Strange new links being picked up in Webmaster tools affecting SERPs
-
Hi,
I have a question regarding new links being found by Google, and showing in our latest links file from Webmaster tools.
I run this site: http://www.propertysales.com it's a fairly new website with a small (ish) link profile but over the last 3 months I've seen a lot of links being found in Google like this: http://www.financecourier.com/news/story/523316/foreign-carmakers-milk-chinas-cash-cow/full_story.html
it's clearly a scrap of a webpage from the FT.com, who we partner with, that has a link to PropertySales.com but the number of links Webmaster tools is seeing is much bigger than we would normally get in any given month.
As a rule I would normally ignore scrapper sites as I’ve always assumed Google is smart enough to know which site these are and thus wouldn't affect your SERPs but I’ve also seen a drop in our SERPs over the same month so now I’m thinking these are effecting the sites SEO.
Does anybody have any insight into this or advice on the best way to handle this, I looking at going through these site and adding them to our disavow file but this can take a few month to take effect so are they any better options or way to handle this?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Rufus
-
Hi Rufus,
If it's a minor drop, then it might just be temporary. Are you still building links to your site now?
Like you, I normally ignore scraper sites. They sometimes give me a lot of good links lol
ill gauge it again after 3 months. If it's effect is questionable, then I end up disavowing them right there if it's a really bad looking site. Some scraper sites are really structurally sound and have unique content so I leave those out.
-
If you've seen a drop in ranking but have no penalty, ideally you would be adding more links, but you're not the first person to talk about noticing this issue, and we had a similar issue on our website. I'd keep an eye on it and when you run across particularly bad instances, ask the webmaster to remove the link. That sometimes works. And when it doesn't, I would consider adding it to a disavow file.
We ignored this issue too long, and got penalized for not doing something about it. So I wouldn't necessarily assume that Google can always tell the difference between bad linking practices, and junk websites linking to your website.
-
Unless Google has issued a warning penalty, they either know about the site and ignore it anyway or have not found these links.
Therefore yes build better content to drive traffic, but I wouldn't worry too much about the problem now you have done the disavow.
Hope that helps
Bruce
-
Hi Rufus,
You are correct that a disavow can take some time to start making a difference, but even so, you need to either continue with this, or contact the poor link sites and ask for links to be removed.
What you can always do, is some positive link-building and outreach to help counter this. I would never really advocate just removing lots of links without doing something positive as well, and this does work well.
You could also look to create a strong internal link strategy to key pages throughout the site. This can often help push specific phrases back up that might have seen a bit of a drop.
Additionally, see if there is some value-added content that can be written for the site to help Google again see that positive measures are being taken.
-Andy
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
-
New article algorithm changes -- links allowed
hey guys, i understand that google has made algorithm changes for article writing in that only one link is allowed now per 500 words. would this include the "author resource" box if you don't place links in the body? any suggestions would be great: Due to the latest changes in Google's algorithms, regarding the proportions between the length of the content to the outbound links, ArticleSlash's requirements are changing effective immediately. • - For articles with up to 500 words, we will allow only one hyperlink • - For Articles up to 900 words - two hyperlinks • - For articles with 900 words and above - three hyperlinks Short articles with many outbound links are running the chance to get into Google's spam filters, which is why we are implementing this change, effective immediately.
Link Building | | tm46150 -
Disavow Link Tool from Bing Webmaster Tools
Okay - anyone else read about the new tool release from Bing especially the disavow tool? Very cool - id love to hear some chatter on what you guys think! Link:
Link Building | | kchandler
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2012/06/27/disavow-links-you-don-t-trust.aspx Here is to hoping Google will follow suit! Cheers - Kyle0 -
Is it a reciprocal Link ?
Hi, I found a great website and tought its content would be extremely interesting for our clients. I wrote about it on my blog (which has an URL with our website URL in it) , Facebook Page and even in Twitter. Meanwhile, I contacted them and offered to write an article about an interesting subject for them. They accepted and liked it so much that they decided to put 2 links for us on two of their pages. My questions are : Will this be a reciprocal link for Google? Did I make a mistake talking about them on my blog ? Did I «devaluate» the links they gave us?
Link Building | | Caru0 -
Any new link building strategies?
What are the latest link building strategies that people are using? Is everyone sticking to the tradional link request and if so- how? or are people focusing on guest blogging?
Link Building | | 2Stroke0 -
Where to link?
Hi I need to gert this page up in the rankings http://www.kerryblu.co.uk/wedding-headbands-70-c.asp but am getting no where fast. When applying for links should I direct them to this page or to the homepage, and let them filter through. Thanks
Link Building | | Yorkie0 -
New Links - Not Found
Hi there mozzers, Got a quick question regarding link building. I built a fsir bit of links, and was just wondering when these links will be indexed as links pointing to my sites? Silly novice question but been over a month and links still arent being picked up, so was just wondering. Stef
Link Building | | stefanok0 -
Will No Follow Links count toward your root domain links for Domain Authority?
I am wondering if no follow links help, hurt, or do nothing when it comes to increasing page and domain authority? I know they are not supposed to pass rank and I have read discussions that some people suspect they still might, but I am wondering if I have a mix of follow plus no follow, will the no follow ones increase the count of the root domains linking to me and help boost my authority? Assuming of course the no follow links are coming from quality sites with high page and domain authority of their own. Thanks.
Link Building | | FastLearner0 -
Best to create a new blog as a subsection or as a new site?
Our company has a blog "feature" or "theme" that we'd like to publish every week at least. Should we create a subsection of our current company blog? Or should we register a new domain specifically for the feature? The latter would allow us to do some linking back to the main website, and would probably be good in terms of future career flexibility / personal branding for whoever writes it. Things to keep in mind? Anyone have any suggestions? Best practices? What should I do?
Link Building | | monetize-2660060