Disavow Spammy Links or Ignore?

[LouiseX]

Hello everyone,

I always love the expert impartial advice you guys give on this platform , so I am hoping you can help me again.

I launched my website earlier this year and immediately purchased 100s of drip feed back links from Fivver. At the time I thought they were fantastic only because they were high DR. Since then my home page still jumps up and down 60 places a day in the SERPS and my Topical Authority Blogs are not even appearing in Google where I believe they should be. However I do have a very competitive niche.

As I continue to learn SEO and become more knowledgable it seems these links are spammy, they have no traffic and link too many casino sites etc.

I have researched that Google can ignore spammy backlinks if there is a low percentage and then you should not worry about them. But I purchased around 500 throughout the year and they do make up a large amount of my backlinks.

I would like to know what should I do next, I do not think I should just ignore them. The Fivverr seller has offered to remove all the links, or should I disavow them? Ultimately will this help Google to trust me again? I really value any expert advice you guys are willing to share with me again.

Thank so much.

LouiseX

 

[tazarbm]

were your rankings good and stable before these backlinks? If yes, and if your rankings are worse after these fluctuations stop, ask the seller to remove them.

If your rankings were non-existent to begin with, keep them because I have a suspicion that they might be good links (because I've never seen google dances due to bad links so I'm guessing that something about those links is liked by google.)

Disavowing in general is not recommended, because for once, it takes months for google to process the disavow and for the eventual effects to be seen, and secondly, it's not guaranteed to do anything. Google can still choose to ignore the disavow or - better for you - to ignore the links altogether (which they do a lot of)

 

[LouiseX]

were your rankings good and stable before these backlinks? If yes, and if your rankings are worse after these fluctuations stop, ask the seller to remove them.

If your rankings were non-existent to begin with, keep them because I have a suspicion that they might be good links (because I've never seen google dances due to bad links so I'm guessing that something about those links is liked by google.)

Disavowing in general is not recommended, because for once, it takes months for google to process the disavow and for the eventual effects to be seen, and secondly, it's not guaranteed to do anything. Google can still choose to ignore the disavow or - better for you - to ignore the links altogether (which they do a lot of)

Hello Tazarbm, it was a brand new website so my ranking were non existent when I began. I really do not know why my home page is still goes from rank 40 on one day, the next day rank 100 and then the next day rank 40 again. It maybe because I'm in a competitive niche but I think Google does not trust new sites and with these links it does not trust me anymore. I think I have really good content (of course everyone does haha) and so I am guessing these links are harming my rankings. I am not 100% sure now. I will not disavow them if they are offering to remove them. But how could they possible be good links. Should I post some of them here? Thanks so much for your reply.

 

[yuukojp]

Would probably be better to focus on building good links than worrying about these ones. I imagine they look spammy to a human, but it might not be as obvious to bots

 

[tazarbm]

I really do not know why my home page is still goes from rank 40 on one day, the next day rank 100 and then the next day rank 40 again.

this is called "google dance" and - from my experience - it happens in 2 scenarios: when it's a new site and google is figuring out where to rank it, or when you've acquired backlinks that have ranking power and google - again - is trying to figure out where to rank the specific URL(s) that the backlinks point to.

There might be other cases for the google dance, but these are the only 2 that I know of, and - since you've said that it's a new site - probably that the backlinks have nothing to do with it (but that's just my guess, so take it with a grain of salt)

Just wait for the dance to stop and then you'll know what to do.... Also, I hope that you've not pointed all of those 500 links to the same page and with the same anchor text, because this will get you into trouble fast.

It maybe because I'm in a competitive niche but I think Google does not trust new sites and with these links it does not trust me anymore. I think I have really good content (of course everyone does haha) and so I am guessing these links are harming my rankings

I honestly don't believe it's the links. Call it a gut feeling, but I do think that the links are at least not bad if not good either. Again, wait for the dust to settle and then you can reassess and adjust

I will not disavow them if they are offering to remove them.

yeah, that's a good call. Disavowing can take months like I said, and it's not even guaranteed that you'll get any results from it, but if the seller is willing to remove the links then that's the better option

But how could they possible be good links. Should I post some of them here?

I don't know whether they are good or bad links, I only said that they MIGHT be good links, until we see them we can't know for sure

And no, you should not post them here because if they're legit you'll screw the guy over. And if they're bad links it won't matter anyway since - unless they're really toxic links - google will ignore them most of the time. so I can't see what good posting these links does to anyone...

Thanks so much for your reply.

no problem

PS: out of curiosity, though... how much did you pay for these 500 links, and did you have any say in the number of URLs you can point them to, and the anchor texts used? Just curious...

