Fastest Way To Remove Footer Link? (post-Panda)

[Shawn124]

Hello,

I have a website with 1k+ links pointed directly to an inner page and home page from blogspot domains. There are 3 links in the footer that points to different locations.

1st anchor text points to the person who designed the page template and links to their website (this doesn't affect us)

2nd anchor text uses a direct keyword that I am trying to rank for and links to the inner page.

3rd anchor text uses my website name and links to the home page

I know that these are not good links and the content inside the pages are irrelevant to my own website. The links are embedded into the template on the footer and is site wide.I have already contacted the designer and have the links removed but those that have downloaded the templates still have the footer link.

What would be the best way to remove all these footer links? Trying to contact each individual person who is using the template is not working out as most have not responded and some of the websites have not seen an update in years! Any thoughts?

If you need additional information feel free to send me a direct message so I can send you an exact link.

[Saijo.George]

You could try and exact match query search ( using " ) and try individually contacting all parties , if that does not sound like a feasible option you might want to consider using the link disavow tool

[toddmumford]

If the inner page only has these links pointed at it, and a considerable number, you might consider recreating the page with a new url, manually outreaching to webmasters to re-point natural, editorial links.

It's difficult to shake these types of links, and so far disavow, at face value, doesn't seem to be the answer in my opinion.

[Shawn124]

I have tried sending out e-mails to all parties but have not receive a response yet. Some of the websites are more than a year old with no new updates.

I am fearful of using the disavow tool because oft this - http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/why-should-you-not-think-about-disavowing-links-the-alternates-are-here/

Any other ideas on how I can remove these links?

[Shawn124]

Thank you but the inner pages that are affected by these 1k+ links also have tons of good links that are pointed to it. These are blog postings dating back from 1-2 years ago from relevant websites. I fear that if I change the url and try to contact the webmaster for the "good" links to point to the new url that they will not be around.

Is there any way I can change the URL and have all incoming links get redirected to the new URL but excludes the redirection from specific domains? I do not want to ban the domains, just make them not 301 to the new URL for the inner pages.

[Shawn124]

Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I am really at a lost here and need help on this issue.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Unfortuneatly you're in a pickle, and there aren't many good solutions.

The first thing I would ask is if you are sure these links are hurting you. Even though they may be 'bad', it's possible Google doesn't see them that way and has passed no filter or penalty.

If you determine the links are bad then basically, your options are:

1. Removal
2. Disavow
3. 404 or 410 the URL

It's true you need to be careful when using the disavow, but if you've been hit by a penalty or think you've been hit by Penguin and have exhausted all other option, it's generally your best bet.

Cheers, Cyrus