

I know Google allows the Disavow tool, I've read good things and bad things about it. People basically saying leave it.

 

If I disavow the spammy links, would this improve my clients listing again on Google? sounds ironic that he will pay me to remove them

[Jill]

If they got an unnatural link warning message then yes, you should use it. If not, then I wouldn't.

[redux]

The thing is, none of the sites have got a unnatural link warning, does this appear in GWMT?

[Jill]

Yes, it would appear there. If they didn't get the warning it would be silly and possibly harmful to disavow links, imo.

[Mikl]

For what it's worth, I submitted a disavow file nine weeks ago. So far, it hasn't made a scrap of difference either way. The spammy links are still there, and there's been no startling movement in the site's average rankings.

 

That might not be directly relevant to your question, Redux, but I thought I'd mention it in case it's of interest.

 

Mike

[ryanlb]

If nothing else is working for you, definitely try Disavow; I've heard it gets at least modest results, but have rarely needed to use it myself (thankfully). You did the right thing by emailing the sites themselves to try and remove the links; I've had probably 50/50 luck with that sort of thing.

 

At the end of the day, though, this just reinforces the fact that white hat tactics pay off best in the long run. Even if your clients want some fast/cheap SEO work, explain to them that it'll cost them more down the line to fix it, even if it helps them today.

[Jill]

If nothing else is working for you, definitely try Disavow

 

Completely disagree. Without the unnatural links warning, there's absolutely no reason to disavow any links. 

[qwerty]

If I disavow the spammy links, would this improve my clients listing again on Google? sounds ironic that he will pay me to remove them

"Ironic" is a good word for it. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of a consultant charging a client to perform some service and then charging them again to undo it, even if there was a period of time during which the client benefited from that work. But maybe that's just me.

 

Jill, I've got a hypothetical question. I agree with you that you shouldn't use Google's tool to disavow links when Google hasn't told you that you've got links to disavow. But if you know that you've got spammy links, even if Google hasn't specifically told you that they're causing problems, do you think it's a good idea to make an effort to get those links taken down? Redux has already indicated that he tried to get at least some of the links removed and didn't have any luck, which is what makes this question hypothetical, but I tend to think that getting rid of bad links definitely ought to be one of the things you take care of when you first start to work on a site, and probably ought to be part of the site's regular upkeep.

 

The problem is that such a task has a pretty low success rate, and that's compounded by the fact that in some cases the SEO would be trying to remove links that s/he charged the customer to get in the first place.

[Jill]

But if you know that you've got spammy links, even if Google hasn't specifically told you that they're causing problems, do you think it's a good idea to make an effort to get those links taken down?

 

Personally, I wouldn't. I would assume that Google is already not counting them and therefore they're neither bad nor good. 

 

The problem is that what's considered a bad link is subjective and too many people are throwing out the good with the bad because they just don't know. But even if you know something is really bad, why bother? We all have crazy scraper links which we didn't put there, so we have no reason to get rid of them. And if you did put some there (or someone did on your behalf) you'd want make darn sure they were actually hurting you. 

 

With no unnatural link warning to prompt you, imo, you'd be playing with fire.