SEO Nonsense

[verbster]

Here's an explanation of the e-mail about removing spam links from your site that are supposedly affecting theirs.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/oneflare-pops-up-again-when-it-comes-to-spammy-seo/

The spam I've received start like this:

Dear Website Owner:

We have discovered that a company we hired to help promote our website [their domain name] have used a variety of questionable techniques to secure links to our website. These links were placed purely for SEO purposes, with the intention of manipulating search rankings.

It appears that there may be links like this that have been placed on your site.

The presence of these links is harmful to our site's good standing with search engines, and unfortunately, retaining them may also be potentially harmful to your own website's reputation.

We would ask that you please remove any links on your site that link to [their domain name]. . . . etc.

 

[solankikunwarpal]

No, the links help one immensely to get started in the beginning and drive traffic. Hope this helps, while i get my head around your message.

 

[briguy]

Here's an explanation of the e-mail about removing spam links from your site that are supposedly affecting theirs.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/oneflare-pops-up-again-when-it-comes-to-spammy-seo/

The spam I've received start like this:

Dear Website Owner:

We have discovered that a company we hired to help promote our website [their domain name] have used a variety of questionable techniques to secure links to our website. These links were placed purely for SEO purposes, with the intention of manipulating search rankings.

It appears that there may be links like this that have been placed on your site.

The presence of these links is harmful to our site's good standing with search engines, and unfortunately, retaining them may also be potentially harmful to your own website's reputation.

We would ask that you please remove any links on your site that link to [their domain name]. . . . etc.

Possible Negative SEO?

 

[Tushar Batra]

I have many Web Directories and I get these type of mails very often.

And Now I have setup an automatic process in all my directories.

Whenever I get a mail like this then automatically a reply is being send with 2 options.

1) User can login in my site and delete the link they submitted or enable a no follow tag.
2) If they don't know the credentials then they have to submit there site in link removal page and have to pay the fees.

Note : All this mentioned in our terms page.

Nowdays : I am getting 1-2 paid submission /month but 4-5 paid link removal request.

 

[enlytend]

The issue is that people have been being hit with algorithmic (Penguin) and manual link penalties. The manual penalties are the worst - Google tells site owners the penalty exists and to get rid of manipulative links.

They don't TELL the site owner which links to get rid of. So panicked site owners start a delete-a-thon. Submit a reconsideration request and a disavow file. Weeks later, Google says "uh-uh - not good enough. Delete some more." Still no feedback WHICH links it objects to.

Penguin is a guessing game. Delete, disavow, wait 6 months for the refresh, see if things come back.

(You might think "Why can't Google just ignore links it thinks are manipulative?" Maybe because it can't readily identify them? And crowdsourcing the job by spreading a FUD campaign works rather well? )

If you get a request, just make sure it comes from the domain associated with the link, not a free gmail/yahoo/etc. That could be someone trying to sink a competing site. But many of those emails are legit.

 

[iowadawg]

Easy....
CHARGE A FEE~!

You want a link removed from one of my blogs?
Going to cost you.

End of story.

 

[enlytend]

Charging for your time to remove a link is fair.... but its ridiculous that people see a need to do this because of an entity which once TOLD people to get links to their sites...

Very timely overview of the whole mess:

http://www.seobook.com/divide-and-conquer-algorithm

Long read but worth it!

and apparently BuyDomains has been sending out link removal requests ... even though they don't appear to have a linking problem!

A marketplace with millions of pages that doesn't have broad consumer awareness is likely to get nailed by Panda. And the websites linking to it are likely to end up in disavow files, not because they did anything wrong but because Google is excellent at nurturing fear.

 

[Chris Wright]

I noticed that Bing still gives me high rankings, without prostituting myself. Google doesn't care about me, unless I'm paying for clicks.

A few years ago, a business associate turned to Adwords to boost his business. He wound up selling his limos to pay his Google bill. "F" Google!_\|/_

 

[enlytend]

I noticed that Bing still gives me high rankings, without prostituting myself. Google doesn't care about me, unless I'm paying for clicks.

Bing is also still generous to EMD's. The problem though is that there's so much more search traffic on Google than on Bing, Yahoo, etc. combined. That said, Bing converts well.

A few years ago, a business associate turned to Adwords to boost his business. He wound up selling his limos to pay his Google bill. "F" Google!_\|/_

Yeah, Google makes it really easy to get started but they don't go out of their way to tell folks the "gotchas." It can work really well (I manage PPC campaigns for clients), but you have to have a clue what you're doing or you'll waste your money.

(Though with all due respect to your friend, maybe he shouldn't have set his daily budget higher than he could afford ?)

Google is a business, not your friend. Their agenda is their own bottom line, not yours. But the moving target "policies" and fear-mongering over links is just bad, any way you look at it.

 

[mhdoc]

Easy....
CHARGE A FEE~!

You want a link removed from one of my blogs?
Going to cost you.

End of story.

Seems like a "great" business opportunity

1. Set up a bunch of spammy links sites.
2. Add links to everyone you can think of
3. Wait for the (paid) removal requests to roll in

 

[Chris Wright]

(Though with all due respect to your friend, maybe he shouldn't have set his daily budget higher than he could afford ?)

I don't presume that he was smart about his campaign.
But, having managed several campaigns myself, it *seems* engineered to be under-performing (no business) or over-performing (costing too much).
Whenever I found the sweet spot, it lasted a few days and then got lopsided again.

Seems like a "great" business opportunity

I'm sure we all know by now, that when you "stick it" others, the universe "sticks it" to you, even worse.

 

[enlytend]

Seems like a "great" business opportunity

1. Set up a bunch of spammy links sites.
2. Add links to everyone you can think of
3. Wait for the (paid) removal requests to roll in

It's been tried. Somewhat self-limiting, but I'm sure some lowlifes don't care. The other "business opportunity" is that the old "SEO spam" emails are being replaced by "we'll remove your bad links" spam.

Not sure which is scarier ... possibly the latter !

But, having managed several campaigns myself, it *seems* engineered to be under-performing (no business) or over-performing (costing too much)..

Nah !!! Unless you have aggressive competitors with wide-open wallets, that shouldn't happen. I have clients who've dumped their :"phone book" ads for Adwords and are very happy with it.

( I don't want to hijack verbster's thread, but if you want to open another one someplace I'd be happy to discuss further )

 

[Paul]

I never bothered with links back when they supposedly helped, and my search rankings were more than fine. I had no trouble getting on the first page for relevant, common keywords. I'm not having a problem now that (certain) links are supposedly bad. Clearly the only way to win the game is not to play it.

 

[Kenny]

Clearly the only way to win the game is not to play it.

"War Games" reference.... nice

Peace,
Cy