HELP - got the following message - Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links

[BeytzNet]

Hi All,

While trying to grow we used several freelancers and small companies for guest blogging, article submissions etc.

We lost about 90% of traffic from our peek at December.

We don't know if it is related but we got the following message last week:
"Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to www.domain.com"

Is it related (getting this message after two months of losing traffic)?

What to do????

(P.S
We fired most of the companies we used months ago since we noticed they used bad methods. We didn't believe it can hurt us - just thought it would be useless...)

Please Help...

[CaseyKluver]

Hi!

It may very well be a direct correlation of your previously mentioned link building methods. You mentioned guest blogging - this is one of the best ways to build links if done to reputable sites, so that might not be the cause..

Could you go into more detail on some of the other techniques they used? How many links, how long of a period they were build, and perhaps a live example of something they did? We should be able to tell based off of that info.

Thanks,

Casey

[AlanMosley]

Bingo!!

I think it certainly is, but sorry i have no idea how to go about fixing this as you cant just remove them.

To be honest, it is a good thing for those that had to compete with you honestly.

I cant be too harsh on you, as they temptation to get easy links is great, but so are the risks.

You could try asking for reconsideration, if you are flagged, but there is no way Goolge is going to give you your link juice back.

[mypctechs]

I have seen this particular warning on a website with over 9,000 inbound links and 2,000 inbound linking domains. When going through various link reports what I noticed were a lot of SPAM sites pointing to the website that the owner had no control over.

Here's my take - I think this is just a warning and certainly nothing to lose a ton of sleep over. Google must certainly know that there's no way you or I can be in complete control of inbound links. If Google worked that way it would be all too easy to crush your competition. If a competitor gets pissed that you just took them over on Page1, Rank 1 what's to stop them from loading up black hat SEO tools and going to town on your domain?

My advice is to continue building ethical links that conform to Google's guidelines. If you are already doing this, there's no way you can control the other links in most cases so ignore the warning. I think Google just wants you to be aware of it so that if you ARE building the bad links yourself you stop doing it and wasting time/money on it.

[BeytzNet]

The thing is that we didn't hire "professionals" until we were very highly ranked and were "busy" of work and had to outsource it. We tried several companies and freelancers and within a couple of months stayed only with the best one but it seems that the damage was done.

I always thought that what they did can't hurt me but rather won't do any good.

Otherwise, what prevents me from hire these guys to "promote" my competitors?
Who knows, maybe someone did it to me?

Do you know what is the proper way to ask for reconsideration?

Thanks

[AlanMosley]

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/requesting-reconsideration-using-google.html

I did see a interview with a google staffer, who said thet they have never come accross a case when a compeditor had did such a thing, but most claim it so.

I would assume it ws one of the people you hired.

[Carson-Ward]

Hi there,

A lot of people have been receiving these warnings for blog network use and other low-quality/paid links. I wrote about it on the blog recently. My advice is to do your best to remove the links that are clearly low-quality - Google is telling you directly to clean things up, and may hit you with a penalty if things don't get better.