I knew better, but did it anyway. Should I keep these backlinks?
-
Out of desperation (lack of time and knowing we were way behind competitors on backlinks) - I went to Fivvr and ordered 50 "high quality" backlinks. I know there are no shortcuts, but this weak little voice push through and said, "Just maybe...it's so cheap, what's the harm?" Well, I should have listened to the rationale voice which is typically so much more assertive! What to do now?
*Note - I haven't had time to review them all, but at 1st glance, it appears they are off-topic, spammy blog comments - snapshot of links: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9d23c93o1ryrhv1/Screenshot 2016-09-21 11.49.26.png?dl=0
- Check each page to see if the rank suggested is correct and leave links with legit high page rank?
- They are all garbage, try to remove them immediately - is this even possible?
- Watch to see if rank is positively or negatively affected, then go about taking them down if needed?
Other suggestions? (Besides don't do that again, stupid.)
-
Oleg is right, you should disavow them. Google won't know (most likely) that you did them--unless your social media ID is tied to them. But, nonetheless, I would disavow them.
If those links are only a small percentage of your overall links (less than 1 percent of total links) then you probably won't see any changes, and they will probably not hurt your rankings. But, if they're a large percentage of your links, then you might want to get them removed completely.
-
Thank you all. Please do not think that I am not completely ashamed. Will follow advice to disavow. Punishment served in time lost... that probably could have been used EARNING 10 real quality links.
-
Oleg and Andrew beat me to it. But I would also recommend disavowing them to protect your site. Other option before going to the disavow tool, is to reach out to the sites and ask them to remove the links.
Hope that helps!
-
Google clearly states that buying backlinks breaches their guidelines and you are at very high risk for penalization. For $5 you are guaranteed to have got yourself a package of automated craplinks and you have made a pretty good case for deserving penalization. You can save yourself by disavowing the links.
Here is Google's guide for disavowing backlinks:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=enAnd here is a guide for using the disavow tool:
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/guide-to-googles-disavow-tool -
I highly doubt you can remove them - best case disavow them.
At this point, if you are willing to roll the dice, see what kind of effect the links will have on your rankings. Understand that those links are textbook spammy and should be treated negatively (they are irrelevant to your website, have lots of spammy outgoing links) but Google makes mistakes.
It is probably a matter of time before those links will be considered negative/poor and likely to hurt you down the line. However, it could be months/years before that happens.
If you are already ranking well some some terms and are scared of losing rankings, i'd disavow them now.
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
-
Does a domain that has migrated or expired that points to my site affect my backlink profile.
I'm new to backlink auditing and I'm certain that the website in question is a link directory anyway. It's spam score isn't high, so in theory it looks okay but in actual fact the webhosting has expired. How badly do these types of broken inbound links affect my site?
Link Building | | Omar_aw0 -
Is there such a thing as buying white hat backlinks? (example)
Hi, would you guys recommend using a backlink service like this? https://www.peopleperhour.com/hourlie/gain-30-links-from-30-top-newspaper-sites-in-the-uk/396519Or is this the kind of thing that leads to being penalised?Over the years, I've always been told this is black hat and dodgy. Is that always the case?
Link Building | | landport0 -
Is it better to have backlinks from domains with medium DA, UR, using same language and good relevancy, or backlinks from domains with high DA, UR but using another language and with less relevancy?
Dear all, while I understand that quality backlinks with high DA, UR, same-language and relevancy would be best, would backlinks with high DA, UR but less relevancy and using languages other than the one used in my website be something good? Or would they do more harm than anything else and still be outcompeted by backlinks with lower DA, UR but same language and/or more relevancy? Thank you Frank
Link Building | | Frank_Smith0 -
Google.com showing as backlink provider in Webmaster Tools?
Hi Everyone 🙂 Looking in the 'Links to your site' section of webmaster tools today and my top backlinking domain is google.com which is apparently giving me 113 links. The second top referring site is googleapis.com which apparently isn't even a site when I type it into my browser? Does anyone else get Google.com as a site linking to them? and why would Google be linking to us, where would these links be coming from? Any info appreciated 🙂 Regards
Link Building | | O2C0 -
Is there any BAD SEO implications to acquiring backlinks from customers?
What would be the negative aspects to sending customer's requests for a backlink in conjunction with asking how their experience with us was? Backlinks are one of the toughest for our niche industry to acquire and this seems like one of the best angles to cover, since we have .edu , .mil , .gov , and many bigname companies making purchases from us. Would if be wrong to offer a small 5% discount during their next purchase if they create a backlink with us? Or if we added a " Customer's we've served " section including their logo or text link? Thank you! I hope you're all having an awesome day / week / month!
Link Building | | Deacyde1 -
Backlink Disavow strategy
Hi, I would like to know what are the things to check when Disavow backlinks? Should we disavow all the low PR and DA backlinks ex: disavow all the backlinks under 4PR? Thanks alot !
Link Building | | bigrat950 -
Handmadearea.com - anyone know what this is? Bizarre backlinks!
I have noticed just this week a lot of new backlinks from a site called handmadearea.com - for example http://handmadearea.com/url/hp-printer-software-zpe-center/. It looks like the site is somehow stripping my content structure and inserting spam where my content goes. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Should I be worried about it? The backlinks are not showing in Google Webmaster Tools so I can't easily disavow them at this point. Are they likely to be doing me harm? What can I do about them?
Link Building | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
Article Backlinks To Product Pages
I am writing a number of 500 word articles and have read that Top 10 lists are becoming more and more popular on the web. So my thoughts are to write an article about the the 'Top 10 Mens Grooming Products 2013' for example. My questions is - do I post this article on my own website with the 10 links to the product pages using the product name as 'anchor text', or post the article to somewhere like Squidoo containing the links to my product pages. Which strategy has more SEO value?
Link Building | | Ubique0