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Deleting BackLinks (disavowing)

shags38

Top Contributor
I can only assume a couple of my sites have been hit by 'Penguin' and rightly so given the new algorithm - I have/had many thousands of links going to the sites in question from my own sites of totally unrelated subject matter. Not quite link farming but close enough as far as Google is concerned now. (I have not received any correspondence from Google advising of bad links - just an educated assumption it is a Penguin penalty)

I have gone through all my sites that are the linking sites and 'deleted' all offending links. That was a couple of weeks ago and the offending links are still showing up in WMT and indeed on some other backlink checkers.

How long does it take for Google to recognize that the links are no loner there?

In deleting the links it obviously meant re-publishing the site(s) which alerts Googlebot to re-crawl for changes so I would assume the bot has seen the link deletions and fed that new info back to Google - so how long before they react?

I also deleted any old files in the root of each site that had links.

Hopefully I have done all that is required to get the links out of the reach of the crawlers.

Any advice appreciated.

cheers,
Shags
 

helloworld

Top Contributor
Could take 3-612 months..never. I don't think their has been any indication of when or if Google which actively scoure for shit links

I'd concentrate on your onsite optimisation at this point. Create new content, get rid of spammy headers, create new pages with new links from the home page etc.

Good luck
 

shags38

Top Contributor
Could take 3-612 months..never. I don't think their has been any indication of when or if Google which actively scoure for shit links

I'd concentrate on your onsite optimisation at this point. Create new content, get rid of spammy headers, create new pages with new links from the home page etc.

Good luck

??? I could spend a lifetime doing what you suggest and still not rank in the SERPs if the problem is Penguin related, i.e. links. Content and onsite optimization are not the issues here, the sites in question were on page 1 / 2, BEFORE the last PENGUIN update and it appears it is a -250 penalty so I needed to sort out the links issues which I have done, just asking if anyone knew how long it took for the crawlers to recognize that the pages they do crawl that links are no longer there - not scour for shit links - but thanks for the response anyway. :)

cheers,
Shags
 

aus11

Top Contributor
Don't go deleting links before you know that is the actual cause. A couple of my sites took major traffic hits corresponding with a couple of the big updates and I was going to disavow some links but decided to submit a reconsideration request first - and got a reply saying there was no problems with my sites (which I took to mean they basically just devalued the links I had not penalised me).
 

shags38

Top Contributor
Don't go deleting links before you know that is the actual cause. A couple of my sites took major traffic hits corresponding with a couple of the big updates and I was going to disavow some links but decided to submit a reconsideration request first - and got a reply saying there was no problems with my sites (which I took to mean they basically just devalued the links I had not penalised me).

Thanks Tom - I read similar advice in some webmaster forums but also advice to the contrary so it is a minefield. In my case I had upwards of 200 of MY SITES linking to the sites in question (which are eCommerce sites) and those sites were parked and definitively non related content - I had over 700k links from my own sites to just one of my eComm sites - that was fine until the last Penguin update. What was once seen as OK is no longer OK - it appears Google now sees 'unnatural' linking/ cross linking between multiple sites of the SAME OWNER as being link farming. The key word is 'unnatural' - that is essentially what Penguin seems to be about.

So I figure deleting those 'spammy' links was necessary. I have not used Googles Disavow links request as from what I read Google will check into what efforts you have made to be rid of the offending links first before actioning the request. If the links have not been naturally deleted from GoogleBot in a few weeks time I will likely submit a request as I know I have deleted the links from my sites.

I just do not want to take that step until I have let the natural course of the process take place - the problem is I do not know what that time frame should be, hence this thread.

I have not requested deletion of any other links from sending sites to my sites and will not as I would tend to agree with your sentiments for those links.

I am actually taking the advice of Matt Cutts (for once) and starting again - rebuilding and then re-launching the sites under different domain names. I do however want to keep the other 'previously successful domains' live and have them tidied up in the hope that one day they will be revived (forgiven, de-penalized) by Google. Either that or I should start paying for Google ads to fix my problem?

Let us all pray that Bing, in time, pushes Google off its mantle :rolleyes: (those same sites being penalized by Google are continuing to rank very well in Bing)
 

aus11

Top Contributor
I have not used Googles Disavow links request as from what I read Google will check into what efforts you have made to be rid of the offending links first before actioning the request. If the links have not been naturally deleted from GoogleBot in a few weeks time I will likely submit a request as I know I have deleted the links from my sites.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. I was chatting with another website owner who got hit my Penguin and get his traffic back and he said this:

"no warning message but when I filed a reconsideration they confirmed it was unnatural links so I disavowed & submitted another!"

That was Twitter abbreviated, but I am fairly sure he didn't bother trying to remove the links before disavowing them.

But I think starting from scratch can sometimes be the better option.
 

helloworld

Top Contributor
It's considered link farming when the other sites provide no value.

How are you actually checking the links have no value? I could put my content on other sites in a related topic and they would be fine.

I'd install the SEO moz toolbar and check the domain authority. You can also see if your site/linking site has been banned by googling site:domainname.com iif it's not there it's ****ed.

You probably want to have a chat to the dudes on the Warrior forum as a heap of them have been hit and experiencing similar issues.
 

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