 

[LouiseX]

this is called "google dance" and - from my experience - it happens in 2 scenarios: when it's a new site and google is figuring out where to rank it, or when you've acquired backlinks that have ranking power and google - again - is trying to figure out where to rank the specific URL(s) that the backlinks point to.

There might be other cases for the google dance, but these are the only 2 that I know of, and - since you've said that it's a new site - probably that the backlinks have nothing to do with it (but that's just my guess, so take it with a grain of salt)

Just wait for the dance to stop and then you'll know what to do.... Also, I hope that you've not pointed all of those 500 links to the same page and with the same anchor text, because this will get you into trouble fast.


I honestly don't believe it's the links. Call it a gut feeling, but I do think that the links are at least not bad if not good either. Again, wait for the dust to settle and then you can reassess and adjust


yeah, that's a good call. Disavowing can take months like I said, and it's not even guaranteed that you'll get any results from it, but if the seller is willing to remove the links then that's the better option


I don't know whether they are good or bad links, I only said that they MIGHT be good links, until we see them we can't know for sure

And no, you should not post them here because if they're legit you'll screw the guy over. And if they're bad links it won't matter anyway since - unless they're really toxic links - google will ignore them most of the time. so I can't see what good posting these links does to anyone...


no problem

PS: out of curiosity, though... how much did you pay for these 500 links, and did you have any say in the number of URLs you can point them to, and the anchor texts used? Just curious...

Hi, Yes all them links pointed to the home page with a mix of different anchor text and domain text. They were also quite expensive, I ordered 120 links a month for around £180 a month for about 4 months.

If I am possibly in the Google Dance because every month of my new backlinks that may have power, maybe I should stop with the backlinks for a while so that the dust will settle and the dancing will stop?

Thanks again for your time and detailed answers

 

[tazarbm]

If I am possibly in the Google Dance because every month of my new backlinks that may have power, maybe I should stop with the backlinks for a while so that the dust will settle and the dancing will stop?

um, for how long have you been dancing? And how old is the website?

For that price the links seem ok... and pointing them all to the homepage is the least damage you could have done because homepages are meant to acquire most links. Had you pointed them all to an inner page, though.... ouch!

And the anchors seem OK, too so it's not all bad I would say. Of course, the important question "what kind of backlinks these are" still remains, but I'd assume that for this price they - at least - are not spammy links. And if the niche is as tough as you said it is, then the dance is even more justified because those links are doing their magic.

That's how I interpret all of these based on your information. And my advice remains: wait for the dance to stop if it's only been going on for 1-2 days (you should give it a week). If it's been dancing for more than 1 week... well... I don't know what to say in this case. I would probably keep publishing 2-3 more posts per week and ask the seller nicely to direct 10-20% of those links to some of the more important inner pages, with generic and partial-match anchor texts...

 

[LouiseX]

um, for how long have you been dancing? And how old is the website?

For that price the links seem ok... and pointing them all to the homepage is the least damage you could have done because homepages are meant to acquire most links. Had you pointed them all to an inner page, though.... ouch!

And the anchors seem OK, too so it's not all bad I would say. Of course, the important question "what kind of backlinks these are" still remains, but I'd assume that for this price they - at least - are not spammy links. And if the niche is as tough as you said it is, then the dance is even more justified because those links are doing their magic.

That's how I interpret all of these based on your information. And my advice remains: wait for the dance to stop if it's only been going on for 1-2 days (you should give it a week). If it's been dancing for more than 1 week... well... I don't know what to say in this case. I would probably keep publishing 2-3 more posts per week and ask the seller nicely to direct 10-20% of those links to some of the more important inner pages, with generic and partial-match anchor texts...

Hi Tazarbm, the website is 8 months old and has been dancing in this position everyday for the home page. When I have released topical authority posts they appear on page 1 for about a week and then they disappear forever, not to be seen in any of the rankings. Its a long winding road. I have posted 3 blogs a week, I now have 100 blog posts on my website. Thats a good suggestion to point to some inner pages too, thanks very much for that.

 

[LouiseX]

Hi Tazarbm, the website is 8 months old and has been dancing in this position everyday for the home page. When I have released topical authority posts they appear on page 1 for about a week and then they disappear forever, not to be seen in any of the rankings. Its a long winding road. I have posted 3 blogs a week, I now have 100 blog posts on my website. Thats a good suggestion to point to some inner pages too, thanks very much for that.

