LINK REMOVALS AND AVOIDING THE WRATH OF GOOGLE

•When should we think about

removing links

• How should we do it?

• How can we stop ourselves being

in the same position again?

@kirsty_hulse

Kirsty Hulse

SEO Strategist – DigitasLBi

kirstyhulse.com/blog

When Should We Think About

Removing Links?

You are the weakest link

If Your Site Has Any Of The Following…

A GWT Link Warning

Links on sites like this

Or This….

Or This….

Or This….

A Penalty

Removing Links Isn’t Easy Or Cheap – Make

Sure It’s The Right Choice For Your

Site

Look holistically at

the landscape

Consider ratios of good/bad

Consider anchor text

ALWAYS check onsite

first

MAKE INFORMED JUDGEMENT CALLS BASED ON YOUR USERS AND YOUR EXPERTISE

Start by using tools to identify ‘the

worst’ links

Use Excel to search for dupe IPs,

conditional format ‘text containing, 301s & parked

domains

DONE – If it has malware, is sitewide,

or the URL is seolinkz.org then there’s no need to manually review

Identifying the links

What Should The Process Look Like?

Goodbye!

Threaten site owners/bloggers with site

disavowPay?

DON’T

Lie

DO

Offer to give SEO or Social advice in exchange

‘Bad’ links can be on high quality sites (advertorials etc),

use this as an opener.Include the link in question in the email

Suggest adding no follow

PICK UP THE PHONE

Ensure the link is actually removable

AND WHEN ALL THAT FAILS….

How To Avoid The Wrath Of

Google

Matt Cutts said in his most recent Webmaster video…

“A page with more links pointing to it has higher page rank […] and if it has higher page rank then we might think

that it’s a better match for users queries.”

WE NEED TO KEEP BUILDING LINKS, AT SCALE, FOR OUR CLIENTS

AND THE SEO WEAPON OF CHOICE IS DIVERSITY

FOLLOW VS NO FOLLOW

Questions?!