Should I change the URL now?

[BrandC]

Hi all,

I have a client website that got hit in the latest algorithm update. It since appears that it had over 100 suspect links to it.

I performed the Disavow procedure a few weeks ago via my Google Webmaster account, but have not received a message yet to say its been actioned.

The majority of these suspect links go to one page. I am considering changing the base category (in Wordpress) to a different keyphrase and then submitting a new sitemap for indexing. This way there will be no actual link from a suspect website to a page on my website. Do you see what I mean?

Will this help do you think?

Thanks in advance.

[FedeEinhorn]

100 bad links is not bad at all. Unless those are ALL the links you have. If you sent the disavow file and submitted a reconsideration request, wait for their respond. They claim the respond to 100% percent of the requests, but it can take over 2 weeks (on my own experience).

Did you get a manual penalty warning? Or you just doing the disavow and reconsideration just a percussion? Because if there was no manual penalty, you shouldn't be using the reconsideration request, instead, after disavowing those bad links you should focus on creating content for the purpose of link earning (valuable links).

Hope that helps.

[Dr-Pete]

Yeah, I'm with Federico - 100 doesn't seem like a ton, unless your total link profile is very small. I'm not clear on what you're trying to accomplish with changing the category in WordPress - is it the category page that's a problem? If the links are all to one page and you can live without that page, you could let it 404. If it's a category page, then yes, I guess you could change the URL. Just don't 301-redirect the old URL to the new one, in this case, because you'd carry the links and any penalty.

If this was something like Penguin, you'd still have to wait for a data refresh. If it's a manual penalty, you'd need reconsideration. So, even total removal may not instantly fix the situation.