How can I block incoming links from a bad web site ?

[artdivision]

Hello all,

We got a new client recently who had a warning from Google Webmasters tools for manual soft penalty. I did a lot of search and I found out one particular site that sounds roughly 100k links to one page and has been potentialy a high risk site.

I wish to block those links from coming in to my site but their webmaster is nowhere to be seen and I do not want to use the disavow tool.

Is there a way I can use code to our htaccess file or any other method?

Would appreciate anyone's immediate response.

Kind Regards

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Hi Yiannis,

As far as I'm aware, there isn't really a way to "block" a link.  The link is seen on the other site.  Returning a 404 for the page being linked to doesn't change the fact that there are a 100K links from one site pointing at your site.  The only options I'm aware of are to 1.) contact the owner of the website with the links and ask them to remove the links and 2.) if that doesn't work disavow the links.

I understand your hesitancy to use the disavow tool, but quite frankly, this is exactly what it is intended for.

If you feel comfortably with the links being there and think Google has already dealt with them, then do nothing, but if you want to do something about the links, you either have to get them removed or disavow them.

BTW - My understanding of the partial manual actions is that often times Google not only deals with the suspicious links (devaluing them), but they also penalize the pages/keywords they think you were attempting to manipulate.  So, just because it was a partial action and not a full site action doesn't mean it's not effecting some of your rankings.  It's just not going to affect all your rankings for all your pages.

Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com

[artdivision]

Hi eyepaq and thanks for your reply, much appreciated

The reason I do not want to use the disavow tool is because

1. Google sent on the message that "took targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole", meaning they took care of the problem 2) Ranking and traffic looking solid
2. I have seen a lot of cases where people used it and lost rankings (some never recovered).

My thoughts were to block the spammy links and monitor if the traffic will be affected (which I doubt as it seems most of it is for branded searches). If then I face de-index, drops then use the disavow/reconsideration request.

What do you think?

[eyepaq]

Hi,

If you are talking about one or only a few sites then it's easy.

Just build a disavow file as there is no down side to that . The disavow with domain:domainname.com (not individual pages) and upload it via Web master Tools. After sumbiting the file - send a reconsideration request explaining the situation and mentioning the disavow file. You should be safe after that.

Alternatively - but to be honest I don't see the reason why not going with the first option - is to return a 404 if the referral is that domain.

Hope it helps.