My Website Has a Google Penalty, But I Can't Disavow Links

[0102345]

I have a client who has definitely been penalized, rankings dropped for all keywords and hundreds of malicious backlinks when checked with WebMeUp....However, when I run the backlink portfolio on Moz, or any other tool, they don't appear anyone, and all the links are dead when I click on the actual URL. That being said, I can't disavow links that don't exist, and they don't show up in Webmaster Tools, but I KNOW this site has been penalized. Also- I noticed this today (attached). Any suggestions? I've never come across this issue before.

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[Philip-DiPatrizio]

That "update" line you posted a screen shot of means you have an https version of your website.  Are you sure you've got the right version verified in Webmaster Tools?  If you've verified http but not https, or vice versa, verify the other one.  You might be able to see the backlinks in Webmaster Tools on the other version.

You can read more about this recent Google Webmaster Tools update here: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2337524/Google-Webmaster-Tools-Gives-More-Precise-Index-Status-Data

Update us with what you find once you look into that a bit!

[0102345]

I don't have that version of the site...If I try to go to https://website I get an "SSL connection error"

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

There's a chance I'm wrong about this.  Maybe EVERY site shows that "update" line, regardless of whether or not an https version was found by Google....

Try a "site:" search on Google for both variations.

• site:https://example.com
• site:http://example.com

edit:  "if you have a website on HTTPS, or if some content is indexed under different subdomains."  You'll see the "update" line if you've got multiple sub-domains as well.  So that's likely what's happening in your scenario.

[0102345]

Alright...weird...the search results show some https but when I click on them I get the "SSL Connection Error"

[0102345]

This post is deleted!

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

Can you pinpoint the approximate date that the traffic dropped significantly?  Look for a Penguin update that's near that time frame using this page: http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

If you don't see a Penguin update near your drop in traffic, AND you don't have a manual penalty, you might have another issue.  Possibly a Panda penalty or just some other site health issue that caused the drop in traffic.  Considering the large amount of spammy backlinks you say existed, it does sound like a Penguin penalty is likely, but it can't hurt to check that Google Algorithm Change history.

If the spammy backlinks are ALL gone now, then you're right... there's nothing you can do in regards to disavowing or manual removal.  If you do have a manual penalty that was given due to unnatural inbound links, you can submit a reconsideration request and let them know that you didn't build the backlinks and they all disappeared.  Let Google know you plan to continue to monitor your backlink profile and take immediate action against future negative backlinks that are found.

[Travis_Bailey]

Have you attempted to crawl the site? If not, I would give it a little Screaming Frog. If I knew the URL, I would have done it already. : )

Sometimes crawl problems look and feel like penalties. That upward trend in pages blocked by robots.txt before the fall is making me a little suspicious. Plus, if it is a problem with crawlability - that's easier to fix than a penalty.

[0102345]

Thanks Travis but there are no crawl issues

[WhoWuddaThunk]

Have you looked into the Link Detox tool?  It supposedly helps you find the bad links that no one else monitors.

[0102345]

I have all the bad links, they are all 404's now.

[JaneCopland]

Hi Karen,

Breaking away from the hypothesis about the penalty here for a second, but I am wondering if the HTTPS / HTTP issue is part of the problem here.

Would you be able to PM me the website in question if you are not comfortable sharing it publicly here? I am not a Moz staff member (I used to be, 2006 - 09) but I help out with Q&A as an associate.

Cheers,

Jane

[DavidKonigsberg]

Have you tried ahref? Majesticseo? cogintiveseo? to see your backlinks or just moz?

If you think you have been hit try using this https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration and see if itshows up.

[0102345]

I used a software called WebMeUp...no other software shows the bad backlinks as they are all 404's now and no longer linking to the website. I have already submitted a reconsideration request.

[DavidKonigsberg]

At this point you can only wait to see the results of the reconsideration request and hope they provide you examples if more clean up is needed.