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Hi Chris, If you are seeing an impact, then start to disavow and do this monthly just to keep on top of it. However, chances are that Google would recognise these for what they are and just ignore them. Due diligence would sway me towards disavow though. -Andy

Hi Amit, To echo what Nathan has asked, if you could provide more information on what you mean by bad links, that would be helpful and we can provide a better answer. In terms of generating more comments, it really comes down to two things: 1. Writing the kind of content which provokes questions and conversation - this comes down to your writing style and ability to write well. This isn't easy to get right straight away and can take time, but ultimately matters the most because if your content isn't engaging, people will be less likely to comment. You could also leave the post a bit open-ended and ask reader to contribute their opinions. If you look at some of Rand's whiteboard Fridays, such as this one, you'll see he leaves a comment first to provoke conversation. 2. Your audience and the size of the audience - many people will often read and enjoy a blog post, but may not feel compelled to comment. This is just how many people are, so to get more comments, you need to build up your audience and increase the number of people reading your content. There is no shortcut to this either, but comes down to building up good SEO, social followings and content. I hope that helps! Paddy

Hi, No, there is no good reason to do this. For linking purposes, this will do absolutely nothing for you. Sitewide and Footer links are mostly just ignored or devalued by Google, but could end up with you looking spammy. Rand actually did a Whiteboard Friday about this very subject last year. https://moz.com/blog/links-headers-footers-navigation-impact-seo -Andy

Hi there, Thanks for the question. I wouldn't worry as much about DA/PA as I would the relevance and "human" quality of a link. DA can be a great indicator of the authority of a domain, but remember that it's just one metric. If you are working through large lists of links, then filtering from highest DA to lowest can help you prioritise, but I wouldn't necessarily rule out links below a certain number. Hope that helps! Paddy

I have heard many people say "Never pay for a link". I only pay for those directories if it gets me a backlink. My rule is that if it's under 10 bucks, I'll do it. My dentists pay me good money every month and a $10 one time fee isn't going to break the bank especially if it gets you a lifetime backlink.

You are welcome Ed Challinor

Its actually Magento, so htaccess should be where the http --> https redirect resides, but there's nothing there.

That is what I did so I guess I am good. Now, I just need to create nice blog pages that satisfy the user  and link to the correct pages so that the content between the 2 pages I link benefits the pages. Thank you,

In addition to Brooks' suggestions, I recommend http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies Good luck!

Hi Maxwell! Great insight -- One question: Is there any benefit in aggregating/cleaning up outbound links on your site? Recently, I have discovered that Moz recommended 'cleaning up' outbound links on one of my sites in my campaigns. I wasn't aware there was a way to do this. Do you have any insight? Perhaps there is an FAQ on Moz even?

Thanks for your thoughtful response.  As you point out, there are many different business models, and what might be best "general" practice, might not quite fit every model. Moz Q&A is great for this type of discussion.

Hi there, Gaston's reply below is very helpful so I don't have too much to add apart from a couple of points. Personally, I think I'd disavow these links a bit at a time - perhaps submit a few of them to start off with and make sure there are no negative effects, then add more over time. Right now, no one really knows how Google handles disavow because on one hand, Google say they handle things automatically, but on the other hand they still provide the tool for us to use... 1. If you don't disavow now, just make sure you keep a note of all of these kinds of links (and watch for new ones in the future) and if you do experience any penalty problems, you have a list ready to go to submit. 2. If you do disavow now, take your time to get the list right and make sure you only disavow links which are purely manipulative and / or look spammy. If you haven't seen any traffic or penalty problems, you want to be extra careful when using disavow. At the same time, if links are clearly spammy, they're unlikely to help long-term anyway, so disavowing them may not hurt at all. I hope that helps! Paddy

Hi there, As others have said, submitting to good quality directories is fine and won't cause you any problems. Try to focus on ones which have value to your business such as good local coverage or are focused on your particular niche/industry. Also put plenty of effort into the listing itself to provide as much info as possible to make your listing good quality. Hope that helps! Paddy

That was helpful. Thanks Tim! Since it's ow.ly links though, do you know if it's possible for these backlinks to come directly from social media?

Hi Ruchy, I think Google will understand these legitimate scenarios but cannot be guaranteed all the times. We have more than 30 partners. We have given all of them "nofollow" from our website and they link back to us with followed links. Our DA is high and all of them have low DA. This is been happening for years where partners get deleted and new ones will add up. We never experienced any algo or manual penalties. If both pages have relative context in terms of content, the link must be legit. Thanks

Hi Ruchy, I am not following as to why you want to add the nodollow. If you are doing business with him and there is no money in exchange, then there is no reason to nofollow. If there is money changing hands in any way, add a nofollow. If there is not, there is no reason to add one. Have a great day!

Yep, they are not patient. They need to consider that they are arriving at the battle 5, 10, 15 or 20 years late.  Existing websites have been working all of that time and Google will not push them aside in favor of a noob who has invested very little in comparison. If they want to see results they need to invest enough to become competitive.   It's no different than me deciding that I am going to challenge Anthony Joshua and expect to step into the ring with him after three months of work.

Hello Ryan, how did you find these spammy sites? with Moz? did you disavow the pages, subdomain or full domains? Be careful with this and don't disavow high quality links! To answer your question: Yes, after disavowing some links, those links will still appear on your Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, etc reports. This is normal. My recommendation: Try to contact those sites and delete the links manually (then YES, they will completely disappear from your reports) If you can't get those sites deleted manually, then DISAVOW them using Google Disavow but pay special attention in disavowing only the necessary links. OPTIONAL: This is my personal recommendation: after using Moz, in order to double-check spammy sites try Linkresearchtools.com detox utility. In my opinion, they have the best detox tool in the market (but quite expensive) Thanks and good luck! Roberto

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