Removing links - Best practice

[Cocoonfxmedia]

Hi

I have noticed on webmaster that I have a lot of links to my sites from link building directories.  Either I did this many years a go or somehow they've linked to me.

Would links to link building directories harm my site?

i.e linkspurt.com

pingerati.net

I have quite a few and just wondering what to do with them.  Also I have some customer sites which are massive one site has 38,000 links coming to my site as I have put a credit that I built the site with a link back to mine.  It has a low score in Google would this also harm my site?

Any advise would be appreciated.

[irvingw]

Definitely remove the sitewides as soon as possible. That footer designed by looks like a sponsored theme link to Google.

I would reach out to the directory sites via their contact form and ask them to remove your site, tell them you were penalized. I have found directory sites to not be too bad in terms of responsiveness.

[Cocoonfxmedia]

If I use the google disavow some of these links? would that be enough?

[KeriMorgret]

Google has said that the disavow tool should be the last step, after you've tried all other methods to get the link removed, rather than the first step. I'd do as Irving suggested for links that you do want to remove.