I've given a backlink, now I regret it. How can I delete it?

[Starblazer]

You have 2 options:
1. Hire a SEO expert who can take care of everything for you while you focus on managing your site
2. If it's a wordpress site, install RankMath plugin. It has an option to make all external link nofollow. Turn it on and keep checking your GWC for any spam links for a few months until everything settles.

 

[Ma_ku]

I think the OP should delete the content.

The original poster got free content in return for a d0follow link. Is it fair to keep the content and not return the favor?

However if you got paid for posting that guest post, you should keep the link or return the money.

I didn't get paid. I just got the content. I agree that it is fair if I delete the post along with the link.

Realistically they won't do anything.

I'm just afraid that there might be some shady technique to bring my site down. Like sending thousands of spammy backlinks, or something worse that I don't know of.

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

How about you just suck it up, buttercup, go read and learn and start a new site on some other niche?

You're not so very important that deals can or should be reviewed just because you don't like how they play out for you. Get out of this "world through my eyes" perspective, it's shameful -- and especially get out of the infantile "how could I avoid taking responsibility for what I do".

I know idiocy like this, "i am important", "everything is about me", "i will just avoid the consequences of idiotic things i think i want to do" seems very productive, to the moronmind it looks like it's getting it something. It's not. It's the opposite of productive, you're not getting anything by it. In fact, this specific outlook is why you're sitting there with nothing worth the mention, watching other people be adults for you.

PS. Oh, and the girls can tell, also. They can tell by taking just one look at you.

OP, don't let this sadistic, moronic comment get into you. The idiot's probably having some serious issues in his life and thinks that venting their anger towards others will help fix their sh*t.

You are the owner of your site, you get to do what the heck you want, albeit reasonably. I, particularly, say take down any guest post that has been on your site for more than one year! This is industry's standard. In fact, most sites that accept guest posts usually include an important statement - "links are guaranteed for at least one year."

 

[leechesBleechin]

I didn't get paid. I just got the content. I agree that it is fair if I delete the post along with the link.


I'm just afraid that there might be some shady technique to bring my site down. Like sending thousands of spammy backlinks, or something worse that I don't know of.

as @Pavan Teja 1 said, if he does do anything you can go in and disavow any dirty links he sends you, just keep an eye on it.

 

[Commoner]

Quite simple, you rebrand your URL by buying another domain and transfer link juices over

Joking okay, just disavow them by using no-f0ll0w and simply 100% contrast color against the anchors.

Cheers,
Commoner

 

[Mebn]

I didn't get paid. I just got the content. I agree that it is fair if I delete the post along with the link.


I'm just afraid that there might be some shady technique to bring my site down. Like sending thousands of spammy backlinks, or something worse that I don't know of.

You won't think of anything else. You have 3 options: you do nothing, you delete posts or you make the links nofollow. Your best option is to make it nofollow. You did not get paid, you got only content. It is fair. Nobody will neg SEO you because their FREE post will be nofollow instead of d0follow and I am pretty sure no one will see the difference. SEO is a business and you have to protect yours.

 

[llarasati]

I didn't get paid. I just got the content. I agree that it is fair if I delete the post along with the link.


I'm just afraid that there might be some shady technique to bring my site down. Like sending thousands of spammy backlinks, or something worse that I don't know of.

Is your site, do what you want.. If you not getting paid you can delete the article and redirect to home page or related article. Like in the commrnt before.

You will never know the outcome until you do it. Even if you is afraid just check and monitor your backlink and disavow spam link..

 

[coolsheet]

As many have said, no one will waste the time and resources to neg SEO over you making a link nofollow. Also someone mentioned to use Rank Math and nofollow all OBLs. DON'T DO THAT! You should be linking out to authorities anyway and want those to be do follow.

Also, do NOT delete the content. You will lose all rank for that content obviously. Why delete content on your site? This will probably cause more issues than it will solve.

 

[Ma_ku]

As many have said, no one will waste the time and resources to neg SEO over you making a link nofollow. Also someone mentioned to use Rank Math and nofollow all OBLs. DON'T DO THAT! You should be linking out to authorities anyway and want those to be do follow.

Also, do NOT delete the content. You will lose all rank for that content obviously. Why delete content on your site? This will probably cause more issues than it will solve.

I'll only delete a post if it has no traffic, of course, otherwise I'll nofollow the link.

 

[starcity83]

The backlinks I get on my website are almost always spam, porn, gaming, pharma or just some random comment. I just spend 15 minutes or so every couple of months deleting them and never approve them.

 

[praetserge]

How about you just suck it up, buttercup, go read and learn and start a new site on some other niche?

You're not so very important that deals can or should be reviewed just because you don't like how they play out for you. Get out of this "world through my eyes" perspective, it's shameful -- and especially get out of the infantile "how could I avoid taking responsibility for what I do".

I know idiocy like this, "i am important", "everything is about me", "i will just avoid the consequences of idiotic things i think i want to do" seems very productive, to the moronmind it looks like it's getting it something. It's not. It's the opposite of productive, you're not getting anything by it. In fact, this specific outlook is why you're sitting there with nothing worth the mention, watching other people be adults for you.

PS. Oh, and the girls can tell, also. They can tell by taking just one look at you.

This is the weirdest advice.

OP, as mentioned above (I'm just summorising), you just need to clean up your site.
1. Delete spam comments, if any.
2. N0follow links within relevant and quality articles.
3. Delete all irrelevant posts you don't like.

