Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Removing inbound links
-
How can I remove inbound links?
-
Thanks for the responses Guys!
The reason I wanted to know more about removing links was because a website that I look after had stopped receiving GA stats. I looked at the inbound links and found a few that where completely unrelated to the site (one from Japan and not translatable).
I did search for the Disavow tool from Google, but decided to try to contact the sites first to see if I can get the links removed that way.
On closer inspection, and much worry, I discovered that the GA tracking had stopped! How could that happen? As far as I know I am the only one with access to FTP... Worrying, but fixed now and I have had an education about the Disavow tool and link removal along the way
One more question: Are nofollow links harmful to a site if they are inbound?
-
Is this in response to a notice from Google or general house cleaning? And you need to asses if those links are actually causing you any harm in the first place, for example are they nofollow?
First step in removing links is always to try and contact the webmaster and ask them to remove the links. this is important as this will then impact on all Search engines, not just Google which would be the case if you automatically went for Disavow tool. It also provides you an audit trail if in future you find you need to demonstrate to search engines, say through a reconsideration request, that you have made an effort to clean up your site and comply with webmaster guidelines, To find contact details for a website you can try contact details on the site itself or look them up with tools such as the whois directory.
If contact fails, or if they demand money for removal then you should consider using Googles Disavow tool. Again please note this will only impact Google's algorithm. It should only really be a last resort however. You can access this through Webmaster tools, just search for disavow tool in the help section to the top right and follow the links,
-
Google Disavow, always good fun lol
I would suggest that you ensure that this is required before going down this path.... it is very time consuming, can negatively effect your current rankings, and is often not required!
-
Before using Disavow you will need to make a concerted effort to manually have the links removed. A good tool to coordinate this would be Rmoov. I would use Disavow as the last thing, if all else fails.
-
Use Google's disavow tool - detailed description here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en
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
-
Unsolved Link Tracking List Error
"I have been maintaining 5 directories of backlinks in the 'Link Tracking List' section for several months. However, I am unable to locate any of these links at this time. Additionally, the link from my MOZ profile is currently broken and redirects to an error page, no to Elche Se Mueve. Given the premium pricing of MOZ's services, these persistent errors are unacceptable."
Moz Pro | | Alberto D.0 -
Unsolved Is Moz Able to Track Internal Links Per Page?
I am trying to track internal links and identify orphan pages. What is the best way to do this?
Moz Pro | | WebMarkets0 -
Removing Domains From Disavow File
We may have accidentally included the wrong domains in our Disavow file and have since removed most domains leaving the only very highly rated spammy links (using moz's new spam score)in the file. How long can it take for to google to recognise this change?ThanksMike
Moz Pro | | mlb70 -
Competitor getting External Links from search.aol.com
Recently, I noticed that one of the competitors I track within my Moz campaign received about 12 new inbound links. As a result, there DA jumped about 10 points. I reviewed these new external links and was surprised to see that they are all "search.aol.com/aol/search?query= ..." with Link Anchor Text that is good for the industry we compete in. Can anyone tell me why these are being counted as "Inbound Links". It just doesn't seem right. Is this some sort of black hat seo tactic?
Moz Pro | | itvisionsinc0 -
Tumblr and Link Equity
Hi Moz Community, I've recently decided to start a project where I gather 1,000 great examples of something that's searched for often, and am thinking that posting it to a Tumblr site like the following website did could be a great way to pass link equity back to my main site (with a little "site by [my site]" somewhere in the header or footer). While I was super pumped about this idea today, and have now gathered almost 500 of my examples (mentioned above), I am not seeing link equity passed from this site, even on the non-redirected links here: http://gothamlogos.tumblr.com/ Anyone have any experience with projects like this? I've checked read the Moz Tumblr and SEO article from a few years ago, which makes it seem like this should be an SEO "win"... But using the Moz Pro account tools, I'm not seeing any of these non-redirect links (ordinary links) giving any value to anyone on this example site. Thanks so much in advance, Zack
Moz Pro | | Zack2 -
Whether or not to remove a link from a website with high spam score on Open Site Explorer
Hello Moz! I just subscribed for your Moz Pro program. Amazing stuff! On open site explorer, I found a number of links to my site from a page called with a very high page authority and high domain authority, but also a high spam score (8 or 9, one with a 10). I say multiple spam scores, because it's strange, there are what appears variations of the same url, and each one is considered a link. For instance, there's an abc.linkstomysite.com and xyz.linktomysite.com, and 123.linktomysite.com... there are about 15 of these (all with the spam scores mentioned above)! This must have been some old SEO work done I payed for back in the prehistoric SEO days. However, my fear is the following: Removing these links, and then losing some potentially strong link juice. I don't have many high DA or PA links to my site, and these are some major ones. The domain in question "linktomysite.com", when entered into OSE, only has a spam score of 4, and it has a domain authority of 45 and page authority of 37. My site has a spam score of 2 and no messages from google regarding a penalty, but an overall reduction in google traffic over the years (just keeps slowly dropping... as if a weight is pulling me down?) What do you think, should I leave, or remove? The linkstomysite page is just a LONG page full of links, with short descriptions, nothing of value, but with a an old domain age (relatively). Most important for me is keeping at least some ranking/visibility, while I personally work on building quality links and helpful content. thanks!
Moz Pro | | DavidC.0 -
How to remove 404 pages wordpress
I used the crawl tool and it return a 404 error for several pages that I no longer have published in Wordpress. They must still be on the server somewhere? Do you know how to remove them? I think they are not a file on the server like an html file since Wordpress uses databases? I figure that getting rid of the 404 errors will improve SEO is this correct? Thanks, David
Moz Pro | | DJDavid0 -
How do you check the outbound links of a site?
There are great tools like http://www.opensiteexplorer.org that will tell you all about the inbound links. What about the more basic and easier question: What outgoing links does this site have?
Moz Pro | | SkinLaboratory2