Once upon a time, the key to search engine optimization was links, links, links. The more links you had to your website, the better, as Google algorithms focused more on the number of links pointing to a particular website than they did the quality of the links. However, this has gradually changed over the past couple of years as Google changed the way its algorithms work. Now, the quality of the links has far higher value than the quantity, leaving many companies watching their Google ranking slip thanks to a plethora of low-quality links. If you’ve watched your rank slip over the past few months, yet you’ve changed nothing about your site or how you conduct your SEO, there’s a pretty good chance your previous link building efforts are coming back to haunt you. But what can you do about it?
Getting Rid of Toxic Links
Artonic follows Google’s algorithm very closely, which is why we know how important it is for toxic links to be removed. Having conducted our own in-house research, we know with a high degree of certainty when toxic links built by a former marketing company are the culprit of lower search engine rankings. This often causes us to begin the “clean up” via Google’s disavow process. However, Google disavow regulations are quite strict, so this process is time-intensive. To remove the toxic links to your website, we must contact all webmasters of the sites where those links are present and individually request that they be removed. For any links that cannot be removed through this method, we must send a list of them to Google and request that they be disavowed. It can take Google a couple of months to complete the toxic link removal, and after they have done so, your rankings may begin to increase again.
It is important to note that due to the time-consuming nature of this process, it could take 10 hours or 100 hours to complete, depending on the severity of the toxic link profile. In order to devote the appropriate amount of time to effectively complete the toxic link removal, other activities that we perform, such as social media activity and guest blogging, will be reduced. But don’t worry! This process is ultimately highly valuable to your company’s SEO success.
Beware of Paid Link Removal Scams
With the advent of Google’s new algorithms we’ve also seen an increase in scam sites boasting that they can remove your toxic links immediately-for a fee, of course. Such websites can charge you anywhere from $5 to $10 per bad link, which adds up to a whole lot of money lining their pockets. The cost alone is enough to give most business owners pause, but the temptation to invest in such a scam can still be great when such sites are offering up promises of quick and easy toxic link removal. Why wait for a legitimate SEO company to take months to remove your toxic links when these fly-by-night sites can do it in just a few days? Please do not be fooled by such empty promises – not only are these sites charging exorbitant prices, the truth of the matter is there really isn’t a truly effective way to get these bad links removed any faster. Even Google recommends bypassing these companies in favor of sticking with the more time consuming, but also more effective Google disavow process. When asked about these paid link removal sites in an interview with Search Engine Roundtable, Google’s Senior Webmaster John Mueller stated: “Personally I’d recommend not going down that route. From our point of view when it comes to unnatural links to your website we want to see that you’ve taken significant steps to actually remove it from the web.” Unfortunately, the only way to do this is by completing the time-consuming disavow process that Google itself has put into place.
Let us Help You
Seeing your Google ratings slip? Contact us today! Our understanding of the Google disavow process means we can help. If you want to discuss your options, contact us. We’ll meet to discuss your needs and goals, and help you make a decision as to what’s best for your company – not what’s best for ours.
Visit www.ArtonicWeb.com; call 517-902-7851; email [email protected].