Unnatural inbound links message from Google Webmaster Tools!

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi Everyone,

I just got this message from GWT(image below)

This is probably a penguin Penalty. What is clear is I have to find the best and most efficient way to tackle this issue. We will probably lose tons of traffic in the next couple of weeks so I would like to get the best suggestions and maybe a guideline on how to do this in the most effective way!

Thank you!

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[mosquitohawk]

Hello!  Well this is one of the last messages you want to receive in regards to your website.

Google indicated they have applied a manual action to your site (Google Penguin is an algorithmic action, not manual).  Within the email they gave you a basic set of marching orders on what you're going to have to do, although they don't make it seem as onerous as it really is.  We have had quite a number of clients come to us with link-related problems and I will tell you it is a pain.

Your best bet for removing the bad links is to use an automated tool to help you identify the worst links.  Some tools also include a way to gather contact info and keep track of link statuses for you, etc. which is convenient, particularly when you're looking at the number of links your site has.

To make sure you get a full list of links, consider downloading lists from several backlink providers (Open Site Explorer is one), de-dupe your list and use that as your master list.  Any links you can't get removed you will want to add to a disavow list and upload to GWT (although my opinion is this doesn't really do anything to benefit you other than show Google you're trying).

When you file your reconsideration request, unless you've been extremely thorough you can expect them to reject it outright.  I repeat, you have to get that link profile cleaned up!

Google has indicated in some instances, it may be better to start over with a different domain (not necessarily my opinion in your case, just making you aware).

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Thanks for your answer Marty!

[gazzerman1]

Before you go down the long and painful road to recovery you must be informed of the recovery process.

I speak directly with Google employees on this matter weekly.

1: Most top contributors on Google forums are misinformed and will spout incorrect information to you as fact.2: Your first Reconsideration request will likely fail even if there is nothing wrong. Google does this to make you look even deeper and clear things up that might be borderline OK.
3. You REALLY MUST show Google a report of works done, list every dofollow link and list its contact information and and action taken. No reply, removed, 5th try, pending, not contact info, etc.. Also good to list the type of link. Directory, blog post, comment, article etc... this shows that you have done some real work.
4. IMPORTANT: Once you get a revoke YOU WILL NOT RECOVER FOR A LONG TIME. It can and likely WILL take up to and in many cases OVER 1 year to see some recovery of your site. This is why to this date we have seen little in the way of recoveries. The disavow tool needs to get to work and then once most links have been re-indexed the algorithm must then be updated with the new information. THEN at this point you must then wait for a Penguin refresh currently running every 6 months. That's just twice a year!
5. Once you see a recovery you may well still have algorithm issues for the remaining unnatural links. If you imagine that a new site starts at 0 points, your revoked site will be starting at -X points, this is a hard place to start your new climb back to success.

Google has recommend on many cases to simply ditch your old domain and start a fresh. A very poor response to the issue but its an honest one. Can you really survive a year of not ranking AFTER you have managed to go through the process of a reconsideration request?

If you decide that all of this is worth it then I would look at a service like link detox, they have some cutting edge tools that will help, but its not cheap and offers no guarantees.

There are many great guides out there on ways to do it. i have done it by hand with 15,000 links, its not fun and can be a royal pain in the ### but at least you know what work has been done and how accurate it is.

Also Matt Cutts once said attack your links with a Machete, meaning don't try and save some of your BEST links to see if you can get away with it. This only delays the process and could be the reaosn you miss out on a 6 month algo refresh. Are those links worth your business not ranking for another 6 months?

If you need any FREE advice let me know.

All the best with your choices and recovery process.

[JaneCopland]

Gary and Marty have some great points here. Every recovery is somewhat different and I have recently seen sites recover a portion of their rankings quite quickly, but the link issue wasn't bad to begin with. Depending on how bad your backlink profile is, you could be left waiting / working a very long time.

Documentation of what you've done to fix the situation is one of the primary things you need to do. Google doesn't take reconsideration requests very seriously if that intricate documentation isn't included, so Gary's advice on that is absolutely key.

Perseverance, patience and not losing hope is also pretty key in making it through this process if your situation is pretty bad - definitely use tools like OSE, Ahrefs, Majestic SEO and the link download within Webmaster Tools to get a full look at your backlink profile. I like to use multiple data sources too - ensures you're seeing the full picture.

Cheers,

Jane

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi Guys,

First off thank you guys for responding.

After further analysis, I got hit by the Impact links penalty( which affects links that point to your domain) . So far it's been 3 weeks and I have seen a slight drop in organic traffic( about 10%) where few particular query lost rankings.

My concern is that I was able to detect some real shady links (link network) around 200 which I never created such as: http://gasolinereinbows.tumblr.com/. Because those represents the worst links ever, I tried to find contact info of these websites and of course no information was found.  So at this point I am thinking to disavow them but this article http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/google-penalized-dont-disavow-your-links/ says I shouldn't especially for the Impact links type of penalty. So I don't know what to do? Any thoughts on how should I tackle this?

Thank you!

[JaneCopland]

Hi Taysir,

Going on Google's wording, that blog post is correct - you do come across instances of people claiming disavowal has worked well when they've disavowed links they weren't responsible for building. The problem is convincing Google that you weren't responsible ("_If we determine that the links to your site are no longer in violation of our guidelines, we’ll revoke the manual action" - _there's a possibility that you can claim until you are blue in the face that you were not behind the links Google dislikes, and they still refuse to lift a penalty).

I would go for a reconsideration request first if I were you, as the blog post recommends. I also consider disavowal a last resort when link removal fails - it was foreseeable that people would disavow without doing any other work (and I'm sure Google saw that coming too). For context, at my former agency we would spend months removing every bad link we could find for new clients before filing for reconsideration or using disavowal. One came to us with over 7,000 bad links in early 2013; we removed and removed and finally had the penalty lifted later in the year (it was worth it - it was a high-value domain otherwise).

Explain everything you have done or tried to do in the reconsideration request. Be honest but as concise as possible, and cite your actions with things like spreadsheets of sites researched / contacted / failed to respond.

In short, that blog post is also how we dealt with disavowal at my old agency. I'm sure it works for some people who disavow things they weren't responsible for, but the misuse I have seen of the tool is also really high. One person told me once they had disavowed one link in their backlink profile "to test impact." Ah... that's not what it's for.