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162 Questions You Need to Know About Risky Links to Disavow
The following 162 questions were compiled from the past 1.5 years of helping Link Detox clients combat their Google Penguin penalties with our WOW customer support, Q&A webinars for clients, and personal chats.
Table of Contents
Google Webmaster Tool Questions
Google Penguin Questions
Other Google Penalty problems
Google Disavow Tool Questions
SEO Metric Questions
Link Detox Questions
Questions about specific features and settings in Link Detox
How to work with Link Detox reports?
Link Removal and Disavow Questions
Should I Disavow?
Technical Link Detox Questions
Link Detox Product Questions
Important Links
You can Tweet to Download the full “162 Questions You Need to Know About Risky Links to Disavow” PDF file
Download the complete PDF here
Google Webmaster Tool Questions
Do you know how Google selects the links it shows in Google Webmaster Tools?
Google only shows you a selection of your bad links, but not all of them. Unfortunately nobody except for Google knows how they select the links.
How can I download Disavowed Links from Google Webmaster Tools and upload them into Link Detox?
Log into Google Webmaster Tools
Go to the Disavow Tool with this link https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main
Select the site you want to get data for (see screenshot)
Click the “Disavow Links” (even if you don’t plan to upload a new file right now, but you will have to upload a modified disavow file here after working with Link Detox)
Confirm the Warning that the Disavow Links Tool is a tool that can cause serious damage if used wrong (screenshot)
again by clicking on “Disavow Links”
You should see a screenshot similar to the following (3. screenshot) saying
that you uploaded a file and a box with submission result.
“Results for the submission on (The exact date)”
“You successfully uploaded a disavow links file (the exact filename, so make sure you use the meaningful file names we generate))
containing X domains and Y URLs.”
Click the “Download” button to download the most recent Google’s Disavow file again
Select “CSV” as Format and Download
You will receive a file with a filename DIFFERENT to the one you saw, containing only the domain name and some numbers.
We highly recommend to rename that file BACK to what it was called for helping your project’s consistency when doing round-trip disavows
e.g. rename www-cemper-com_20131028T094245Z_DisavowLinks.csv to viagra-plus-Competitive Link Detox (CDTOX)–Link Detox–www-cemper-com-1–2013-06-28.csv
Note: YES. the Disavow Tool takes .TXT files as upload, but only exports .csv – make sure to get the file extension right, the Link Detox tool can handle it.
Upload that Disavow File to you next Link Detox run (along with other custom link data files)
Here is an example of how the file should look like:
Google Webmaster Tools: google-example.csv
Does Google also need a document that we tried to remove the links instead of just adding in a disavowing everything we don’t like?
To find out what needs to be included in a Google reconsideration request please see this Google post and video by Matt Cutts
John Müller from Google suggests that if you clean the links from Google Webmaster Tools, that should be enough to get a penalty removed. Would you agree?
GWT only shows you a sample of your backlinks, but not the whole profile. We suggest that you check all of your backlinks to be sure that you will not get penalized in the future. Specifically GWT does NOT list links that were already penalized by Google, so that makes finding those penalized sites impossible only with GWT links. We heard from clients removing all bad backlinks from GWT and then receiving sample URLs from Google which were not included before.
Please also view the original video by John Müller (from 17.30):
Google Penguin Questions
How can I detect if my website was hit by Penguin 2.1?
Usually you see it because your visibility i.e. your traffic from organic goes down drastically around October 4 2013.
What is the first thing I should do to recover my Google rankings?
We recommend running a Link Detox report on your domain name and follow these important must-do steps that are found on this help page. This is the first step you should follow when wanting to recover your Google rankings.
Are suspicious links needed for a natural link profile?
To have a natural link profile it needs to have a mixture of links. No site has only healthy links. But if you are suffering on a penalty you should try to clean it. You can also compare your link profile with the link profile of your competition to find out what is normal in your niche. (Best tools: CLA and COMPETITIVE LINK DETOX (CDTOX))
Unnatural links and Penguin 2.1 seems to be similar: Get rid of toxic, spammy, low quality links and bad places/neighborhood or unnatural issue is about low quality and spammy? What is the difference?
