Is Link Detox program safe to use?

[mblsolutions]

Hi

I have been doing some research today to help a client who has lots of links to their site but they are mainly of low or no value. The links were created by another SEO agency so we are not sure in all cases how the links came about or who to contact to get rid of them.

I have come across link detox http://goo.gl/o2fKl. I wanted to suggest to my client to use this to help them see what links are bad and what should be kept

I have two question's;

Has anyone had any experiences with this program and have found it useful?

Would there be any negative affect of us using this program with reference to my clients website?

Many thanks for your help.

[TomRayner]

Hi Oliver

I've used the tool for a number of websites and I think it's a terrific supplement to backlink research.

It's very simple to use and will list the links to your site by order of how safe they are - safe links, suspicious links and toxic links.  The database size is roughly the same as that of Linkscape, SEOMoz's tool.

The toxic link notifications are great - these are links to the site that come from deindexed domains and URLs.  That's usually a very obvious sign that the site it is coming from has been devalued.

The suspicious links are ranked by varying degrees of "CemperTrust" - the algorithm the tool uses.  Each suspicion ranking comes with a helpful description of the category, for example SUSP5 warnings are links coming from sites where the domain’s Theme is listed as suspicious (Hacking, Suspicious or Pornography).

You need to use your own discretion when deciding if the links are truly poor quality or not, and I would use SEOMoz's PA/DA and Mozrank metrics, as well as MajesticSEO's citation and trust ranks to help achieve this.

But as a starting point, I think it's a terrific tool and you can tweet for a discount, which makes it even more attractive.

Hope this helps

[KyleJack]

Hi Chris,

I have used this program and it is very helpful. It's made by Christoph Cemper (http://www.cemper.com/) a well respected SEO. More than Link Detox's, Link Research Tools can do loads of other cool things and if you have the budget for it I can recommend getting the full package.

There will be no negative effect made to your client's website. All the tool does is crawl the site and return actionable results. In the case of the Link Detox, it will present you a list of "dodgy" backlinks to go through, analyse and remove.

I hope that helps,

K

[mblsolutions]

Hi

That's great thank you both so much for your answers it has given me the confidence to move forward and help my current client and future clients out using these programs.

Thanks again

Have a good day.

[gfiedel]

I have been using Link Detox and have found it to be very helpful in the ways that Tom and Kyle describe. And being a non-SEO doing the SEO job for our company, I also find it to be valuable in educational info there. I think it's great.

One of the features they offer is an appropriate email link to use for link removal requests. Pretty handy! It's still important to do further research and action on the offending site, though. In doing that, I have found some alarming things- like fictitious people/authors who do not exist and are claimed as employees of our company.... And I am finding that in most cases, my requests arent acted upon. (Keep records of requests.) But I have  had at least one good, response with link removal.

[AlanMosley]

I would think that you should be able to decide yourself  if a link is of value or not. Getting a list may seem easy, but you would still need to view each one before removing if you can.

[mblsolutions]

Hi Gina

Thank you for the extra information that you have provided, I have gone with Cemper for the moment as they have a free online trial. The link removal request tool sounds really handy as well. I'll pass that all onto my clients and let them make up their mind as to which one is right for them. Thank you for your help.

Hi Alan

Thank you for your feedback, yes you are right I can look at a website and see whether we would want to be linked to it or not. And yes its a good point that all of the links would need checking before doing anything with them.

I was looking for the tool to help with clients who don't have any SEO experience and are wanting to keep costs down to help clear up bad links that are currently pointing at their websites that other company's have set up for them. I wanted to be able to give them confidence to be able to use tool's that were simple and effective to use that would help them make choices that were right for them. Thank you for your feedback about double checking the links I will add that into the mix with the advice from Tom, Kyle and Gina and pass it all on. Thank you for your help.