Tools to help remove unnatural backlinks and get back in good with the Penguin
It’s official, backlink removal is the new business model. Google has been very active in rolling out new algorithm updates and have been sending out “Unnatural Links Notices” like there’s no tomorrow leaving a string of small businesses in their wake. In many cases, there was no notice just a drop in traffic…In both cases, the link building profile has been flagged as officially dodgy and now it’s time to act to clean up the situation. Removing these backlinks is just about the only way out of this situation and now there are tools to help track and automate the process.
The word on the street is that Google doesn’t particularly care if that dodgy link was created over 2 years ago; if it is there on your profile then you have failed to meet their quality guidelines and are most likely by now suffering the consequences.
Ideally you would like to be on top of this situation before it escalates into a penalty, however if you have been hit with a warning in your Google Webmaster Tools account then you will need to do something about it, by the form of a reconsideration request.
A reconsideration request to Google should contain the minimum information: admission that you know you were in the wrong, steps that you have taken to remedy the breach and a promise not to do it again. If you were employing the services of an SEO provider during the time that the dodgy links were obtained they would like to know about this also.
The detailed part of this submission is the steps you have taken to remedy the unnatural links. Quite often the case is with these sorts of links that they are much easier to obtain than they are to remove. It is a lengthy process and one that needs to be documented thoroughly. If you want your reconsideration to be heard, you should consider including the link, any means you have attempted to remove the link, e-mails and other correspondence to the webmaster of the site where this said link can be found and whether your request was successful. To do this for 200 links is a mean feat but what if there are thousands of these offending links?
One of the new Backlink Removal Tools on the market is http://www.removeem.com/ which offers a self-serve link removal service as well as a full link removal service. An account starts at $249 per domain for self-serve or $10-$20 per link removed for a full service.
If you have received an “Unnatural Links Notice” or have noticed a marked reduction in your impressions in Google Webmaster Tools then it might pay to get some advice from the professionals. The team at geoLocalSEO are 100% white hat SEO’s and can guide you in the right direction on the road to redemption.