Penguin 2.1 is an algorithmic penalty while the Unnatural link warning (as it used to be called in 2012) is a manual penalty. Today they call it “manual action”. In the latter case you can send in a reconsideration request via Google Webmaster Tools. Google Penguin filters do not give you the option to file a reconsideration request with Google.
However, both penalties are based on toxic, spammy and low quality links.
I didn’t receive a Google penalty; can I make a reconsideration request anyway?
Unfortunately this is not possible – by Google.
How long does it take to get out of Penguin 2.1?
It depends. You have to do a lot of link removal work and also upload the LINK DETOX disavow file to Google and then it is up to Google how long it takes. Please also monitor your backlinks to be sure that you will not receive new bad backlinks
However, with the new Link Detox Boost we will be able to speed up the process noticeably!
Do I have to get new links to my website if I have a Penguin penalty?
If you disavow and remove links you should of course try to get new high quality and natural links. Keep in mind that especially through these penalties you lost links that helped you in the past. A good write-up about this problem was done by Sugarrae.
What is a “good place to have a link there” after penguin is lifted? Do you have some examples of safe places?
We don’t have examples, but you could use the Competitive Link Detox to find some.
Other Google Penalty problems
I think I have a Panda problem? Can Link Detox save me from the Panda Update issues?
Panda is usually based on onsite-problems. But you say that you have a link based problem, which was targeted by the Penguin updates.
You used an example that had a ‘Sitewide’ manual action. A client of mine has a ‘Partial Match’ and says “we are taking targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole”. I know I need to clean up, but should I really submit a reconsideration request?
If the partial match affects a site which is not important to you and you have a lot of shady links. Links that are still ok today are probably bad tomorrow, so if you think that some links are not ok, it is better to let them go.
Google Disavow Tool Questions
Can uploading a massive disavow file trip a manual penalty?
We never heard of such a case.
Is disavowing links enough? Some link removal and link deletion tool claim that it is required to remove links.
No. As Google officially stated here, links that you cannot get rid of should simply be disavowed. This is the case for many “Web 2.0”-Links, Article Directory Spam, Link Directory Spam and of course Blog Comments. Of course Google wants to see effort and there are some very simple ways to show them all your effort. Become an LRT Certified Professional and you will learn those ways.
Does a site see that it got disavowed?
No unfortunately not. Only Google will see that information.
How do I know that the disavowed links I just uploaded have reached Google? Will I get an email notification? How long will I have to wait to see the result?
Google will take the disavowed links into account when they crawl them again. Unfortunately they will not provide you with a confirmation mail or email notification. So it depends when your site will get crawled again.
However we strongly recommend you to use the advanced tool Link Detox Boost to speed up the process of Google factoring in your disavow file.
Is the Disavow tool an SEO outing to Google? What do you think?
Yes definitely, but it is also recommended by Google to do it to get rid of the bad links this way. So it is important to disavow links when you cannot remove them manually.
After how much time – months/ days you see some recovery after you submit a disavow links list in Google webmaster account?
The Disavow file should be processed after 24 hours.
However, elimination of a penalty involves many months of hard work, as you can read here for instance
http://lrt.li/tradebit
As you can see the site need OVER A YEAR to recover (and many work any many analyses of course).
It is not possible to recover from a penalty in just a few weeks. Although we work on it to solve the problem in 3 days with our Link Boost Tool.
Does the Google Disavow Tool only work if you submit a reconsideration request?
We assume this is a myth. The Disavow Tool confirms your upload within 24-48 hours and from then on the Google Crawlers have that information. The Link Detox Boost tool then furthermore helps get those disavow commands to the GoogleBot work in faster than they used to.
I heard that disavowing doesn’t work, is that true?
The problem is that Google is only a machine; they say they recrawl the web and the reprocess can take a number of weeks, but we designed the Link Boost tool to make it easier and FASTER for you.
How important is contacting webmasters and providing evidence to Google on Resubmission?
It is very important to show some effort to Google, because you are talking to a real person to get the manual penalty removed. This means you should note down which webmasters you have contacted.
Don’t you think we start a self-repeating disavow/toxic loop to Google?
