Do you need a place to ditch bad links?
-
This is not a question as such, more a gift
I have registered a domain name to ditch bad links.
For example, let's pretend I have a page on my site:
and have never done any good SEO to promote this page, just a load of spammy directory links.
The page used to rank for Viagra but then Google took manual action and I lost my ranking. Booo!
Now the page is of no use to me until I get all these links removed and the manual action revoked. Even then, I'll be starting from scratch re-building good links to the page.
Here's another option, simply re-direct the url to badlinksbin.com and say goodbye to all those spammy links.
This bypasses the lengthy link removal process.
Warning: I wouldn't recommend using this method if you have some good links in the mix, unless you can contact the site owners and get the links changed.
And, don't forget to change the name of the url first so the Viagra page still exists on your site.
As I've already set this up, I thought no harm sharing it and letting you guys use it too.
I hope it helps some people.
-
I don't control the original site, it's a SEO directory. There are links from it to a page on my site that I want to remove, so I figure I'll 404 the page on my site and re-direct the url back to the directory site.
It is rhetorical given that you've already confirmed that it's enough to 404 the page.
-
I'm confused - why would you link out to another site and then 301-redirect that 3rd-party page back to the original site (especially to the home-page on the original site)? I honestly have no idea how Google would treat that - I think it would send a bit of a mixed signal, but it could be seen as an internal link. If you control the original site, though, this would have no benefits on search or users, so I'm just not clear on the motivation.
-
I don't follow, sorry.
In this scenario:
www.badlinksdirectory.com/pagewithmylink
links to
and re-directs to
Presuming I've changed the url of /targeturl so the content still exists on my site and /targeturl is effectively 404'd.
How are the links consolidated?
Wouldn't it become just an internal link but with a detour?
-
Redirecting to the root domain can preserve the link value, but it won't shake loose any penalties. You'd basically just consolidate those links.
-
Thanks for clarifying, I appreciate it.
Out of interest, what are your thoughts on re-directing the link back to the source? e.g. re-direct www.badlinksdirectory.com/pagewithmylink to www.badlinksdirectory.com
This is of course a somewhat moot point given your response, but I'm just curious what your opinion on this would be in a rhetorical scenario.
-
As best we know, 404s should kill the page as a link target, which essentially severs the links. I don't think Google views the link on a domain-wide level at that point. If they did, then honestly it's likely the same rules would apply to other HTTP headers, including 301s. If the page is dead, you're pretty safe at that point. I don't think 301-redirecting the bad page is going to have any additional positive impact.
Re: "breaking rules", the problem is that it's very subjective. Let's say that a bunch of SEOs realize that Penguin and other link-based penalties created an opportunity, and they start taking their own pages with bad links and 301-redirecting those to competitors (maliciously). If Google sees that pattern and then they see you 301-redirecting your links to a 3rd-party site, they may not be able to separate you from the pattern. In other words, they're going to assume bad behavior.
That's speculation, of course (in this specific case - I've definitely seen them mistake bad intent in other areas). I just don't see that you'd be gaining anything by taking on that risk, even if it's small.
-
Hey Dr. Peter, thanks for your reply. No need to apologise, I really appreciate your critical opinion. I'd like to explore this a little further if I may. If I 404 the page (which is something I've considered), the links are still pointing at my domain, so remain potentially harmful until removed, right?
Same applies if I meta noindex it, I'm still stuck with the links. And with link removal being a major part of SEO at the moment I'm seeing more and more webmasters applying a charge to remove links, so it's either costly or a stalemate.
Obviously, that's what the Disavow Links tools is there for, but I haven't seen much evidence of it working... not quickly anyway.
In your opinion would re-directing to badlinksbin.com move the links out of harms way?
I take your point about negative SEO and concede the activity may have the same hallmarks, but I'm not actually breaking any rules here, right?
