June 16, 2015
How to lift google manual links penalty
June 16, 2015
How to lift google manual links penalty
Earlier I wrote an article about, What Is A Google Penalty And How To Fix It, where I touched upon two main issues – Google Algorithm updates and onsite spammy techniques. Now I am going to march on a different drum and address the topic of deceitful link schemas:
A link schema is the presence of external or internal (outgoing) links that intend to unnaturally manipulate site’s rankings in SERPs. There are two ways to be trapped in a link schema: by generating out of the ordinary external links and/or sell internal (outgoing) links. Let’s take a look at some common examples of such bad practices:
No motive could be an excuse for such actions of any professional SEO. These spammy techniques for increased ranking are nothing more but a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Yes, your website will increase its rankings enormously but only for a while. Afterwards, in consequence of such behaviour, you risk to be clinched in a Manual Links Penalty and be de-ranked from SEPRs. Does it worth its salt?
The first thing you have to understand is that the SEO process takes time. My experience as a SEO expert has utterly convinced me in that. So I better settle it right now.
Off the top of my head, I think everyone of us have been seduced by Black Hat SEO link techniques but don’t do them in future. Or you’ll certainly hear the sound of traffic silence some day. Unfortunately, sometimes we could become a victim of bad SEO advice or turn up in the middle of a link building cross-fire. So how do you know, if your website is under surveillance or even suspension by the Webspam Team?
The first thing you have to do, after you notice a rapid decrease in Organic Traffic and rankings, is to open your Google Webmaster Tool and go to sections Site Messages and Search Traffic -> Manual Actions. Normally, if you’re under any Manual Action by Google, you’ll have a notification with brief explanation why your site has been suspended.
In case you suspect a Manual Penalty, because of rapid decrease of Organic Traffic and lack of recent search engine’s update, better take a look at you backlink profile. To do so you could use tools such as aHref or Moz. Another way is to open your Google Webmaster Tool, go to Search Traffic -> Links to Your Site. You have to download the list and filter them by the most recent date. What you have to do is to check for a big number of external links in the last 30 days or more. Are there any links from websites you’re not familiar with? Better go and check them. May be you’ve become a victim of a competitor’s spam attack or cross-link battle.
Recently I’ve read an article by Marie Haynes in Search Engine Watch on the matter. She reminds us that manual link penalties have their expiration date. In her article she writes how “in a 2011 video, Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts explained that penalties expire and that the length of the penalty usually correlates to the severity of the problem that Google is seeing.”
Since we don’t have any grounded rule stating the length of expiration period (because of the particular nature of any different case), we’d better take action and get rid of the spammy backlinks. Usually I recommend two ways of doing that: manually or semi-automated. For the semi-automated approach you need some extra budget for tools. My choice is Link Detox. But if your budget is too tight then you need to undertake the following steps:
Tip: check your 301 redirects also. The Disavow Tool may not work through a 301 redirect.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me :)
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