It started when Google has released the Google Disavow Tool, but this is exactly what Google wants us to do and Link Detox and Disavowing supports you in this.
When does Google take the disavowed links into account?
Unfortunately nobody knows exactly when Google takes the disavowed links into account. It can take several weeks or even months. But we have also built the Boost tool that you can use to speed up the process of Google crawling your disavowed links.
If I submit a disavow list to Google. Will it trigger a manual review? Or only if I file a reconsideration request?
Nobody can be sure what Google exactly does, but we DO NOT believe a disavow file upload triggers a manual request.
If somebody is sending a reconsideration request, Google will check everything in more detail and we believe that it only passes their review when your backlink profile is completely clean. (Please Note: reconsideration request is different to uploading a disavow file)
How to speed up google after you have uploaded the disavow list?
You can use our Link Detox Boost tool to speed up the process.
SEO Metric Questions
Do you believe in Domain Authority above relevancy?
We believe in Domain Authority as an idea of an authority domain. However the DA metric calculated by MOZ is not very distinctive or helpful based on our experience. We recommend to user CEMPER Trust instead.
What is the Cemper Power Trust and how is it calculated?
To learn more about the metrics CEMPER Power™, CEMPER Trust™ and CEMPER Power*Trust™
Please visit this helpdesk post to get a better understanding.
I have found the definitions of the different SUSP rules of Link Detox- but I was wondering if there is any ranking as to which are the worst?
In our classification we use general rules. Depending on the niche, country, language, etc. there are different factors for a bad link. Due to this there is no way to say which of our categories is the most dangerous for your site.
So you have to individually filter out the most suspicious for you. But keep in mind – always double check the links you’d like to disavow.
We always recommend to double check and/or manually review all links you’d like to disavow, because if you ignore good links, it might hurt your sites rankings.
Why is a non-indexed link called “TOX1″ (toxic) in Link Detox?
We found that Google de-indexed huge amounts (10,000s) of sites that were in (automated) link networks.
This is the reason why a non-indexed link is very probably in one of those networks. There are rare circumstances were you might have a link on a site that is not indexed either, but is not penalized. That is a very rare case and if anything, that link doesn’t help you anyways.
How should look link profile (and what it is)? What is the best (or good) % of brand, money, compound, other keywords (with nofollow or dofollow)? What about image links?
This depends on your niche. Please start a CLA (competitive landscape analyzer) to see what is typical for your niche.
What does “unverified” in the Link Detox results mean for a link?
Traditionally the mantra of Link Research Tools and Link Detox has always been “100% verified data”. This means we have to recrawl all the links we get from our sources and those you upload. However, there are some special sites, like “GOarticles.com” to name one that sometimes blocks our crawling– probably to make content scrapers life hard. Which is ironic because especially because those article syndication sites are some of the worst polluters of the web? Needless to say their name was dropped in Google Manual Spam actions.
Anyways, in the past we would have called the link “down” or “dropped” and now we simply resort to “Not Verified”. This can lead to a certain inaccuracy for anchor text or link status, but other Link Detox rules would still fire and call out spammy sites like above.
For the quality of the Link Detox report that’s OK, and we only do it there, because you want to get rid of such links anyway and it was a wrong decision to NOT show them in the report in the first place. Thanks to our users for pointing out such edge cases to us.
What’s helpful with those edge cases just mentioned being “not verified” is the option to see the specific (technical) reason why Link Detox was not able to crawl the link. Of course these HTTP codes are for the techie people, therefore it’s off by default. But, you can enable this optional column, like dozens of other optional column above the table header.
Should I trust the Google PageRank?
The PageRank is not trustworthy anymore. We have a SUSP rule (SUSP 14) concerning the PageRank but you don’t have to worry about this too much and probably check how high the Link Detox Risk of these exactly is.
Link Detox Questions
Why are SUSP22, SUSP 23 and SUSP24 the same in Link Detox?
We know that Google uses similar footprint rules.
You can find everything about this rule here:
http://www.linkresearchtools.com/news/link-detox-genesis/#TOX3-SUSP20
How does the Link Detox Tool work?
