Bad Backlinks

[exoticpublishing]

So I know that after the Penguin fiasco, G has decided to be s.t.upid & tell everyone that THEY have to police all their backlinks.

Of course this makes NO logical sense at all to me, b/c how can a person/biz know where ALL people put the URL to their site? You can't control what other people online do? That's just NUTS IMO.

I heard the following from several people & I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is, I'm PISSED.

1. Even if I put my link here in a thread to show you something, that's considered a BAD backlink b/c SP has nothing to do with my industry. That means every time I've posted on a forum I'm being penalized.

I have to assume, but don't know if putting the URLs in my signature is also considered BAD.

What if I put my link in a classified site like CL? Is THAT considered bad too b/c I am not part of the classified industry???

What if an industry that has nothing to do with mine but is complementary posts my URL on their site? They should be ALLOWED.

Just FUed IMO.

2. I traded links with many sites within my industry & a few similar industries all last year & the year before. I never checked to see if their site was considered bad or good, I just traded.

Now I've learned that if THAT site is considered bad, that I'm going to be penalized.

The amount of work it will take to contact everyone & TRY to get the links removed is enormous, & what if they don't respond or comply? Then what is a company supposed to do?

Again, this makes NO logical sense to me at all & IMO & I feel this new rule is very dangerous. While I understand they wanted to get rid of the link farming angle, obviously there's a HUGE difference between my links being on a farm (which they shouldn't be as I didn't put them there) & them being on a site that I don't own or have control over, but is part of my industry.

Of course this means competitors can now bring down their competition by placing their competition's sites on link farms or bad sites. Anyone who wants to hurt others (there are hundreds of mean spirited people online) can now do so.

So my question is, what steps do I need to take to figure out if a site that has my link on it is considered bad by G's standards?

What have you guys done to solve this problem?

Thanks & sorry for the rant, but I'm still pissed.


Michelle

[bhartzer]

Michelle, I totally understand your frustration. Google has not (and will not) explain to us the difference between what the consider a "bad backlink" and a "good backlink". They may give us some general "concepts" but each link and each web site is unique--so one link may be good for one site and bad for another. Then there are just links that are placed on untrusted, bad, spammy web sites.

All I can say is that the more link building/link earning that you do, the more experienced you become--and you'll be able to spot certain "bad backlinks" a mile away.

[exoticpublishing]

What a nice response compared to the attack I got from another SEO forum. Thank you.

Look what I came across today in my inbox LOL http://webmarketingtoday.com/article...rove-rankings/

At least that will give me a start in the right direction.

Take care


Michelle

[jabier]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your reply and explanation.

I have same experience with Michelle, and I stil don't know how to remove my links from untrusted/spammy sites. Instead of manual operation (send emails, etc), do you have another tips for this issue?


Regards,

[Cole001]

Hey Michelle,
i am not expert & i might be wrong... but i have read somewhere that "Let Webmaster Report Bad Incoming Links" by seround table. Use Disavow from your webmaster tool to stop bad links for bing. For google we have to put in reconsidration & takes too much time.

Thanks,

[bhartzer]

Michelle, Cole001 is right, there is a "disavow links" tool in Bing Webmaster Tools that you can use to tell Bing.com about the bad backlinks to your web site.

Google is promising that this tool is coming at some point to Google Webmaster Tools, but it is not here yet. The best thing you can do is analyze your backlinks and start keeping track of the links that are from off-topic sites. Submit those bad backlinks to Bing Webmaster Tools and keep your list for Google.

In the past, I did notice a lot of bad backlinks (with horrible off-topic anchor text) pointing to a site, and it looked like sabotage from a competitor. I made a list of those URLs and sent a reconsideration request to Google via their Google Webmaster Tools. It just made me feel better that I notified Google about those links.

The list of 12 Characteristics of Poor-Quality Sites is a good list--just keep in mind that every web site is different, and you'll really have to manually review each site to determine if it truly is a bad backlink to your web site.

Also, keep in mind that all web sites have links that they're not proud of and all sites will get links from other sites naturally that you cannot control. So, if the links to your site are "too clean" that might throw up a red flag.

You also have to consider how long it takes to remove the links.Some people are set up (like myself) to identify and contact site owners without a lot of effort and are really efficient at removing bad backlinks. For others, it would take a lot more time.

Is your time better spent building new links to your site or chasing the bad ones? I would rather chase after new links then police all the bad links to my site.

[bhartzer]

Instead of manual operation (send emails, etc), do you have another tips for this issue?

Good question, jabier.

There is software out there such as IBP (Internet Business Promoter) that will help you automate some of this process, such as importing a list of links, visiting all the pages to see if you link actually exists, and then getting the site owner's contact information. You still need to manually contact every site owner, and that just takes time.