-
It seems like you're trying to share something you believe is helpful, so I apologize if this comes off as overly critical, but that's really not a good tactic at all. First off, it's unnecessary. If you are fortunate enough to be able to isolate and redirect a page with bad links (as you said, assuming there aren't good links in the mix), then you'd do just as well to 404 that page entirely. There's no need to redirect it somewhere.
Second, it could actually look manipulative. Redirecting a page full of bad links to a 3rd-party site would look to me like negative SEO. I have no proof Google penalizes this particular behavior, but it seems like a red flag that could potentially cause risks for the site setting up the redirects.
Even if the risk of that happening is <5%, it's a risk on top of doing something completely unnecessary. Just kill the page (404 or Meta-Noindex if it still has user value) - it's a clear signal to Google. If you start getting weird with 301-redirects, you could raise alarms.
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
-
links
Hi, in our Google Search Console account, all of our links, built up over a long time have disappeared. they just vanished. it was for a Cardiff demolition company, we work for. any idea why links would just vanish?
Link Building | | sarahwalsh0 -
Grr SEO linking.. I am not understanding why I wouldn't have lots more links.. Please help. Thanks
I have done the whole moz open exploer and I am not understanding why my site wouldn’t have more links registering to my website.. I have lots of sites(directorys and 3rd party) with my website domain in them. The only one that is linking to my site is BBB.com and my advertsing with saint paul press. www.somerersetautodealer.com But if I have links with all kinds of automotive directories why wouldn’t they register? I am sure this a simply answer or that I am not understanding something. Thanks for your help! Scott
Link Building | | Scott12340 -
Link from a directory
Hi, im submitting a clients website to some directories. They are a dental practice and I'm adding them to this website http://goo.gl/Tvyabd Once i added the business to its directory it asked me to add a link (in so many words) back to its website from my clients website. Is this ok to do or is it seen as spam? Im confused about this as sometimes directories are free and sometimes they ask for a fee for it to be fast tracked to put it on the website. I always check the Domain authority of the websites and make sure they are relevant to the industry that I'm working in but again not sure if this would be seen as "paying" for links. Thanks Ade
Link Building | | popcreativeltd0 -
How Do I Know which links are bad?
Hi All I have currently got a Manual Action on my Webmaster Tools account due to some unnatural links and I am in the process of seeding out the poor links with a view to having them removed or disavowed. Other than looking at each link individually to see if it looks relevant or spammy. Any ideas on how I can gauge which links are bad and which aren't??
Link Building | | Pete40 -
Buy links
I know that many of you are against the whole thing with buying links. Your feelings put aside. Will it be better for my site to buy links or even do link exchange? Haven´t the crawlers been thought by now how to find these untrue links? I have read somewhere that the stop after 100 links, aren´t they smarter than that?
Link Building | | mato0 -
Outbound links
Hi there, i know inbound links are what hold the main value in terms of link building but if i have an inbound link from a big company such as ITV or BBC and they have put an article on their site linking back to mine, would it be beneficial if i made a comment on my site and then link back to their article or will this not really help? Sorry as you can tell im very new to seo! thanks anthony
Link Building | | anthonybriant0 -
Advetorial links
How do you scientifically value advertorial links. I have a site who is willing to buy advertorial in large online sites which will contain links. (I would prefer they invested in content on their own site). The DA on these sites is universally extremely strong. the PA of the examples I've seen is pretty low. The site has strong DA matching it's main competition and is performing pretty well in terms of ranking. Question: how do you value this kind of link in terms of the amount of £ the publications want to charge. Anybody have a formula or a logical process which would provide solid advice rather than don't infringe Google's T&C's which I've already mentioned to them. Any thoughts appreciated.
Link Building | | Shivvyt0 -
Great idea to get back links in short order; however the links would be unrelated. . Is it worth the effort . BTW, it's a white hat method. Should I proceed?
I have come up with a very creative way to get some great back links using white hat methods. The problem is that the back links to the site would be to an interior page or external promotional website which then have links back to the main website. What kind of value for the main domain would this potentially achieve. What are peopLes thoughts on this idea?
Link Building | | FidelityOne0