To make it easier for you to start with our Link Detox Tool, we want to offer you a Link Detox Step by Step Guide for experiencing and understanding the functionality of the Link Detox.
You find will find tips for following topics:
How can I start a Link Detox report?
How can I exclude already ignored links from my report?
Step by Step description how you can receive more precise reports
FAQ
Please find the Guide here:
http://help.linkdetox.com/m/link-detox-step-by-step-guide
How does the Link Detox identify toxic and suspicious links?
We use very common spam link rules and a self-learning data-driven algorithm to check the domains. Please find them here: http://www.linkdetox.com/faq/
Does the Link Detox work in all languages?
Yes, the full Link Research Tools suite (LRT) and also the Link Detox tool (DTOX) work in all languages.
How long do you need to wait before re-running Link Detox?
It depends on your website and your niche. When you receive many new backlinks every day you should probably do a daily Link Detox check. Don’t forget the importance of link monitoring.
I don’t like webinars, why don’t you offer a guide for the Link Detox?
We offer a step by step guide, please find it here. We are also already working on improving the guides making them more detailed.
Can Link Detox detect Negative SEO?
The Link Detox tool will be able to detect if more toxic and suspicious links are being built to your website, please make sure that you run a Link Detox report on a regular basis to ensure you are always aware of the amount of backlinks being built to your website. You can also use the Link Alerts tool to get notified when you want to review new incoming backlinks to avoid negative SEO.
Is there built in function to e-mail multiple webmasters in Link Detox?
No, the Link Detox only provides you with a list of e-mails. You can find them in the table in the e-mail column. You also have the option to export this data. However you have the option to alert multiple persons in Link Alerts
When Link Detox gives a ‘reason’ for a suspicious link where there are many reasons, how does it know to assign that rule for a specific link? How does the Link Detox Risk get calculated?
The Link Detox Risk is calculated in 2 steps:
The first calculation is on an individual link level based on the specific rules detected.
The second calculation helps you understand the overall risk implied by all bad link signals we found. This means the total amount of all the individual link levels combined.
All of the Link Detox rules have their own weight to contribute to the overall risk for a link.
For example:
If URL http://xyz.com gets SUSP1, TOX1 and TOX2 = 50 + 400 + 700 – That means http://xyz.com has a Link Detox Risk of = 1150 and puts you in the deadly risk category.
And the total Link Detox Risk is the total of all triggered rules weight per link.
To find a full explanation of the rule definitions go to http://www.linkdetox.com/faq/
Is there a special format required in Link Detox for the link upload file?
Please make sure that you upload the file in the right format. We support the formats:
for custom backlink files: .GZ, .ZIP und .CSV.
for disavow backlinks files: . CSV und .TXT
You can find our requirements for custom backlink files here:
https://helpdesk.linkresearchtools.com/entries/29622813-Which-file-formats-can-I-upload-for-custom-backlink-and-disavow-files-
If you are unsure how to download your linking pages from the Google Webmaster Tools, you can read some information here.
If you wish to download a disavow file from the Google Webmaster Tools, you can read an instruction right here.
You can find our requirements for custom backlink files here.
If you import a GWT link data file, will the Link Detox report be only from the spreadsheet? Or does it also include data from your database?
In the Classic Mode of the Link Detox (DTOX) report your GWT data will be added to the results which our sources will find. You will receive a combination of both. If you only want to analyze the uploaded file, and then you should start the Link Detox in the Review Mode, but please don’t forget that this mode does not include a link check, because it is created to make prognoses.
What is the best tool for analyzing competitor sites in the Link Research Tools?
To have a good comparison the easiest way is to start a CLA, CKA or Link Detox (DTOX).
My site was rated SUSPICIOUS/TOXIC in Link Detox? Can you please change it?
Please check out which rule applies to your site.
If your site triggers a rule it would make sense trying to make amendments to change the rating making your site cleaner.
We recommend all our clients to review the results therefore it has no negative effect for the ranking.
