How should I go about cleaning up link spam from an acquired domain?

[smilingbunny]

I recently acquired a domain and the previous owners practiced some very shady link practices. The current backlink profile is flooded with link spam with foreign anchor text, amongst links from spam directories.

What are some good practices to help clean up the backlink profile of this domain so it will not hurt me in the long run?

[AlanMosley]

Are you getting a warnming in GWMT? If not i would not be too concerned, directore will not hurt you, they may not give you any value but not harm you.

Have a look for signs of link farms, such as links on blogs post that dont seem to be natural.

[smilingbunny]

No, but we acquired this domain and 301'd it to our main domain and acquired all of it's link spam in the process. It's made our link profile look like this:

• Foreign Character Spam: 69%
• Natural Links: 7%
• Tag/archive links: 6%
• Other: 6%
• Feeds: 5%
• Affiliate: 4%
• Guest Post: 3%

There's been very minimal cases of link farms, but the link profile is what is worrying me.

[AlanMosley]

Why did you aquire it? for the links?

i cant see why yopu would 301 it to your domain, if not for the links.

[smilingbunny]

It was a two letter domain and we acquired it for branding purposes, not for the links.

[AlanMosley]

OK I see, still i would wait to see if you get a un-natural liink warning in GWMT, if not i would not worry.

[JustinTaylor88]

Hi Rob

Do you mind me asking where you got the link profile breakdown from?

I've been using link detective and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as concise or informative as your list.

thanks

Justin