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This is a tough one.  I would attack it initially like any other unnatural links project.  Contact each of the sites linking to you via the footer code and ask them to remove or nofollow it.  Then, document your attempts and communicate your efforts to Google. But, the problem is that if the free templates are still available for download then you'll get more of these and could get penalized again. I don't think it would be that hard to find these sites offering the free downloads though.  According to ahrefs you've got 850 domains linking to you.  If you know the anchor text used in these footers, you can narrow it down even more.  Provided the sites hosting the free downloads have a demo version of the site then they'll be on that backlink list.  If they don't have a demo version, there still has to be a way to do a Google search for the name of the template to find these hosts. Then, get them to remove the template.  If they don't, file a DMCA takedown request or speak to a lawyer about getting a letter written to get them to remove it.

Hi Shivun, I do not recommend putting a nofollow to the Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter sites. I think it is important for the search engines to understand the other sites you link to, especially with the Scott O.

Hi. Extended Validation = Gives you the green bar in the address-field of the browser. Requires extra manual activation. Some users will notice this and trust your site. Not neccessary for most sites tbh, Other than that: Get one of GeoTrust's certificates. They are quite cheap, and naturally they work fine. RapidSSL is usually enough for most users. All browsers recognize this.

Dan Sorry for the delay, just wanted to say thanks for you incite to the website and yes I prefer you honesty and feeback. shivun

I am saying that you should link directly to the final page, as you have control over the links, being internal, save the link juice leak. The 301's may be there for some other reason I dont know, but you dont want your internal links going though them

Brian Would you set all makes of cars on the home page to header 2 tags? Shivun

You can use the LEN() function in excel and it counts the characters inside a cell =LEN(A1)