When to re-submit for reconsideration?

[TheCraig]

Hi!  We received a manual penalty notice.  We had an SEO company a couple of years ago build some links for us on blogs.  Currently we have only about 95 of these links which are pretty easily identifiable by the anchor text used and the blogs or directories they originate from.

So far, we have seen about 35 of those removed and have made 2 contacts to each one via removeem.com.

So, how many contacts do you think need to be made before submitting a reconsideration request?  Is 2 enough?

Also, should we use the disavow tool on these remaining 65 links?  Every one of the remaining links is from either a filipino blog page or a random article directory.

Finally, do you think we are still getting juice from these links?  i.e. if we do remove or disavow these anchor text links are we actually going to see a negative impact?

Thanks for your help and answers!!

Craig

[KarlBantleman]

First, I think you're lucky that you only have 60 links outstanding, we recently took a client that had over 5000 bad links!!

If you have emailed or tried to contact the remaining websites then I'd say its time to turn to the disavow tool. Be really careful though when using it because you have to be 100% sure that these are bad links before disavowing them. Once you have submitted the disavow file (which can take a week or 2 to filter through to Google) you will get a message in Webmaster Tools to tell you they have received it.

I'd say at this point, resubmit  for reconsideration. If you have evidence that you tried to contact these websites then include that in your request because Google wants to see that you have made an effort to get them removed first.

If the links are as bad as you say then they are probably doing more bad than good so don't worry about the link juice they are passing.

[TheCraig]

Yikes on the 5000 bad links!  Yes, we are lucky.  However,  I am a little concerned that Google thinks we have more bad links than we do and is considering our organic links as paid or something.  See (http://www.seomoz.org/q/to-remove-or-not-to-remove)

Here I will give you a few examples of the sites that are linking to us and can say that pretty much all of the sites that we have set apart as bad links are similar to these.  These are the only links that were paid via this SEO company.  These seem like obvious sites for the disavow tool, but just want to be sure.  I am heard so many cautionary comments on the disavow tool, that I wonder if we should use it at all.

http://www.onlinewebdir.com/

http://www.articlesdata.com/

http://seenation.com/

http://www.sackthetickettax.com/

http://www.cowboysandangels.info/

http://www.businessdesmoines.com/

http://www.vespertinecrawl.com/

If any of these seem like sites we would want to keep links from, please let me know.  Or, if they all seem like links we would definitely want to disavow, let me know as well.

Thanks for your help and quick answer!

Craig

[EvolveCreative]

You're lucky you got a manual penalty and not an algorithmic one. When you get a manual penalty you get to use the disavow tool, say your sorry, and come back. Don't hesitate to use the disavow tool since you got the manual letter.

[TheCraig]

Thanks Dave.  Would you agree that the links above are the types of sites we need to be removing and shouldn't hurt us if we remove them or disavow them?

Here are a few more examples:

http://linkssolutions.org
http://alcoosite.org
http://dbindex.info
http://xyzdirectory.info
http://topdirlisting.com
http://freearticlesinc.com
http://seenation.com
http://articlerich.com
http://ipunjab.com

The blog posts I know need to go.  It is the article and directory sites that I am a little unsure of.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Craig

[EvolveCreative]

I can't answer that accurately without knowing A) What page on the sites you linked link back to your site site. B) What your website is about (theme, category etc.).

[TheCraig]

Hi Dave,

Would you mind if I PM you a few of these examples?

Thanks!

Craig

[EvolveCreative]

sure or e-mail me davec@evolvecreativegroup.com