Which Links to Disavow!

[newwhy]

We just took over SEO for a new client who is being penalized for a bad link profile. They've asked Google to reconsider multiple times, and Google still claims that the links are bad.

Because of this, and because I don't have direct access (logins, etc.) to what the former SEO did, I am considering using the disavow links tool. The most obvious links to disavow are a group of almost 1000 links that come from the same forum.

However, when viewing the links on this forum they actually seem natural. People are reviewing the product (ipod cases), both negatively and positively. While this could have been an SEO tactic for link building, I don't want to disavow these links if they're not the problem, even though this domain is the source of almost all the low-quality links.

Another site that has more than 200 links is Askives. Do any of you have experience with links from Askives, or removing these links?

Thanks again!

[crushthenet]

Are those domains in the Google index?

Have you tried "site:example.com" for the sites you're mentioning?

I haven't had to do this myself but I've heard that that's what you try.

If those sites aren't indexed then they probably are no good.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Tynan,

This is a sticky issue a lot of webmasters face these days. Although I can't tell you exactly what links to disavow, I can point you in the right direction.

1. What links to look at? First of all, John Mueller of Google recommends starting with the links listed in Google Webmaster Tools, as these are the links most likely to effect your rankings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX5i4iuru7k&feature=youtu.be&t=54m28s

2. Third Party Tools: A couple of companies have developed tools to help identify bad links.

• SEOGadget Link Analyser - http://tools.seogadget.co.uk/ (has a great API - highly recommend this site)
• Link Detox - http://www.linkdetox.com/ (haven't used it, but I've heard decent things)

3. Manual Review - In the end, you're own eye is the best tool you have. You want to look for:

1. links with keyword-rich, optimized anchor text
2. Comment Signature and Forum Signature links (these are different from the more legitimate forum links)
3. Sitewide links, such as in the sidebar or footer
4. Obviously paid, or suspicious looking links on low-quality sites

Our friend Paddy Moogan wrote a great guide on how to do this step by step. You should check it out.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you for certain if you should disavow those forum links. That said, in my experience, it's better to disavow entire sites using the domain: function, then it is to try to disavow individual URLs. Google is much more forgiving if you over-disavow then the reverse, but in the end you must use your best human judgement.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

[newwhy]

Thanks for the answer! This is great info.

I've now briefly combed through all 800 linking root domains listed in Webmaster Tools, and it appears that there are thousands of links coming from fake blogs as well, so it looks like my task will be to go through these, one by one, to make sure they really are the links Google is penalizing.

Unfortunately the client doesn't have very many natural links, and I am a bit afraid that his rankings will briefly dip if I disavow most of these. It's possible that some of them are not being penalized.

Anyway, in our efforts to make the Web a better place, it's worth it to our client to go ahead and disavow.

Thanks again for your feedback!

[ElBo913]

I'm also wondering if anybody has had any experience with askives.com. There are a few sites like that and they must be pretty common among people forced to use the disavow tool... Is there a list anywhere of known sites whos links are viewed as spammy by Google?

Thanks!