Unnatural Linking Using Webdsite Themes
-
I am working on a website that last year received an email from Google via webmaster tools talking about the linking profile. The email suggested that the website had unnatural activity (links) and that the webmaster needed to investigate before filing for a reconsideration.
After having looked at the link profile using OSE, it was easy to see the problem. Thousands of inbound links with the exact anchor text.
Here is the BIG problem.
The tactics used by the unamed SEO agency prior to me were to embed links in to the footer of web themes? At this stage it is unclear as to where you can downlaod or purchase the web themes but it's obvious that the problem is simply going to escalate.
The domain in question is www.teamtactics.co.uk
Any thoughts on the above would be much appreciated - at this point I am trying to find the place were the themes are available for download.
Any ideas much appreciated.
shivun
-
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 William
Unfortunetly the website has links coming inbound from many websites now so its a problem that is only going to grow. In terms of SEO and tactics, this is a really bad strategy that has been conducted by a well known SEO agency who I won't name.
The objective is to find the source of the word press theme. Ive already contacted many of the website owners that are using the theme and are awaiting a call back.
-
Getting backlinks from sponsoring templates/themes is not the right way of doing it. People pay theme creators to include a link to their website. Other people use those themes, so you'll end up with thousands of backlinks with the same anchor text.
A good link is a link from one single page, preferably on the same niche.
What you can do at this point, is to remove all those "sponsored by", "created by" links.
Use Opensiteexplorer to analyze your website and check out who's linking to you using site wide links.
Eg.:
This theme is brought to you by Corporate Team Building Events, Fixed rate bonds rates on: http://vanzandtnews.com/
-
Wow... I'm not sure what the SEO strategy for this is, if there even is one.
If they were all coming from one domain (such as the web theme was being sold for use on their hosted sites), you could edit .htaccess to block links from that domain, but I doubt if that's the case.
As far as I know, the solution to this might be legal. If you can verifiably show that these links are damaging to your client's business, a competent lawyer could probably force them to make a reasonable effort to remove the links (provide an update web theme without the links to anyone who purchased that theme). Might not help, though.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How are links in ads perceived ?
Hi, Please can someone remind me how links in display ads are perceived by G ? A client of mine has purchased a display campaign with an industry related on-line publication that has lead to a massive spike in reported back links in Google Search Console (the new GWT). Does Google automatically identify these as ads (due to tracker codes etc) rather than paid backlinks or should they, like links in press releases, be no-followed or other advice ? Cheers Dan
Link Building | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Paying for a Link
I realize it is bad to pay for a link but is it bad to pay for a link on a page that ranks you 1 to 10 againist your competitor, shows a screen shot of your and lists Pros and Cons of your site? Is this sort of paid link different somehow?
Link Building | | Studio330 -
My website has no links to it at all :(
I paid good money for a company to build me a website, I just put my domain into open site explorer and I have no links at all, how do I get links to other domains etc ? Thanks for any help -James
Link Building | | Stoz0 -
Linking to sites that link to porn or casinos, my site getting penalized?
I have some link exchanges with some sites to get web traffic but when i ran the bad neighborhood link checker, i found that one site links to some casinos and another site has one link to a porn site. Is this getting me penalized? should i remove the links to these sites? Thanks, Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Article submissions for link building- what sites do you still use?
Hey Everyone, Long-time SEO'er first time poster here. I've been doing SEO for around 5 years but since starting my company The Search Ninjas last year I've been so bogged down with client work that I feel like I'm starting to fall behind on what's still effective from a link building perspective since all of my clients are local businesses and since we've been focusing so much attention on Google Places. My question is- are there any general article sites that you still use for SEO since the Panda update last year (that you firmly believe still offer "juice"), or do you mainly focus on niche sites and guest-blogging? I'm looking for ideas regarding how to find content submission opportunities for clients for link building purposes. I'm familiar with Ontolo and the Whitespark Link Prospecting Tool in terms of ways to find opportunities (and of course cherrypicking competitors' links using OSE and SEOSpyglass), any other recommendations? Best, George ps clients are in legal niche for the most part if that helps you out, but this is mainly me looking for everyone's general opinion.
Link Building | | georgetsn1 -
Which link should I use for link building?
I have an article which have high rank on Google. But recent, I use mod rewrite url so this article have new url. old: mywebsite.com/c1/p-1 new: mywebsite.com/c-e/p-1 Now, google is indexing old url. I want to ask when I build linking to my site, which link should I use for link building? I should build linking for new url or old url. Thanks
Link Building | | sonzin13040 -
What to do with some good links I have?
I have some pretty strong links from relevant sources linking to the homepage of a site I deal with. The links are usually from a PR3-5 pages and display specific result about the linking site. Sometimes they come from badges. We offer several services, so sometimes the page is about one service and next time about the other. Currently all of my pages link to the homepage. Would it not be better to link to the specific product page related to the page I have? Also I can do a canonical to the service pages? Which would be best?
Link Building | | Svetoslav0 -
In the Yahoo link directory you can submit paid or free, which do you use?
Has anyone here had any luck getting Yahoo to pickup links submitted through the free option? How long does this generally take? Or do you usually just pay the $300/year on your clients behalf? Or do you get your client to cover it? I couldn't direct link the page because you have to in a directory when you hit submit, but it looks like this screen shot: www.glitchhopforum.com/images/yahoo.png
Link Building | | adriandg0