Backlinks that we didnt place, killing our SERP rank and PR

[MFC]

I am in need of advice regarding back links that we did not place, and which are hurting our search engine results. How and why they got there I cannot explain.But they have appeared recently, and are damaging our SERP ranks.

For several years, I have been a member with SEOmoz, and we have done our search engine optimization in house. I am the owner of a personal injury law firm, which is a competitive field in search engine optimization.

Recently, in the spring, we updated our website, added significant content (over 100 additional pages), we set up a better site structure, and we completed a significant back link campaign from white hat sources. As a result, we were the strongest law firm in search engine results in the state of Arizona,   and the page rank from our home page went from a 4 to 6, and from our next highest level of pages, they went from a 3 to 6. This happened in 10 week period. Our search engine results were fantastic.

We were getting a significant amount of business from out Places page and our Organic results. That has almost completely dried up.

Approximately 6-8 weeks later, we started having some serious problems. Specifically, our search engine results decreased significantly, our page rank reduced from a six to a four. So we started using SEOmoz tools to see what the problem was, and when we created an open site Explorer report, there are approximately 1000 different links from very shady websites they are now linking to our home page.  Some of these linking URLs prompt a download to video and other files. Other of the linking are simple on junk sites.

Obviously, some other person placed these links. First and foremost I am interested in maintaining the integrity of our site, and if there were a way to remove these links, and protect against that in the future, that is what I want. Secondly, if there were a way to find out who did this, I would like to know that also.

What options and/or actions should be taken. I am thinking that I may need to employ a professional/consultant. Will I have to transfer content to another domain?

Your thought and help are appreciated.

Thanks,

[EGOL]

Most websites that become highly ranked in their niche accumulate a lot of links from spammy domains.  My sites have lots of them too.  I didn't place them, I can't control them and I don't worry about them.

There are many factors in your question that could relate to your rankings drop.... 1) site was updated, 2) big backlink campaign, 3) added lots of content, 4) one thousand spammy links.  Any one of them could be the cause of this drop.

The updated site might have a crawl, indexing or some other problem.... the backlinks you acquired might not be as good as you think.... the content that you uploaded might be duplicated elsewhere or have been spun for other sites... and those spammy links could be the problem.

If you are confident about your updated site, the quality of the backlinks and the uniqueness of your content then my bet would be placed here..... that the 1000 spammy links that were quickly acquired actually helped your rankings temporarily and then were devalued.

If you have any doubts that you can't answer yourself about the first three factors you might get a pro to look at them carefully for you.

[RyanKent]

we completed a significant back link campaign from white hat sources.

when we created an open site Explorer report, there are approximately 1000 different links from very shady websites they are now linking to our home page.

I hate to state the obvious but it seems most likely the links you gained where not from white hat sources.

Without being able to view your site and the links involved, a likely guess is that your site received paid links which have been devalued.

The first step I would recommend is signing in to Google WMT and submitting a request to determine whether your site is under a penalty. If your site is under a penalty, perform whatever cleanup is necessary to remove the penalty.

If your site is not under a penalty, it is likely those 1000 links from questionable sites gave you a boost, and those links have been devalued which has negatively impacted your overall stats and rankings.

I recognize your site is for a law firm so feel to correct me if you feel I am in error. My understanding is anyone can legally create a link to your site. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. You can track down each site and request them to remove the link. Keep in mind OSE only shows approximately the top 25% of links on the internet. There may be many other links which you are not seeing. Another helpful tool is Google WMT which may display more links.

These "bad" links should not hurt you in any way unless they are paid links and you receive a penalty for buying links. Otherwise they are outside of your control.

I would recommend contacting whomever you used for your link building campaign. Another tool is to take a look at who else these sites have built links for. Can you determine if all of Agency X's clients (or whomever built your backlinks) receives similar links?

[firstconversion]

Ive seen spammers build links to pages they have placed UGC links on, to boost the value of the links they are getting from your site. Any way they are getting links (even no follow) off your homepage?

BTW I and a mates sites have had exactly the same TBPR increase and then big decrease over about the last month. Nothing seems to have changed in traffic tho

[MFC]

We did not acquire the 1000 spammy links, Our backlink campaign was done in house and was painstaking to ensure that they were white hat. Our additional content was 100% original written by us.

The 1000+ links are not only spammy, they prompt downloads of various types of files. we did not place these.

believe me, i am not a conspiracy theorist, but It appears that our site was sabotage with harmful links that we did not place, but obviously someone did with the intent to harm our site

I dont know what part of the county you are in, but I imagine where ever it is, like here, attorney advertising in omnipresent. We were by far the dominant Personal Injury law firm in organic results and also Google places listing results. Probably 50% or our business came from online searches -- which we don't have costs for anything like TV, Radio, outdoor advertising,

I agree that at this point we need a pro to look at it. I want someone who can do forensic type analysis, to find the unwanted and harmful links that we did not place, and have those blocked or removed, and possibly traced,

where should I look to find a reputable pro that can help us

[MFC]

Ryan,  we did not place those links. We went to great lengths to get while hat links.

These 1000+ spammy harmful links (many of which prompt downloads of various files) appeared without our involvement. We did not hand off any link building to anyone. We do it in house based on the techniques  we learned on SEOmoz videos and learning materials,

The big issue is as you tracking down and having those links removed. I am looking for either the process of how to do that, or preferably hiring a pro, but dont know where to look for a reputable one

[EGOL]

You seem to be focused on those spammy links and I can understand that.  They are disturbing.  However, before I would blame them for the problem I would want answers to these....

1. is there any problem with the update of your site... were there URL changes, dynamic content assembly, java links in your persistent navigation?

2. the new content that you produced... has it been grabbed by others and posted on their sites... Search for unique sentences in quotes

3. the whitehat links that you obtained... did you have to give any links back to obtain them... are they paid or links that could have been devalued?

For me the spammy links rate my attention only after the potential problems above are ruled out.  Lots of sites have these types of links.  They are ubiquitous on the web and the sites that hold them usually do not persist for a long time.  I believe that duplicate content, linking back to other domains and design problems are more common causes of damage to rankings.

Also, consider that both Ryan and I suggest that the spammy links or the white hat links could have been helping for a short period of time before being devalued.

As for finding an available SEO, I would look for generous and competent contributors here and ask if they are available.

[RyanKent]

Since you did your link building inhouse, let's rule that out as a factor. The next step would be to follow on EGOL's suggestion to investigate your site for any other issues or recent changes.

[Micke]

I am wondering if your site got penalized because of your backlink campaign.

If you normally don't acquire links during a large span of your business, but suddenly start a large scale backlink campaign, even if it is 'whitehat',  Google might get suspicious for the jump of links during the short span.

It would be much better to have a gradual addition of links.

[KeriMorgret]

Just wanted to let you know that the links that are prompting a download are a bug in OSE and not real links. Check out the post by a Linkscape engineer at http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-are-our-competitors-getting-these-inbound-linking-domains. So sorry for not catching this thread earlier, hope it helps explain some of the problems.