Is this organic search sketchiness worth unwinding?
-
Started working on a site and learned that the person before me had done a fairly sketchy maneuver and am wondering if it's a net gain to fix it.
The site has pages that it wanted to get third party links linking to. Thing is, the pages are not easy to naturally link to boost them in search.
So, the woman before me started a new blog site in the same general topic area as the first/main site. The idea was to build up even the smallest bit of authority for the new blog, without tipping Google off to shared ownership. So, the new blog has a different owner/address/registrar/host and no Google Analytics or Webmaster Tools account to share access to.
Then, as one method of adding links to the new blog, she took some links that originally pointed to the main site and re-directed them to the blog site.
And voila! ...Totally controllable blog site with a bit of authority linking to select pages on the main site!
At this point, I could un-redirect those links that give the blog site some of its authority. I could delete the links to the main site on the blog pages.
However, on some level it may have actually helped the pages linked to on the main site.
The whole thing is so sketchy I wonder if I should reverse it.
I could also just leave it alone and not risk hurting the pages that the blog currently links to.
What do you think? Is there a serious risk to the main site in this existing set up? The main site has hundreds of other links pointing to it, a Moz domain authority of 43, thousands of pages of content, 8 years old and Open Site Explorer Spam Score of 1. So, not a trainwreck of sketchiness besides this issue.
To me, the weird connection for Google is that third party sites have links that (on-page-code-wise) still point to the main site, but that resolve via the main site's redirects to the blog site. BTW, the blog site points to other established sites besides the main site. So, it's not the exclusive slave to the main site.
Please let me know what you think. Thanks!
-
I agree with the two methods that both you and Gaston have pointed out.
The downside to reversing those links is that the domain authority could drop a bit—which could impact their rankings on the SERPs. If this happens, the client might think you are doing something wrong and causing their rankings to rank when, in theory, you were trying to help get rid of any sketchy links. In my opinion, I’d keep them. They’ll make your work perform better. Disavowing them could yield worse results than what their former SEO provided. If that happens, you're playing defense and blaming.
Hope this helps!
-
Well, I like Gaston's answers on these boards and at the same time was curious if that seemed like the concensus.... leave it cause no real risk.
-
Hi 94501! Did Gaston answer you question, and if so, would you mind marking his response a "Good Answer?"
Otherwise, how else can we help?
-
Thanks, Gaston!
Any other insights, folks?
Mike
-
Hi there,
There are 2 exits here, and you've pointed them:
- Reverse those links
- Leave all as it is now.
On one hand, if you aren't confortable with those links, just reverse all.
On the other hand, you've said that the main site has a lot of links and it those 'unnatural links' will not make harm and that the satellite blog has really few conections to the latter. I'd say that there isnt, almost nothing, risk. So, i'd leave as it is now.
Hope it helps.
GR.
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
-
Why does my old brand name still show up on organic search but as my new brand name and domain?
Hello mozers! I have quite the conundrum. My client used to have the unfortunate brand name "Meetoo" - which by the way they had before the movement happened! So naturally, they rebranded to the name Vevox in March 2019 to avoid confusion to users. However, when you search for their old brand name "Meetoo" the first organic link that pops up is their domain www.vevox.com. Now, this wouldn't normally be a problem, however it is when any #MeToo news appears in the media and we get a sudden influx or wrong traffic. I've searched the HTML and content for the term "Meetoo" but can only find one trace of this name through a widget. Not enough to hold an organic spot. My only other thinking is that www.vevox.com is redirected from www.meetoo.com. So I'm assuming this is why Vevox appear under the search term "Meetoo". How can I remove the homepage www.vevox.com from appearing for the search term "meetoo"? Can anyone help? AvGGYBc
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Virginia-Girtz3 -
How to compete against search terms that use geo-modifiers?
I should start by saying we are new to SEO. We are introducing new “cycling tours” in new destinations and we are looking for a strategy to combat geo-modified keyword searches. When people search for “cycling tours” they will anchor their search with a geo-modifier such as “cycling tours France” or “cycling tours Italy”. Based in Australia we are keen to communicate to Australians searching for international cycling tours there are new Australian options that they may wish to consider. The geo-modifiers required to find our tours (“eyre peninsula” and “carnarvon gorge”) are currently not on the cycling communities radar. For example to find one of our new tours you need to use “cycling tours eyre peninsula” or “cycling tours carnarvon gorge”. Currently the only solution we have found to let people know about our new tours is by word of mouth. Is there an SEO solution?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chook10 -
Bolded words in search results
are those synonyms or semantically related keywords ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Previously blacklisted website still not appearing on Google searches.
We have a client who before us, had a website that was blacklisted by Google. After we created their new website, we submitted an appeal through Google's Webmaster Tools, and it was approved. One year later, they are still unable to rank for anything on Google. The keyword we are attempting to rank for on their home page is "Day in the Life Legal Videos" which shouldn't be too difficult to rank for after a year. But their website cannot be found. What else can we do to repair this previously blacklisted website after we're already been approved by Google? Here is the website in question: https://www.verdictvideos.com/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rodneywarner0 -
Google Search Console - Indexed Pages
I am performing a site audit and looking at the "Index Status Report" in GSC. This shows a total of 17 URLs have been indexed. However when I look at the Sitemap report in GSC it shows 9,000 pages indexed. Also, when I perform a site: search on Google I get 24,000 results. Can anyone help me to explain these anomalies?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | richdan0 -
Google Search Listing With Feedback Link
Where can I find some information on the new Google search listing that shows a Feedback link? How does one get this type of Google search listing?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marketvantageteam0 -
Is it Possible to Optimize Another Company Name/Product for Organic Results?
We have a potential new client seeking to rank organically for a company name and brand product who have left the market (still in business as they are a massive medical company, but just moved away from selling this one specific product) and my new client has since picked up their slack and slowly a couple others have entered the market over the past 5 years with different products. My client's product is a direct replacement/alternative to the other product, actually, it's the same, just had to be renamed/rebranded. They are wondering how to get their website ranked for that company and branded product name to show in Google SERPs organically without being slapped with a cease and desist order. We know they can do it for PPC, but how for organic results since we need the content within the site pages or tags. Any suggestions or real life experiences would be greatly appreciated! I look forward to reading your feedback. Patrick
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Do search engines crawl links on 404 pages?
I'm currently in the process of redesigning my site's 404 page. I know there's all sorts of best practices from UX standpoint but what about search engines? Since these pages are roadblocks in the crawl process, I was wondering if there's a way to help the search engine continue its crawl. Does putting links to "recent posts" or something along those lines allow the bot to continue on its way or does the crawl stop at that point because the 404 HTTP status code is thrown in the header response?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brad-causes0