Got Slapped By King G...Want To Slap Him Back. (17)
I recently got slapped by Google for my site greenmantle.co.nz. I get this message on my google webmaster panel:
"Google has detected a pattern of artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site. Buying links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate PageRank are violations of Google's Webmaster Guidelines."
Any ideas of how to shake that off? I don't have a clue where the bad links came from.
It could be from affiliate links to your site that haven't been no-followed, especially if one of your affiliates is promoting it via SEO.
GS
Don't have any affiliates mate.
simple check - try google search link:http://www.greenmantle.co.nz/
medium check - The links should be showing in your Webmaster Tools if its enabled
in depth check - try downloading Link Assistant its free http://www.seopowersuite.com/linkassistant/ should give you a lot of the details you need without buying the premium service
My bad - I guess I didn't read your Mr Green promotes his own product! G'yeah. thread close enough. When I saw the payout listed - I thought you were taking on affiliates for Greenmantle.
I haven't logged into google webmaster lately, because I'm leaving all that SEO madness behind me - but I think I read where they may be listing out the bad links for you now. If not, in the section where it shows the sites linking to you - you'll probably be able to spot the dodgy links there.
You can use the Disavow tool, then submit a reconsideration request - and try to shake those links off that way - but if you're doing any active back-linking or off-page SEO, the Disavow tool can be more of a trap than help.
GS
I have a feeling this link is the trouble maker http://www.crimeanextreme.com/ua/page13.html. However other than emailing them to take it off, I don't know what else to do.
As gunner says you can use the disavow process https://support.google.com/webmaster.../2648487?hl=en and like he also says if you are doing any active link building or off page stuff then be careful as you may lose those links as well
I have read people's post on other forums and they said that they have received messages like this, but they did not lose any ranking. So my question is, have you seen any decrease in traffic?....... If no, then ignore that message.
4 things:
1) Do a link analysis to determine ALL the bad links you might have. https://www.linkresearchtools.com/ has tools to help with this. Or you could just manually do it by pulling the backlinks from MajesticSEO or Ahrefs.com
2) After compiling the list of bad links, begin an outreach campaign to get them removed. There are freelancers that specialize in this, easy enough to hire for this job.
3) Once you have aggressively reached out, disavow the bad links through Google's disavow tool.
4) I'd wait a month at least after all these processes, then I would file a reconsideration request, which can be done through Google's webmaster tools.
Its not a fast and sexy process, but its the best next steps.
PS. If you were doing any blackhat link building, definitely stop that lol.
Great advise above already. Any idea how long that message has been there. And did you definitely notice a slap a.k.a. traffic dropped? These warnings don't always correlate to a loss in traffic / rankings.
The disavow, which a few people have mentioned, is where you should be focusing your time if you can't get the webmasters to take the links down manually. Just be aware that Google aren't the most helpful with this tool and you can't just keep submitting requests. Try and be wary of EVERYTHING before you submit your list of links which you don't want to be credited for.
I recommend Link Assistant also, but if you're willing to splash the cash then Majestic SEO or Ahrefs.com (my preference) will give you a much better idea of the links you have pointing to you. The link: query on Google won't show much at all.
Offer them free bed and breakfast for a week. Then slap them in their sleep
We had issues with competitors buying shitty links on our behalf. There is literally fuck all you can do to stop it other than pull inbound reports daily and be heavy handed with a DMCA.
We found out exactly who it was which turned out to be a multi-billion dollar company who we'd previously heard of pulling other tricks over different companies. Our legal team fast tracked the removal of all the dodgy 'business directory' links. It took about 5 weeks to regain the lost traffic, however we had a pretty solid natural profile.
EDIT - something else you can do is hire an SEO agency who have solid refs in reputation management to remove the links. Since panda a ton of link removal agencies have popped up. I didn't go this route so I can't recommend anyone.
Originally Posted by ViperChill
Hey Mr. Green,
As Viperchill said the only easy way out is to disavow the links, although you can go the webmaster route but thats time consuming and sometimes not that fruitful. I can do it for you if you havn't done it in the past. Thats absolutely without any charge. Its just a help for a fellow forum member.
I'm heading the SEO division of large Hosting company here in Canada. So you'll be in safe hands. I've cleaned the profiles of 7 big sites since penguin update last April, using both webmaster route as well as as disavow route. I'm not saying all this just to show off or impress anyone but just to let you know that you won't be handled by a newbie. Let me know if you need any help.
Originally Posted by dbadwal
I use ahrefs .. to see who is linking to my sites.. and check competitors..
And, I've had about 6 sites slapped.. on various Google updates, sorry to report.. I've only managed to get one to come back.. 
The quickest route to getting back.. is.. build a new one..
By time you get links removed, disavow, wait for Goog to update it algos.. wait again as what you done isnt working.. you could have built a new site..
Originally Posted by grandtheftpixel
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