Sudden drop in external links... why?
-
We had a lot of external links (2.5K, which was good compared to our competition), but in the last few weeks, it dropped 1.1K. I obviously did something wrong. What are the causes of such a dramatic drop like that?
Questions, suggestions, ideas, anything is welcome at this point.
Thanks!
-
Hi Brandon,
It looks like you've changed the original question...
The original question was to do with a drop in the number of internal links. Are you sure it's external links you are talking about?
Cheers,
David
-
Hi David,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, we did update the header and footer. I'm curious – why would that cause me to loose that many backlinks?
I didn't loose any points in my DA score nor drop in my keyword rankings, so that's a good thing. But loosing 1.1K backlinks is never a good thing to see.
Thanks!
Brandon -
Hi Brandon,
Sounds like you might've updated the site template and removed some sitewide links to partner sites or social profiles.
Have you made any template changes (or header/footer changes) recently?
And just FYI, more external links doesn't mean you are doing better than your competition and the drop in external links doesn't necessarily mean you've done something wrong.
Cheers,
David
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
-
Am I better off with ten links from one site or one link from ten sites?
I am writing a series of linked-back articles for a highly-ranked web publisher, but wonder if I'd be better off sharing the articles across different sites. My goal is to grow our domain authority and SEO rankings.
Link Building | | Lysarden0 -
Spam links - what would you do?
Hello, A few months back our website was hacked which we noticed quickly and got fixed. However, there still is a lot of dodgy backlinks, linking to the spam pages. They come up in Webmaster Tools, Moz and SEM rush. According to the Moz Spam tool, a few of them have been given 7 flags which Moz suggests gives a 30% chance of being penalised by Google. The website has great rankings (position 1-3 in most targeted keywords) so I am scared of doing something that will harm the rankings, however I also aware that Google may do an update which could take these spam links into account. I have no experience of using the disavow tool but from reading up about it, it should only be used as a last resort. So my question is - what would you do?
Link Building | | N2Digital0 -
Sitewide links
Hi there, We operate about a dozen websites that are part of the same parent company. All these websites are in the same vertical, and link among each other in the footer section. The anchor for each link is the brand name, so we are merely doing it to show what other products the parent company has to offer. My question is: do you think this is still advisable, or it might trigger a penalty? Also, what would you choose between: Sitewide footer links from each site to the other sites. A single footer link on the homepage from each site to the other sites. A presentation page on each website, one click away from the homepage, which presents the company's other websites. Thanks.
Link Building | | propertyshark0 -
Will removing a 301 re-direct from an old spammed URL drop the links from our profile?
Essentially there is an old page that has been the target of an old school link building agency. There is a 301 re-direct from the old page to the newer version. if I drop the 301 re-direct and update our sitemaps. Will those links be removed from our profile? The old URL passes nothing in actual value & a link building campaign has been running on the new page for over a year.
Link Building | | BenjyH0 -
When do my links show up?
For the last two weeks I have been working on linkbuilding. I have downloaded competitors link reports and started contacting or submitting links. In the last two weeks I have gotten about 50-60 or so. In the newest report it shows I went up four c-blocks. Why is that? It is kind of discouraging.
Link Building | | EcommerceSite0 -
Link in the footer
we have a sponsored link in the footer of a website, and since that footer is displayed on each page of that site, it shows that we have thousands of links coming from that site. my question is : does Google consider this as spamming? and does it help us , harm us, or has no effect?
Link Building | | puremobile0 -
Google Link Disavow and sites with extremely heavy but poor link metrics
Need help/opinions from the SEO's out there. I am working with a site that in the past hired an SEO company out of India. Over the course of their time together, this company submitted the clients url to tens of thousands of link exchanges and directories. Around the time of Penguin, the owners told me their inquiries dried up. Literally that same week they had a new website launched (designed by a local competitor) that really butchered the site. They were convinced the reduction in traffic/inquiries was due to the new site but I am convinced otherwise (suspect Penguin). Not only does the site need to be re-structured but their link portfolio needs to be diversified. Now on the plus side, the company caters and sponsors a number of events that earns them organic, relevant links. These are overshadowed by the tons of poor, irrelevant ones though. I read a few posts recently on the Google Link Disavow tool and to proceed slowly due to the unknown nature surrounding it. I have a good idea of what links are problematic and which ones are well served. However, the number of problematic links in my estimation is quite high (thousands). I am very hesitant to dive into Google Disavow and submit such a large number of requests. What are your thoughts? How would you proceed?
Link Building | | mattylac1 -
What would you do about dead inbound links?
Hey guys, I recently asked a question similar to this, but wanted to spark up a bit of a discussion around it to see what everyone's feelings were on it. The web is always changing - as we're all too aware - so links you may have obtained (by however means) let's say 2 years ago may not be 'active' now. By that I mean you may have had a link from "example_-website.com" in 2010 and now "example-_website.com" is no longer an active website - but still shows a parked domain. The thing is... this parked domain is still cropping up in OSE, suggesting that Google may still believe there's a link there - and may not have re-crawled that site to prove otherwise. The issue I've had with this is an SEO company built links to the sites I'm working on now (one of the sites has been penalised as a result of their link building). These links aren't 'active' anymore and when viewed on OSE, they just head straight to a parked domain with no visible (or in-source) link to my site. What are everyone's feelings on this? What would you all do? I'm in two minds whether to re-write a section of the website.... but I'm swaying towards creating better content and NOT re-directing the old URLs to it (just contact the decent links and ask for a change of link). Looking forward to seeing your responses and speaking to you all! Nick
Link Building | | Danapollo0