Removing inbound links

[barryfearon]

How can I remove inbound links?

[MagicDude4Eva]

Use Google's disavow tool - detailed description here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en

[MickEdwards]

Before using Disavow you will need to make a concerted effort to manually have the links removed.  A good tool to coordinate this would be Rmoov.  I would use Disavow as the last thing, if all else fails.

[whiteboardanimator]

Google Disavow, always good fun lol

I would suggest that you ensure that this is required before going down this path.... it  is very time consuming, can negatively effect your current rankings, and is often not required!

[Sarbs]

Is this in response to a notice from Google or general house cleaning? And you need to asses if those links are actually causing you any harm in the first place, for example are they nofollow?

First step in removing links is always to try and contact the webmaster and ask them to remove the links. this is important as this will then impact on all Search engines, not just Google which would be the case if you automatically went for Disavow tool. It also provides you an audit trail if in future you find you need to demonstrate to search engines, say through a reconsideration request, that you have made an effort to clean up your site and comply with webmaster guidelines, To find contact details for a website you can try contact details on the site itself or look them up with tools such as the whois directory.

If contact fails, or if they demand money for removal then you should consider using Googles Disavow tool. Again please note this will only impact Google's algorithm. It should only really be a last resort however. You can access this through Webmaster tools, just search for disavow tool in the help section to the top right and follow the links,

[barryfearon]

Thanks for the responses Guys!

The reason I wanted to know more about removing links was because a website that I look after had stopped receiving GA stats. I looked at the inbound links and found a few that where completely unrelated to the site (one from Japan and not translatable).

I did search for the Disavow tool from Google, but decided to try to contact the sites first to see if I can get the links removed that way.

On closer inspection, and much worry, I discovered that the GA tracking had stopped! How could that happen? As far as I know I am the only one with access to FTP... Worrying, but fixed now and I have had an education about the Disavow tool and link removal along the way

One more question: Are nofollow links harmful to a site if they are inbound?