Why have I lost 1/3 of my backlinks (about 5,000) in 3 months?
-
In August, my client's site (I work at a marketing agency) had about 15,000 backlinks. Now they suddenly have about 10,000 backlinks. And their Domain Authority has dropped from 48 to 40!
Can someone please help me understand what could've happened?
At first I assumed this had something to do with the latest Penguin update, since I knew my client's site had some extremely spammy backlinks they hadn't cleaned up yet. (The site was hacked at some point and hidden pages were created as part of some kind of link-building scheme, and there were lots of links from sketchy sites to those pages. The hidden pages have been taken down and the URLs now redirect to my client's home page.) But that would only explain a sudden drop in Domain Authority, right? How could Penguin suddenly cause my client to lose 5,000 backlinks? And if it's not Penguin, what could it be?
Thanks in advance for any insight that anyone can share!
-
It's entirely possible that indexation issues are contributing to what you're seeing, Matt. I'd also suggest reading through this Q&A thread by Rand:
-
Mello Matt,
If it was my site I would seriously consider getting rid of any redirects from old dodgy pages, you could force Google to consider for the content still exists. If it goes to a 404 Google can then see clearly it no longer exists.
But would be interesting on what others have to say on that.I would source my back links mainly from Google search console.
Hope that helps.
-
Hey Matt,
Our site saw a massive up tick in links and then an even larger drop in links from one index to the next. Read this post below from Moz about their last index and about their not-so-great indexing over the last year. That might give you the answer you are looking for.
I can't remember everything in the article, so rather than try to explain it myself, I'll let them do it for me. Hope that helps.
-
Thanks for the response! And thanks for the advice – I'll definitely look into all those steps.
The redirects from the hacked pages are occurring automatically somehow. I guess that must've been set up by the agency that redesigned the client's website last year. They must've specified 301s for certain key pages and had all other old URLs redirect to the home page.
To answer your question, I'm using Moz for backlink analysis. Could their update be the reason I'm seeing such a drop?
BTW – Search Console shows no notifications that would relate to this issue, and no manual penalties...
-
Sorry just a question, where are you getting your back links list from? It's not unknown for tools to be inaccurate.
Another point I forgot to mention, Moz did update their index in the past few days, lots of people have seen a DA drop.
-
Firstly, sounds like you do have a penalty of some sort.
Secondly, I would not have redirected the hacked pages back to the site anywhere, you could give yourself a penalty that way. You could be passing bad authority or worse from anywhere else on the web, completely out of your control.
Thirdly, don't discount the potential of a website problem. Broken script, user damage, another hack etc
1. Do a thorough link cleanup.
2. Consider taking down any pages that are not relevant or earning any value.
3. Check search console for any notifications or manual penalties.
4. Check the website for performance and functionality.
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
-
Backlinks niche specific or high DA?
Hello Moz Community,I have sports niche website. I am in process of link building for my website. One query in my mind. Which backlink is better for increasing my MOZ DA and domain authority in terms of google domain authority.1: Profile backlink of DA50+ website , not belonging to my sports niche.2:DA 10 or DA 20+ link belonging to my sports niche.Which out of these will help gain better MOZ DA.ThanksRakesh
Link Building | | T4FS0 -
How do we identify poor backlink sites
We are often being preached to not get backlinks to dodgy or spammy sites but how do we identify these sites?
Link Building | | dynamyt1000 -
Broken Backlinking
I'm curious for those who have used broken backlinking as a tactic for clients - what % of emails do you normally get results from. For example, if you email 100 webmasters, how many would actually replace the broken link with yours?
Link Building | | ImprezzioMarketing0 -
Video Backlinks
This looks like an interesting idea from Wistia. Anyone have comments or experience with this? http://wistia.com/blog/video-backlinks Best,
Link Building | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher1 -
What is the best backlink? Homepage or specific post?
I am working hard to get backlinks from other blogs by submitting deal tips. I am a deal blog so I am wondering - is it better to get a backlink to a specific post that will expire because it is a time sensitive deal or sale? Or is it better to get a backlink to my homepage? I focus on the best blog with PR of 7 and DA of 72 as well as others that are high up there. In case I am not being clear, which backlink is better? A. www.mysite.com B. www.mysite.com/awesome-sale-of-the-day Sometimes I won't have a choice but just wondering what I should focus on or if it even matters. Thanks!
Link Building | | dealblogger0 -
Adding backlinks in old articles?
I am trying to get a few more links to get a few of my pages to rank and I am thinking about adding some more backlinks on my own site on some of the old blog articles as well as some of my other related blogs. My question is - is it still beneficial to link from these articles that are say 1 year old or more, or would it be far more valuable to write new articles on the blog containing those same links?
Link Building | | bloggingyourpassion0 -
Blogging for backlinks
I have a real estate website. I would like to start blogging on blogs not related to real estate. I like reading web design, html, css, php, word press etc... blogs. I want to start talking to the bloggers using my real name (not keyword anchor text) on their blog. I'd like to have authentic conversations; however, will this confuse google about my site? If I am using my name as anchor text on sites about webdesign and linking back to a real estate website, what will that do to the SEO? It's also important to consider one other detail. I have determined through link building in real estate related fields that it's really hard to find good domains/page rank when compared to the fields above. I could get a dozen great links in 10 minutes on the above subjets AND be legitimately engaging in conversation with my name, not keywords... Does the invention of "author rank" make this more viable?
Link Building | | JML11790 -
Effectiveness of Forum Backlinks: specifically Paul's Backlinks
I know the general consensus is that these kinds of backlinks are of low value, however I'm curious as to anyones present day experience with them and if they are providing any value. More specifically, I am curious if they can do harm. I don't see how they could, as it would be a very easy tactic for an unscrupulous competitor to sabotage another by implementing them for their competitors. I can see possibly losing rank if they were discounted, however if this is the case, then it would only be rank that would not have been gained in the first place, minus those kinds of links. I ask because I have competing websites who have started to outrank me (they have been climbing and improving through each Google algorithm change in the past year), despite the fact that my mosrank and authority are better than every single one of them. But they have a sheer growing volume of backlinks that I can't match (seemingly low value when I look at their link profiles). Plus my domain is older (9 years as opposed to 3-4 years), and my site is clearly better (in terms of aesthetics, usability, content, etc), as well as my link profile being selectively cultivated from truly relevant sites. None the less, they are starting to kill me at this point -and I don't have the luxury of time. So....I was wondering about the wisdom of upping my volume of forum type links, as this is the only area of measurement where I can see my competitors are beating me. I am a believer in true, difficult, quality inbound marketing - however it is not getting the job done. Any thoughts on this?
Link Building | | csblev0