Odd Link Removal Request
-
Unless I'm missing something, having gotten into trouble... the company in question is not doing a great job at link removal.
Here's an email my client received:
Hi Webmaster,
I work for xxxxxxxxxxx and our site has recently been penalized by Google for an unnatural link profile that violates Google's Quality Guidelines. As part of an effort to get back in their graces, we are removing all links to our website so we can start fresh.
We are making changes to our site to build better content for our audience. I am contacting people who have linked to us in the past to remove any doubt that Google views the link or anchor text as overoptimzed or unnatural.
Therefore, I am respectfully requesting that you remove all links to our site on xxxxxxxxxxx including:
xxxxxxx That says xxxxxxxxxx and goes to xxxxxxxx.
I appreciate your past efforts to link to our content, and I am excited to launch our improved content very soon. We understand that this request takes time and effort, but we would sincerely appreciate your help.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. If you could be so kind as to respond that you have removed the link, it would really help out with my efforts. Thank you in advance!
Best Wishes,xxxxxx
All the details and URLS in the email were wrong. After much back and forth, we tracked down a single link from an infographic -- which I removed.
But is removing all links really the best strategy? Does it ever make sense?
-
We also lightly speculated it could be a competitor falsely claiming to be them and is trying to sabotage their link profile!
-
If they meant it - its probably due to them being frustrated with the reconsideration request. I went through the same thing before until i disavowed everything and the site was released from the penalty. So yeah, a lazy mistake on my part back then but i learned from it, and i wouldnt know any better if i didnt do it
-
I considered this possibility, but given the incompetence of the request (wrong URLs) and the some quick Google research on the person who sent the request (novelist/copywriter)....
...my guess is that sheer incompetence is a more likely explanation.
Looks like the company in question hired the wrong SEO....
...and then hired the wrong person to try to mitigate the damage.
-
Maybe they are telling the webmaster that they are removing "ALL" of their links instead of just the stinky links - like the one on his site.
I bet that is it.
-
Yeah they are absolutely confused, but good on you for taking time out of your busy schedule to try to help out somebody with a Google penalty! This person is clearly a bit misinformed, but it still makes me happy to know that webmasters like you exist!
That said, please don't let your friends send messed up link removal requests like these with incorrect URLs and such. That will just make it harder for all of us in the future. And that is my Public Service Announcement for the day.
-
Myself and Bill Slawski were having a conversation about this on Twitter just yesterday.
It strikes me as laziness - they don't want to navigate through the link profile to identify a good link or a bad link and have just gone "sod it - ask everyone to remove and then we'll disavow if they don't".
Yeah, will probably remove the penalty, but it would also put you so far behind SEO wise. Just laziness if you ask me.
I also don't see why they don't start on a fresh domain if they're doing this, unless they're really attached to their current domain and/or brand.
-
Removing all links is definitely not the way to go but many people are still unsure what constitutes to a good and bad link. That company have gone about it the wrong way though!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Link Exchange
Is link exchange always bad? What if I want to add a link for other related products on my site which I do not offer, and the other site does the same for me? Will it be better to rather an article for each other product and link to somebody, than have one page with a list of other products to other sites. For example. We do training. Lets say we offer computer training. We search companies that does health and safety training offer to put their course on our site with a link to them, if they do the same.
Link Building | | Heinwest0 -
Link Building
I'm having difficulty creating a solid link base. I would prefer to only have links that are on relevant sites that are likely to drive traffic rather then just adding my company page to site directories. I've checked out the whiteboard Friday edition of link building and have also used the new Moz analytics that helps recommend sites to link to, but all the recommendations were directories. So, could anyone hold my hand and guide me through the world of Link building? Your help, as always, is much appreciated. Thanks everyone Dave
Link Building | | david.smith.segarra0 -
Removing a link to a 404 page
Hi guys, If I found a low quality or spam link pointing to my site, but the link points to a 404, 500, etc (inaccessible, error page), Should I bother asking him to remove the link? Thanks
Link Building | | WizardOfMoz0 -
Link removel
When removing links should I be worried about bad links from websites that have already been deindexd from Google or should I think that since it is not in these index any more it cant do harm?
Link Building | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
Does a hashtag link pass the same amount of link juice as a link without a hashtag?
Example 1: link to: http://www.domain.com/#something-inside-the-page Example 2: link to: http://www.domain.com/
Link Building | | adriandg0 -
How many nofollow links should we build to have a natural link profile
Hi guys, As with many link builders we have been building lots of dofollow links for our site, so many that mainly our incoming links are dofollow. Some pages have 99.5% dofollow external links which I know is not very natural. In your experience in terms of percentage how much should you have in terms of nofollow external links in your link profile. I noticed SEOMoz has about 12-13% nofollow external links, shall I go with this figure? Thanks guys. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
How might Google differentiate between an artificial link exchange and partners linking to each other?
Hi, All! Artificial link exchanges (contacting a vaguely connected site and requesting to exchange links to increase your PR) is, as far as I know, considered an outdated, not-so-smart technique, as Google might devalue them. Yet, for real business partners to exchange links seems to be an entirely accepted and encouraged technique. While that would be intuitive to a human who's viewing the pages. how might Google detect when two sites that link to each other are linking because they are trusted business associates (valuable) as opposed to when they are doing a link exchange (devalued)? Thanks! Aviva
Link Building | | debi_zyx0 -
Link Location: In main page or inner "Link" page?
My question is what´s best of Link Building: have it in main page or in internal Link Pages. I have the problem that have to reduce the number of outgoing links in my mainpage to rank better, but do not want to miss any linkjuice. How Linking in Main Page or Internal Pages affects SERP for your website? And should they be Follow or not Follow? Thanks in advance Maria Jesus
Link Building | | goperformancelabs0