In general it is not possible to change the data or the results in the Linkresearchtools in the system, but clients have the option to correct the evaluation with the help of the rating in the report, for instance with the thumbs up/down rating you can evaluate the link itself. If they think that it’s good, they can give a thumbs up, if they think the link looks bad, they can give a thumbs down. This rating is being processed when re-processing (no cost) done and will affect YOUR report in YOUR project only. Each customer can decide whether he finds a link good or bad. The evaluated by the system links cannot be modified because the Link Detox used generally known spam rules and we cannot change this.
Please note that we do not offer a white-listing for any domain or page, without exceptions.
What are the different run-modes of Link Detox?
Classic: Behind this mode, lies the original form of Link Detox. We crawl all backlinks to your entered domain and automatically classify your links in toxic, healthy and suspicious links. Please also enrich our data with additional backlink files, like from Google Webmaster tools (learn here how) or custom link building reports. We will combine and verify all links for you.
See also http://helpdesk.linkresearchtools.com/entries/25436758-How-can-I-export-individual-link-URLs-in-Google-Webmaster-Tools
What-If: Decide where you want to build new links. Upload a list of potential backlinks and check for suspicious/toxic links taking into account your existing links.
Note: In this mode Link Detox simulates that the uploaded backlinks are potential links you could get and helps you decide. This is done for all uploads marked as “POTENTIAL”. As those links are not built yet we cannot perform a Link Check for (no Anchor Texts and Link Status in results). If you upload links here marked as “EXISTING” those will be added to the existing link check as in Classic Mode.
Review: Upload a list of potential backlinks and check those for suspicious/toxic links.
Note: Your existing links will not be checked in this mode. In this mode Link Detox simulates that ALL uploaded backlinks are potential links you could get and helps you decide. No Link Check is possible here either. Since this mode does not take all existing links to a domain into account, their risk could be lower than it actually is, when you use the “What-If” mode.
Will Link Detox remove my bad links?
No, Link Detox runs through complex procedures and analyzes to report the current status of your links. It categorizes your link set into healthy, toxic or suspicious and supports you with a recommendation whether you should remove these links. Get rid of your bad links via our integrated contact function and get in touch with the relevant webmasters.
Why is it important to start Link Detox reports regularly?
Monitoring your links risk on an ongoing basis is what we call Link Risk Management. It is important especially when you want to detect negative SEO attacks and incoming new bad backlinks. You can use the LA/Link Alerts to find new incoming backlinks and review them. Then you can start a new Link Detox report and check these new links.
Does Link Detox work for Penguin 2.1?
Yes, Link Detox works for Penguin 2.1. We always crawl the data on demand, so you always receive the newest data. We also tuned the recent Link Detox Genesis algorithm towards the recent Google Penguin 2.1 update.
What is the Link Detox Screener?
You can always review and rate the links you have in the link detail table with our Link Detox Screener. This makes reviewing the links very fast and easily.
Make sure you have all the links you want to review in the table (by filtering) and open the Link Detox Screener by clicking on the blue button.
You can always review and rate the links you have in the link detail table with our Link Detox Screener. This makes reviewing the links very fast and easily.
Make sure you have all the links you want to review in the table (by filtering) and open the Link Detox Screener by clicking on the blue button.
A new browser window will now open. This is the Link Detox Screener.
On the top you have the Link Detox Screener information and below you can see the page.
Start reviewing the pages
In the Link Detox Screener Details you can see which URL you are currently reviewing and to which URL it links.
Further you can also see the Anchor Text and the Link Status of the Link.
You can find the information if this is a toxic, suspicious or healthy link and which rule/rules has applied.
Here you can also add any kind of tags. The tag function is a very useful one. For example you can tag all links that you have already reviewed with “Reviewed”.
If you want to disavow those links you do this also here. Just choose if you wish to disavow the page or the domain. Make sure the box is ticked.
You can also rate the link.
We have also added some Hotkeys to make your disavowing of pages and domains much faster.
A = Disavow Whole Domain (“A for ALL here is spam”)
D = Disavow Individual Link (“D for Dis link sucks”)
W = Clear disavow (“W for wipe the disavow flag on this”)
G = Rate link as good (“Good Link”)
B = Rate link as bad (“Bad Link”)
Questions about specific features and settings in Link Detox
What website should I run a Link Detox report on e.g. www.domain.com or domain.com?
