I have 4012 links from one blog - will Google penalise?

[GardenBeet]

My website (http://www.gardenbeet.com)  has 4012 links from http://cocomale.com/blog/ to my home page -a banner advert links from the blog -

I also have 3,776 from another website to 6 pages of my website

1,832 from pinterest to 183 pages

etc etc

overall there are 627 domains linking to my website

I have been advised by a SEO company that I was penalised in about may to july 2012 due to a large number of links coming from one domain or two domains

is that true? should I ask the blog owner to remove my link?

[BCutrer]

My suggestion is to ask the owner to make them a non-follow. Technically for a Banner Ad that is the Google's recommendation.

My thought on seeing if you were penalized. Use webmaster tools to see if you have any manual penalties. If not I would go back to Google Analytics and filter Organic Search and look at the traffic for the last three years if you have the data. If there was an algorithmic penalty you should see a drop off in traffic. If there is I would also look to see if there were other changes made to the site during the period to rule out on page issues.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Bill covered all the important points there Felicity.

-Andy

[Cyrus-Shepard]

In addition to what Bill said (excellent advice) I'd also try to

• get those links nofollowed, or ask that they be removed.
• check for manual penalties
• disavow any domain with paid ads linking to your site.
• File a reconsideration request if necessary.

After that, you should be in a good position to re-evaluate.

[GardenBeet]

Hi everyone thanks for your feedback.

I will get those links no followed.

There are no manual penalties

I have no paid adverts linking to my site

I believe the drop in traffic is due to my reduction in online activity after June 2012 rather than a Google penalty. Would the graph that i have attached look more dramatic if there was a penalty applied?

http://imgur.com/MCxarkn

MCxarkn

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Sorry for the late reply!

Short answer: yes. That looks like a gradual drop that could be caused by lack of new activity and/or engagement with your site. I'd be surprised if it was link-based.