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1. grab your links here on OSE

2. grab your webmaster tool links

3. if you have majestic seo, then grab them there as well

4. that should be enough, so compile them and remove duplicates

5. By now, you will probably know that you over used your anchor text or if you got links on bad sites or a combination. Segment them by keyword, especially with the saturated one. If it's a good link, try to change the anchor text to a longer one or a brand or a combination.

PS. Try to know what kind of link service you got first and what links they got for you and start with that instead.

Hi!

It probably shows up because other links are still pointing to those urls. If they are now properly redirected then you can just mark them as fixed.

Honestly, I have never seen it work.

For me, it's just like any other badge, just for show, just to add to the credibility of the site which could indirectly affect bounce rates/sharing/etc.

I would totally recreate the exact same url and put an update about how the company has changed and stuff like that

Id make it super professional and a bit long to make people believe it (if ever, somehow, someone finds that old link)

A link is a link and Ill take it, especially a great link that is "easy"

The usual, compile the links, disavow them

If you got a manual penalty, submit a reconsideration ASAP.

Find some other traffic sources for the mean time while building better links. You can also start with some other domains as backup.

There's really no way to protect your site from something like that unless you have a really good brand plus a lot of great links.

There's really no way for them to enforce that policy unless a lot of people squeal about it.

I know here at Moz, it's really something like a Taboo, but it's really not. Big companies do this daily and they do it in bunches.

I would suggest though (since you mentioned that it's just a bitly link) that you just go for it IF the price is right and if it's targeted enough.

Look at it at the standpoint of getting traffic. You mentioned that it's a good site then it probably has a good spot for your link so it can bring in leads. If you can optimize to capture these leads or just get them to your sales funnel, then it'll be worth it. You'll get more links down the line.

It's pretty much like guest posting or paying for a best of the web spot.

Hi Dario,

I can't speak for everyone because a lot will definitely tell you to jump ship and nofollow it or remove it. My take is just to leave it and continue with your diverse link building. I've seen that happen a lot, local or not and I've never seen a good site like that hurt another site.

Hi Courtney,

Such a tricky problem! You'll probably get a lot of subjective replies.

I would only use subdomains if I wanted to treat it like a different "main" product or a company under the main brand

For SEO purposes, it's better to not make it a sub domain to get the full benefits of the main domain (I'm assuming the domain is already strong) so it's only a last resort for me.

Hi!

So you just go to your My Business page and add your URL there. Or go to your G+ page, go to about, and add the url there.

It will ask you to verify it so go to your website, and add the rel=publisher code there (mentioned on the page you showed)  - then go back to G+ to verify it. Sometimes, it wont verify immediately so just give it some hours or a day. Do something else.

Check back and youll see that itll have a green checkmark which means it's verified.

it's a pretty good site. Youll get referrals from time to time. For niche topics, you can get more views since you will be higher up. Just add your site, it's basically an RSS directory, but owned by a former apple employee. lol

Hi Denis

I would definitely go the whitepaper or infographic route here.

Even the most boring of niches can find ways.

Aside from that, I would look at the existing links of your competitors to further drill down other opportunities. You won't really run out of places to put links to. Broken link building has worked wonders for the eng niches Ive worked on.

Hi Ruben

For one, he built a lot of links to it

http://www.reflectivepractice.ca/program.htm

http://www.mymakhzenandme.com/the-director.html

http://www.sourceabc.com/alpha/T/

http://theislandpartypei.ca/news.html

http://www.besthotpick.com/alpha/T/

all from sites he probably controls.

If you are going to ask why it's not penalised, that's another long story which is probably already answered here in the QA area somewhere.

I would put the blog on the domain of the company.

Since the blog is on Wordpress.com, I would just move it even if it has little traffic. The PA 30 is generic wordpress.com blog PA. Nothing really important with that. Keeps things simple and you'll have more freedom. Overthinking this will just make things harder and since you are new, itll just make your learning curve longer.

Tell them what to do, don't give them options and hope they aren't sentimental for a wordpress.com blog. Move on and market their site. Boom!

Im assuming you already did the usual submission part and identified the exact coordinates of the place and verified the address.

If so, then you'll have to wait a bit. Sometimes it will take a couple months to show up. Sometimes, it shows up faster.

it's just guestbook spam. It still works on local and some niches. Theres nothing you can do about it until google finally decides to hit all keywords and niches equally. For now, you have to live with it. They probably have more of these, and some other platform spam so just beat them with better links. Treat 1000 of these links as just 1 of your good links. Get enough, and you will beat him.

Totally understand where you are coming from. It's always a challenge.

Those charities are also goldmines, local groups, events.

If you can find an author in the local online magazine scene, then that would be gold as well.

Try looking at brands (same niche) outside your area. See where they get their links from.

Look for other companies your company works with, they probably have something to link to you.

Share on different times of the month. You'll have a hell of a time with that so either keep track of it or assign/outsource it.

A lot of people are using that on LinkedIN... so try to check the groups first. Groups that only have group members that share their own links arent that ideal in most cases as the members dont even bother to read the content.

Hi John!

Webmaster tools is definitely the accurate one.

Resources:

This link pretty much sums it up https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2642366?hl=en

For more information about the results it returns: http://searchengineland.com/why-google-cant-count-results-properly-53559

They normally show inaccurate numbers when site: search is used, mainly to prevent people from further learning about how they index pages.

I would also look at the sitemap you submitted there and robots.txt just to be sure that they had no reason not to index your other pages.

First of all, youll need a lot of help.

A go to strategy for scaling this for me is using an infographic.

Find a common topic of interest that can be changed per city. So you have this interesting, informational infographic that you can scale per city and promote in different channels there.

Sachin mentioned travel bloggers, and he is right on that one. I would take it a step further and "pay" (sensitive area here on moz but these guys are like mom bloggers and will want compensation) these guys to write consistently about your brand, linking to cities that they cover. So that scales on it's own, just keep track of publish dates and try to have a read of their content before it gets published to make the most of each one.

Just get those links. Consider it as a way to diversify your current link portfolio. Wouldn't that actually be natural looking vs everything being within the same niche? Plus those links are one of a kind so just don't worry about it.

If you really can't help but worry, ask for Brand/URL anchor texts with a "long-enough" description. You'll be fine