Link Cleanup: What It Does and When to Recommend It

The Google Penguin algorithm is Google’s answer to cleaning its index of web spam and unethical ways of gaining links. The algorithm was launched in April of 2012 and has had multiple updates since then. On September 2016, Google announced that Google Penguin is now analyzing links at a faster rate; they even stated that the algorithm was going to work ‘real time’. 

So just how does Google Penguin work? Why should a website owner care?

What the Penguin algorithm does is check a website and measure the quality of the referring links to a website. If a website’s backlink portfolio goes against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, the algorithm will then serve the site a manual action penalty which will significantly affect a website’s capability to rank and gain traffic. Even if your backlink portfolio does not warrant a penalty, low-quality backlinks may prevent you from ranking simply because they do nothing to increase your site's authority.

The Link Cleanup Process

Link cleanup is the process of removing low-quality backlinks from a site’s backlink portfolio by a combination of tactics including contacting site owners and using the Google Disavow tool. The tool takes a list of links that a webmaster submits and disassociates them from the domain. When Google gets the links, they start processing the data and a site’s rankings may return in a few weeks.

If in the case of a penalty, Google may require a webmaster to send a reconsideration letter to Google. The reconsideration letter is then processed and lifts the penalty off the domain once approved. 

When to perform Link Cleanup:

Without the presence of a manual penalty notice on a site’s webmaster tools account, figuring out just when to do link cleanup is tricky. You will need to have a keen eye for spotting spammy links. At SEOReseller, we will take the time to analyze a site and provide comprehensive reports on when to recommend them to your client. 

If you have an ongoing SEO campaign with us, rest easy knowing that we do routine checks on webmaster accounts to see whether or not a site needs link cleanup. But if you are a partner that is just starting a new campaign and you know that your client worked with a previous SEO company, then you may want to have us check first.

For more information on this, contact your project manager or our business development officers.