How vital is it to get rid of spam links?
-
We have about 40, between 1-4 flags. Do you see this as a problem? We looked at the disavow feature, but it seems you need to be cautious about using it. Please advise. Thanks!
-
Ok, that's good to know. I think for now, I"ll leave them alone, unless there's one that seems really irrelevant. Thanks to both of you for your help.
-
Hi,
As Gastón said, you can disavow one by one.
It is not considered an spam link if under 5, a reasonable amount of them and highly related to the industry/niche.
I forgot to mention a basic, that almost all active websites have as normal an spam score 1/17 - 2/17 - 3/17 up to 4/17. Even Moz has 1/17. It might be due to the site has too many inbound links and little outbound links - algorithms might see that as unnatural - it is highly probable, we do not know for sure, that the amount of inbound/outbound links should be according to other websites in the same industry and location. Although, Moz has a lot of inbound links due to is the best SEO source of knowledge and SEO tools.
If as you said, your inbound links are from clients, do not disavow them unless the spam score goes over 6 or 7.
Ma Verónica B.
-
Yes you can disavow one by one
-
Thank you both for your responses. Our spam links are mainly ones back from our client's sites (which are churches/non-profits, so they seem relevant) or from blog posts I have commented on (also relevant to churches.) So, I"m not sure why they are considered spammy.
Question: Can you disavow individual links (and not the whole group of them?)
Thanks again.
-
Hi,
in addition to what María said, remember to use your own and unique knowledge about your niche. Use backlink explorers such as Moz OpenSite Explorer, Ahrefs, MagesticSEO or anyone you like best. Analyze every link and if you think that it should not be part of your link profile.. Disavow them.That's my 2cent.
Best luck!
GR. -
You are most welcome! Ruled out the spam score, although it is important to keep an eye on them due to spam score changes over time.
A second consideration: are those inbound links damaging your website?, are they relevant to your site business/interests? For example, your website is a Corporate Bank having a lot of inbound links from gambling sites which have spam score 1, that is not a good signal, not due to the spam score, but as a bad signal for trust.
Or your website serves a community, with pizza delivery service in Canada, if having a bunch of inbound links from shoe stores in Australia, those are not relevant nor a good signal either. At the time somebody looks for a pizza, Google algorithms might decide to show other pizza delivery, instead the one with that bizarre signals related to interests and locations.
If neither of those issues are in place, as a general rule no action is necessary.
Mª Verónica B.
-
Thanks for your response. I checked our website spam score which is 0. So, do I really need to worry about the spam links? As I mentioned, they are between 1-4 flags, most under 4. Thanks again:-)
-
Hi,
Good question. It is highly important!
Although, there are various considerations to determine what to keep and what to disavow.
Inbound links are like letters of recommendations in the real world.Therefore, it is perfectly natural and very important, to have recommendations from other operators in your industry/niche, universities, linkedIn accounts, as some examples.
Other natural good websites might be, serious aggregators/directories, serious websites for announce your events, high quality press, as some examples.
A second and equally important factor, is the spam score of the website. You can check with the Moz Site Explorer or the MozBar. Also highly important factors are the page authority "PA" and the domain authority "DA".
If you consider that is not relevant for your website and having high spam score, I recommend to disavow, both in Google and Bing.
Of course, it is a task that should be done carefully, studying each link, one by one and following the Webmasters recommendations from each search engine due to they are not equal.
Here is a complete guide by Marie Haynes.
Ma Verónica B.
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
-
Whats the best way to get credit links from sites i've built?
Hello! I've build 100's of sites. They mostly have site wide footer links pointing back to me. I know this is now frowned on. But does anyone have a good solution to get maximum value back from these? A few have a footer link to a credit page that then links back. I get quite a lot of work back from them. So I don't really fancy removing them. Many thanks in advance.
Link Building | | SolveWebMedia0 -
Page links, header links, footer links
HI I have been hearing about links, you should keep to 100 Just look at this url http://www.powerwale.com/store/acdelco-sealed-vrla-iacdv5l--b-5ah-bike-battery/77031 and go for Recommend section, where you same product applies to different vehicles 1. im confused, should keep it or not?
Link Building | | Rahim119
2. Header links are less, Footer links are less, and in the future, we are planning to add more, will this affect SEO more than 100
i see many ecommerce sites, has menu showing many categories, more 100 categories links
3. Wht about link equity? If I have more links in header and footer page(all this will follow in the rest of pages).
4. More links in the header and footer shows that you are big ecommerce site.. Pls suggest, which is right way and go gain SEO value1 -
Deleting links
I've got 280 links on my wordpress blog site, apparently it's recommended to keep under 100 links. How would I know which links to get rid of and which links to keep?
Link Building | | gimes0 -
Text Link vs image link?
Which passes most link juice a text link or an image with the correct 'alt' attribute? Do the pass the same amount or is one more valuable than the other?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Building Links
Hi everyone, I am new to SEO and in the process of building links the clean way. Any suggestions on how exactly I can find websites that are linking out to quality websites already? I went thru most of my competitors link building strategy - and 90% of their links are done either thru link exchange or paid links. So looking at my competitors strategy does not really help. So I need to find websites/blogs/forums that are ready to link to me if I can show them some useful content. How do I find these websites first? Please help! Cheers! Arjun
Link Building | | ArjunRajkumar0 -
Links from any country?
My site is aimed primarily at the UK, 90% of the traffic is from the UK and most of my links are from other UK based and UK targetted websites. The content is actually fairly international (apart from certain terms like Plasterboard instead of Drywall, etc). My question is: Should I concentrate on gathering links from the UK, or should I widen my search and try to get links from US and European websites? Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to keeping links "local"?
Link Building | | Jingo010 -
Getting a link from a page on a site with high site DA but low PA?
Does anyone know if it is still worth it getting a link from a page on a site with a really low Page Authority - say a news page on a site that has an SEO Moz tool bar PA of just 1 or 2, but the domain of the site has a high DA like say 83 Is this worth getting?? Thanks
Link Building | | inhouseninja0