Been selling links on your web design site and got busted by Google guys? This post walks you through the process of revoking a Google algo penalty.
The routine that I describe in this article has worked for a bunch of sites now. So, it’s based on my real life experience. Before you go any further, odds are, you want to know what upset the big G and why exactly you got that penalty.
Why it happened
Thing is, Google uses links pointing from other sites to yours to assess your site’s value. That data is used when Google decides how high your site should rank in search results. In a nutshell, the more links from authority resources (sites), the better.
Problem is, reality is by far a more complicated place to be in. Some blog owners just sell links which Google considers an attempt to manipulate their search results. And that’s exactly why Google is not happy when you sell links on your site.
Why it’s actually a good thing
I’m not really trying to sound harsh here though it may seem so. Here’s the thing. Once you get such a penalty, you need to quickly realize that you just won’t be able to earn money the way you did before. And that’s a good thing because it just had to happen. Sooner or later. Now that you obviously can’t go the same route, you need to find other ways.
Hopefully, you’ll search for methods that Google is ok with. It’s perfect timing to raise the bar and start improving your content quality from now on. If selling links was just part of the mix, you need to really focus on affiliate marketing or creating your own stuff. If you do so, Google will just pat you on your back in the long run.
When it comes to web design blogs, it’s best to just create awesome content (designs, icons, blog posts, etc) and just add affiliate banners in the sidebar of your blog. By the way, be sure to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute in your links. Google is totally ok with that sort of affiliate links. With that in mind, you still need to promote only those companies and services that have something to do with your niche.
Other than that, you want to recommend only the companies whose services or products you already used and know that they are of decent quality, at least. Sure thing, it has nothing to do with Google rankings, You want to behave that way just because you should respect your audience because it will pay you ten-fold.
Now that you know why such things happen and why they are actually good for the long haul, you’re probably dying to learn what to do if disaster already struck and your site is in the middle of nowhere in terms of search engine rankings. Now let me walk you through the process step-by-step.
Arrival of the penalty
Say, you received your Unnatural outbound links penalty email message. By the way, outbound links – as opposed to inbound ones – are those that link off your site to third party ones (other sites). Your message should look similar to the following.
On one hand, the message may seem spooky, but there’s a silver lining as well. The Recommended portion of the message gives you a few ideas of what you may want to do next in the morning to fix the issue. Though the actual solution is still up in the air, you absolutely need to put the tips that Google offers to good use.
That’s because the solutions that the penalty message offers you right off the bat usually work. At this point, you’re on pretty good terms with Google and they just want you to solve the problem that you got on your hands. That said, you should not jump the gun right away. You need to make sure that you discuss removing or relocating links with your clients who bought them from you back in the day.
Let your clients know about it
Since the people that bought text links from you won’t be getting any Google juice after you’ve nofollowed your outbound links, you should contact them and either offer refunding (at least partial) or arrange a different sort of cooperation, such as affiliate campaigns, banner ads, just to name a few. You don’t want to just nofollow your links without letting your clients know about it. For starters, it’s just unethical.
Secondly, chances are, they keep track of their links with the help of SEO software (such as LinkAssistant) which automatically monitors links and momentarily finds out if some SEO metrics undergo a change, let alone the rel=”nofollow” attribute. So, no monkey business, please.
Note: you still may try to convince your client that it actually makes sense to keep links even if they are nofollow ones. Google seems to factor in brand mentions in its algorithm.
Chances are, you’ll just have to change anchor texts of your links to use actual brand names. You can read more about that approach here. That said, it’s more like what is starting to work now and going to work in full swing down the road but now right now.
Nofollow right this instant
As you already know, the more sites and blogs point links to your site, the better. The vote that each site gives yours by linking is often referred to as Google juice or Page Rank. Basically, Google juice is all the goodies (kinda votes) that you get from sites that link back to you.
With that in mind, not every link transfers Google juice. Here’s how it works. If you add rel=”nofollow” to your link, it doesn’t carry any juice. For example, the following link does not give any Google juice to the site it points to:
<a href=”http://www.example” rel=”nofollow”>click here</a>
I mentioned the rel=”nofollow” attribute because it’s the first thing that you need to do once you get an outbound links penalty from Google. It’s ok to link back to a site and even use links as ads if they use the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
At least, it’s what Google say. You need to nofollow your links because it’s pretty fast and easy to do. Plus that’s exactly what Google offers you to do in order to fix the issue.
In case you know which exactly outbound links may seem unnatural to Google, you can just manually use the rel=”nofollow” attribute with them. Should it not be the case and you use WordPress, you can just install a widget that will nofollow all our outbound links. You can just go to WordPress.org and seach the widet repository for “nofollow outbound links”.
Once all your links are nofollowed, you want to submit a reconsideration request. You can do it in your Google Webmaster Tools account. You should just tell Google that you’ve nofollowed all your unnatural outbound links and kindly ask them to revoke the penalty.
Google doesn’t buy it
If Google replied after you nofollowed your links and say your site still violates their quality guidelines, you may want to literally remove some links on your site.
You should take a look primarily at those links on your site that have nothing to do with your niche. For example, if you run a web design or web development blog, that link to a Chinese online store doesn’t really look that natural in fact. Having removed all your unrelated and suspicious links, you can submit another reconsideration request and email it to Google.
Also, you may tell them that you fixed everything and promise that you will stick to their quality guidelines from now on, Now just lay back, relax and wait for Google’s reply.
You should be ok by now
Provided that you really gotten rid of all suspicious links and nofollowed the rest, you should receive a positive reply from Google. At least, that’s exactly what happened in multiple cases for me.
Once your penalty has been revoked, you don’t want to start selling links again. For one, Google keeps a record of your history and they may be monitoring your site more closely. Plus violating the same quality guideline can land you in really hot water.
It goes without saying, you don’t want that at all. The most surefire and future-proof strategy is to create amazing designs that go viral so that people both set links back to your site and also just mention your brand left and right.
In conclusion
The time of paid text links is long gone in terms of quality online web promotion. You need to put your audience first because once your visitors love your site, Google will follow them before you know that. Creating a course, podcast, whitepaper or what not is by a long shot better way of making your brand noticed on the Web. When people get to know what awesome content you create, they will both voluntarily link to your site, mention your brand and share your pages in social media.
About the author
Kenneth von Rauch is an enthusiastic WordPress SEO and SEO video course creator from WebDesy.com. Coming from a tech support background, he knows where web design, web development and search engine optimization should overlap for ultimate high-quality results. In a nutshell, he knows his stuff.
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