Just make it tidy.

 

[Mr. EliteSeo]

Just remove those links or just make it No follow.

 

[Shezad]

You can delete their backlink before Google indexed it, if it is indexed than their is no benefit of deleting any backlink.

 

[Kikerinka]

You are overthinking it, on so many levels...

1. You overvalue the benefit the links on your website have for them. Do you really think that when you delete the links you will overtake them in ranking? I highly doubt so.
2. You are overvaluing their SEO skills/negative personality. Maybe they do not even use any tools like Ahrefs and won't even notice that you deleted their links. And if they do notice, for sure you would not be the first person ever to do something of that sort to them... Domains expire, owners change, articles get added and deleted. They paid you nothing for the links. Do you think they have resources to start some negative SEO campaigns?

If I was you, I'd do one of the following:
1. Delete the links, and forget about the subject immediately.
2. Write to each one of them, saying that your website changed ownership/policy, and that the new owner charges now $50/$100/$500 (you pick your price that makes sense for you an in the niche) for each outgoing ******** link per year. Either they pay within 7 days, or their links will be deleted.

 

[Deleted member 1333509]

How about you just suck it up, buttercup, go read and learn and start a new site on some other niche?

You're not so very important that deals can or should be reviewed just because you don't like how they play out for you. Get out of this "world through my eyes" perspective, it's shameful -- and especially get out of the infantile "how could I avoid taking responsibility for what I do".

I know idiocy like this, "i am important", "everything is about me", "i will just avoid the consequences of idiotic things i think i want to do" seems very productive, to the moronmind it looks like it's getting it something. It's not. It's the opposite of productive, you're not getting anything by it. In fact, this specific outlook is why you're sitting there with nothing worth the mention, watching other people be adults for you.

PS. Oh, and the girls can tell, also. They can tell by taking just one look at you.

 

[eternalwarrior]

What's your site metrics? DA (Moz) Dr (Ahref)? Are they ranking higher because you gave them backlink? I don't think so. They overtook you maybe because of higher backlink, better content than you.

Stop blaming them. The blame game won't take you forward.

You said you were ranking on 1st page before other bloggers overtook you. That means you still have the potential to be on page 1st page again.

Do more guest post, there are plenty of awesome guest service on BHW marketplace. And upgrade your content and make it better than your competitors.

 

[Whitewhistle]

You are overthinking it, on so many levels...

1. You overvalue the benefit the links on your website have for them. Do you really think that when you delete the links you will overtake them in ranking? I highly doubt so.
2. You are overvaluing their SEO skills/negative personality. Maybe they do not even use any tools like Ahrefs and won't even notice that you deleted their links. And if they do notice, for sure you would not be the first person ever to do something of that sort to them... Domains expire, owners change, articles get added and deleted. They paid you nothing for the links. Do you think they have resources to start some negative SEO campaigns?

If I was you, I'd do one of the following:
1. Delete the links, and forget about the subject immediately.
2. Write to each one of them, saying that your website changed ownership/policy, and that the new owner charges now $50/$100/$500 (you pick your price that makes sense for you an in the niche) for each outgoing ******** link per year. Either they pay within 7 days, or their links will be deleted.

My thoughts exactly

 

[logyc]

You overthink it too much, just follow BassTrackerBoats advice and thats it

 

[G2 Maker]

How about you just suck it up, buttercup, go read and learn and start a new site on some other niche?

You're not so very important that deals can or should be reviewed just because you don't like how they play out for you. Get out of this "world through my eyes" perspective, it's shameful -- and especially get out of the infantile "how could I avoid taking responsibility for what I do".

I know idiocy like this, "i am important", "everything is about me", "i will just avoid the consequences of idiotic things i think i want to do" seems very productive, to the moronmind it looks like it's getting it something. It's not. It's the opposite of productive, you're not getting anything by it. In fact, this specific outlook is why you're sitting there with nothing worth the mention, watching other people be adults for you.

PS. Oh, and the girls can tell, also. They can tell by taking just one look at you.

stupid toxic rushing

I can only see "free content", where the hell are you seeing "paid"

 

[G2 Maker]

Hi all, so a few years ago I was still young and naive, and I accepted all guest blogging requests. I thought "why not, he seems like a nice chap and I'll get free content!"

Well actually, some of these bloggers that I thought were newbies were in fact very experienced SEOs and were using all kinds of White and Black-hat techniques in order to overtake me on all my keywords.

Normally, if a blogger ranks higher than me, that's not a big problem for me as long as I am still on the 1st page of Google. But now there are just too many of them in my niche and I've lost more than half my traffic.

So I would like to delete their guest posts and/or their backlinks which are still on my site.

But if I do that, they'll notice it and they will surely do something against me that I won't even notice. And even if I do, I won't know how to fix it since I know way less about BH SEO than they do.

So I'm stuck. The way I see it, I have to keep their links on my site. I cannot delete them for fear of retaliation.

What do I do? Any ideas? Even if I don't remove the links, is there a less obvious way to give less importance to the links somehow? Thanks!

Man, your competitor won't need backlink removal if they want to make some bad SEO to your site.
You have to learn how to deal with it and be ready just in case, anyone can simply do it because you are outranking them.
Your best shot is to get to know how to revoke the bad links,
add nofollow tags to these competitor links and keep an eye on your external links!