My concern has been caused by SEO Agencies calling me to highlight that my backlinks on Ahrefs have no traffic and spammy links so they want to charge me to Disavow and Build "So -Called Good Links". Thats why its nice to come here and get feedback this is not bias to sell me something. Thank you

 

[tazarbm]

Hi Tazarbm, the website is 8 months old and has been dancing in this position everyday for the home page. When I have released topical authority posts they appear on page 1 for about a week and then they disappear forever, not to be seen in any of the rankings. Its a long winding road. I have posted 3 blogs a week, I now have 100 blog posts on my website. Thats a good suggestion to point to some inner pages too, thanks very much for that.

you've been dancing for months??? Dang, that's a long-ass party

What are "topical authority posts" if I may ask? As far as I know the topical authority of a site is a gathering (for lack of a better term) of things that google looks at to determine the topical authority. It includes the relevancy of backlinks and the site's categories and keywords among other things, so this is clear to me. But what are topical authority posts? I've never heard of this before...

My concern has been caused by SEO Agencies calling me to highlight that my backlinks on Ahrefs have no traffic and spammy links so they want to charge me to Disavow and Build "So -Called Good Links". Thats why its nice to come here and get feedback this is not bias to sell me something. Thank you

yeah, backlinks that come from orphaned pages (orphaned pages = pages without traffic and links) are not very valuable lately, those SEO agencies might have a point. But don't pay them to disavow the links, you can do this free and easily inside of your GSC...

And you're welcome! I genuinely wished I could help you more, but I'm not a SEO expert so there are things that elude me too. Like, for example, the fact that you've been dancing for months, this I've never heard before so I wouldn't know what to say without putting you on the wrong track... Maybe someone else can jump in...

 

[Hawkeye Digital]

in less amount so ignore mate , if in high quantity then disavow them ove r.

 

[LouiseX]

My concern has been caused by SEO Agencies calling me to highlight that my backlinks on Ahrefs have no traffic and spammy links so they want to charge me to Disavow and Build "So -Called Good Links". Thats why its nice to come here and get feedback this is not bias to sell me something. Thank you

you've been dancing for months??? Dang, that's a long-ass party

What are "topical authority posts" if I may ask? As far as I know the topical authority of a site is a gathering (for lack of a better term) of things that google looks at to determine the topical authority. It includes the relevancy of backlinks and the site's categories and keywords among other things, so this is clear to me. But what are topical authority posts? I've never heard of this before...


yeah, backlinks that come from orphaned pages (orphaned pages = pages without traffic and links) are not very valuable lately, those SEO agencies might have a point. But don't pay them to disavow the links, you can do this free and easily inside of your GSC...

And you're welcome! I genuinely wished I could help you more, but I'm not a SEO expert so there are things that elude me too. Like, for example, the fact that you've been dancing for months, this I've never heard before so I wouldn't know what to say without putting you on the wrong track... Maybe someone else can jump in...

Hi Tazarbrm, you have been very helpful and thanks so much for your time today. So for my topical authority posts I have written 1 lengthy article which has 10 sections. Each section links to another blog on my website. So 11 even posts in total and I have found this to be quite effective to show Google I have authority in this niche. I think they are also referred to as pillar posts. But yeah its very strange to be dancing like this, some research has shown me it can take up to 1 year of being in the so called Google Sandbox for which maybe in hard niches this can go on for a year or so.

 

[tazarbm]

I think they are also referred to as pillar posts

yeah, that's the correct term. And I believe they're also called skyscrapers, too... but definitely not topical authority posts. But it's fine, we can't know everything

some research has shown me it can take up to 1 year of being in the so called Google Sandbox for which maybe in hard niches this can go on for a year or so.

sandbox is a different thing (although you might still be sandboxed if you're not getting impressions and clicks). And I've seen sandboxes of up to 2 years, albeit in really brutal niches like medical (obesity surgery for example), or finance (forex, loans, investments, etc.)

Anyway, sorry that I don't know what else to tell you besides not disavowing or removing those backlinks yet. You've paid good money for them, so keep them until you can say for sure that they're at fault.

 

[Cohen Stanton]

its just a brand new website. and i also noob here and i also want to knoiw about this matter . so any one please help0 me kindly....

 

[GTC]

The Fivverr seller has offered to remove all the links

Have you threatened them or left them a bad review or something ?

 

[LouiseX]

Have you threatened them or left them a bad review or something ?

No I have not, I just asked if it's possible and they agreed it would be time consuming but they will do without charge.

 

[HustleTong]

100s of drip feed back links from Fivver.

Big red flag
Fiverr is the last place you'd want to get backlinks from

 

[Crime frog]

Just ignore buddy, try to make more high quality backlinks niche based one

 

[GPVAIO]

Its very advance level technice. If your website like 2/3 years aged with Ranking now you face the issue about ranking down then you can go with the disavow. Otherwise can make more high quality backlinks instead of spammy.

 

[work4quality]

Don't go for spammy links and just take only genuine organic backlinks using

The best ways is to follow the activities with content marketing and some insightful submissions like
- Infographic submissions
- PPT submissions
- Content Marketing
- Content Syndication and more