How Do You Uncover Your Spammy Links?

May 30, 2013 - 8:52 am 40 by
Filed Under Link Building

spammy linksA WebmasterWorld thread has a webmaster who seems to have been hit by the Penguin 2.0 update. He is now asking how he should go about discovering which of his links are spammy.

He asked in the thread:

The only thing I can think of is that I may have spammy backlinks. I have 1500 backlinks but do not recognise all the sites that link back to me. How can I find out whether they are spammy and harm my website?

He also details some of the ways he initially acquired those 1,500 backlinks and some of those techniques are a red flag. Now what?

Some suggestions on how to discover the bad links include using Google Webmaster Tools link report. Download all the links and go through each one manually.

Others suggest you use a third-party link tool like Majestic SEO, Raven Tools, SEOmoz (now Moz) or others to get a more complete picture of your links.

You can also use Bing Webmaster Tools.

Either way, with only 1,500 links - I'd spend the time going through each one manually and disavowing the bad ones.

He started the process and was shocked on what he found:

I now had time to look more thoroughly at my backlinks.

Goodness, there is some junk in there: from Russian #*$! sites to numerous article sites that I never posted on.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: See our story named Have Links To Disavow? Google Says Google Webmaster Tools Link Report Is Enough.

Image credit to BigStockPhoto for one bad link image

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 15, 2024

Mar 15, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Previous Story: Google AdSense Updates Ad Review Center