How to Remove a Google Link Penalty

How to Remove a Google Link Penalty

You’ve heard the horror stories. And if your website has received a Google penalty, it can be a nightmare. Google continuously develops more sophisticated algorithms to make the Internet more organized and relevant. You need to know what to do if the worst should happen—and nothing is worse than a Google penalty.

We at SEO Inc., an Internet Marketing Company in San Diego, can help. We have a 100% success rate in Google penalty recovery, resulting from nearly two decades in the business. We know what work needs to be done to get your site back in the guaranteed top search engine ranking.

This guide will walk you through our process, showing you what you need to do to recover from Google penalty distribution. By the end, a Reconsideration Request will be on its way, and your Google penalty will be removed.

Let’s begin!

Step 1: Site and Search Engine Ranking Assessment

Once you’re onboarded, the first thing we do is assess your site. We thoroughly scan your website using several software tools, including Google Webmaster Tools, to export all the links currently linking to it.

This allows us to gain an excellent view of your entire backlink profile. We can determine who is linking to your site and from where.

Step 2: Link Breakdown

After exporting your site’s links, it’s time to go more in-depth. We look at each link in your backlink profile, paying attention to details such as URL, anchor text, and the type of anchor text used. This could be branded anchor text, compound keywords, or “money” keywords (the keywords you most want to rank for).

Our process lets us see which links need to be prioritized for link detox and which have the highest risk. We cross-reference these links with Google’s guidelines, flagging them if they break any rules. For example, if a link breaks an approach for inorganic link placement in the text, we immediately red-flag it.

Breaking down each link lets us determine which links are helping your site and which may hurt it.

Step 3: Locate the Worst Links

Our next course of action is to identify the worst offenders. These links have low levels of power and trust on each page or domain. For this step, we’re mostly weeding out irrelevant or damaging links—”junk” links with low power and low trust.

Your site can be hit with a Google penalty if Google sees such links as irrelevant to a user’s search for your site; therefore, we want to focus on getting rid of these links first. With these links out of the way, it will be much easier for us to maintain a healthy link profile for your site.

Step 4: Request to Remove Toxic Links

Now comes the hard part of our Google penalty removal service. We go to the source of each bad link we found previously and either:

1. Request that they remove the association; or
2. Add a “nofollow” attribute to the association.

Additionally, we compile notes to track our actions for organizational purposes and as evidence to show Google later. This lets us know how much time we spent on each link and serves as a work-tracking function.

If a link uses a money keyword, we’ll add a nofollow attribute to it to avoid penalizing your site while still giving the link some power. But for relations with no value whatsoever, we will contact the webmaster of the offending site and request they remove them outright.

This step takes time, but in the end, we can compile everything (emails to webmasters requesting removal, etc.) into the Reconsideration Request. This shows Google that we’re actively trying to improve your site according to their guidelines. Google frowns upon simply disavowing bad links without putting in the work. Google wants to see us physically trying to remove bad links; therefore, making the extra effort is worth it.

What this does is remove any irrelevant associations to your site. Even if the contacts never respond, as many emails are fake, this is an essential part of our process. Our proactive approach will show Google any removal efforts while instilling trust into your website. We intend to tighten up your site’s backlink profile, so a Google Reconsideration Request form will follow.

Step 5: Reinforce Strong Links

Once we have completed contacting the worst links, we will implement a backlink enhancement strategy. We work on solidifying your best links, starting with your site’s power trust as a baseline. Auth links are those connected to sites within your industry or a similar field—links that Google will see as relevant to users’ interests.

We’re continually working to improve your site—even while waiting for the offenders to respond. We will keep strong links with a comparable power trust to your website—ones with less are either removed or ignored (as long as they don’t harm). This allows us to reinforce your most authoritative links while working towards eliminating malicious links or dead weight.

Step 6: Disavow Toxic Links

For the final phase of our Google penalty recovery service, we perform a follow-up on the removal requests sent in Step 4. We will disavow the link if we still receive no response after three removal requests. This gives plenty of time for the offenders to remove the link of their own volition.

Through this process of elimination, we can determine which links we can safely disavow. The result is a high-functioning backlink profile that contains only relevant, healthy links.

Conclusion

In the early days of digital marketing, any link was valuable. But the times and the search engines have changed. The demands for user relevancy and the focus on better user experience mean that a Google penalty can severely damage your search rankings.

Unquestionably, we all know which search engine is used the most. And as such, Google has the power to distribute such penalties. But it isn’t the end of the world. You can get your Google penalty removed, and you can return to higher search engine rankings.

Whether you’re recovering from Panda, Penguin, or whatever update Google will throw out, next, you can turn to us for help. With our 100% success rate, we have the know-how and perseverance to get your Google penalty removed.

However, we also have the foresight to prepare for the future. Every Google update forces us to review our methods, enabling us to stay up-to-date and use only the best practices.

A Google penalty can happen to anyone. It can even be outside your control. But whether you’re the victim of a manual or algorithmic penalty, no site is beyond our help. Our link detox and backlink enhancement methods will strengthen your site and return you to your rankings.

Written by SEO Inc., a San Diego Internet Marketing Company.

Contact us and improve your search rankings today.

[faq-page] [qa-schema question=”How to Remove a Google Link Penalty?” answer=”Step 1: Site and Search Engine Ranking Assessment Step 2: Link Breakdown Step 3: Locate the Worst Links Step 4: Request to Remove Toxic Links Step 5: Reinforce Strong Links Step 6: Disavow Toxic Links”] [/faq-page]