Link Detox must be run on a per-subdomain basis. This means if you have links to www and non-www you should be analyzing both the www and the non-www version of your website and partial penalties. We now have a feature for that, and in addition to the convenience it will bring you more precise results. If you do not combine both, then you might miss links and cross-effects between the two domains. So it’s highly recommended that you tick the box that enables you to run a Link Detox on both www and non www version of your website. This way you have the results of both domains in one report.
If you enter www.domain.com (subdomain) you be asked if you would like to analyze BOTH. Make sure you activate this option.
If you enter domain.com (topdomain or root-domain), the links to your subdomains (www-version) will automatically be analyzed.
What does “Reprocess” in Link Detox mean?
By clicking on “Reprocess DTOX Rules” all rules and the Link Detox Risk will be recalculated.
The process does not cost any credits and you can do it as often as you want.
NOTE: This button ONLY becomes active (green) if any changes (like keyword classifying, link rating or disavowing) have been made in the report AND the report is re-loaded with F5.
If you did not make any changes to the report, then there is nothing to re-calculate.
Is there a difference between selecting Ignored or Disavow while uploading a backlink file in Link Detox?
Both will get ignored by the tool.
Disavowed backlinks will not be included in your report and are automatically included in the export of your disavow file.
Ignored backlinks will not be included in your report and will not be included in the export of your Disavow file.
How can I upload a disavow file to Link Detox / Link Research Tools?
To submit a disavow file to a report, you simply have to add the file when you start the report with the “Upload ignored links” option. All the uploaded URLs will not get taken into account in the results. You can find them still in the report marked with the status “Disavowed”.
You can also upload the disavow file in the “Settings” of your account in the section “Uploaded disavow / ignore files”.
https://helpdesk.linkresearchtools.com/entries/29622813-Which-file-formats-can-I-upload-for-custom-backlink-and-disavow-files-
Does it help me to upload additional backlink files to Link Detox?
We have a lot of data sources (23 in total currently), however we do not have a 100% index of the web. For this reason, we recommend you use our improved upload function to provide us with all your available link source files – especially from Google Webmaster Tools for links and disavow-files. Make sure you also upload the disavow files in order to receive a correct calculated Link Detox risk. You can find more information about how to obtain links from Google Webmaster Tools on this help post.
Can I upload a backlink file after I have started the Link Detox report?
No, you have to attach the backlink file before you start the report. It is not possible to attach the file afterwards to the results.
What’s the best/quickest way to check out the health of new potential backlinks?
You can check potential backlinks in the LINK DETOX in the What-IF Mode. In this mode the tool assumes that these backlinks are yours and if they would harm your website. You can also use the JUICE tool to check your potential backlinks.
How does a [LinkNotFound] work? You can’t find them right?
Our tool can find dropped links marked with [LinkNotFound] in BLP and LINK DETOX. Please check the advanced settings options where you can de-activate/activate the dropped links filter. The tool makes a Link Check and will see in this way if a link still exists.
Is there a way to see only these Dropped Links in Link Detox?
You can deactivate the dropped links filter in the Link Detox when you start a new report. You can also start a BLP report and then filter for the dropped links (anchor text [LinkNotFound])
How can I export individual link URLs in Google Webmaster Tools to upload them to Link Detox?
Please read this post by Google and check “Download links to your site” carefully. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en
Should I use Link Detox internal list, Google Webmaster link list, Majestic?
Yes, please upload all of them to have a maximum number of links to look at in the results.
Can I start the Link Detox report with my own chosen metrics?
No. The metrics are pre-defined. If you want to see more data please use the BLP.
Can I filter out some Link Detox rules from the results?
Unfortunately not, but you can filter it out in the table if you don’t want to see them. We also offer filter slices for this case. Please filter the table as you need it and then save it as your custom slice. Then you can easily filter for your settings very fast.
How to work with Link Detox reports?
Can you please clarify how the rating in Link Detox works? Am I rating the link as bad or good? Or am I rating that the Link Detox report is good or bad for that link?
You should give us your rating if you think the link is good or bad for you. This means, if you think a link is bad, and then rate this link with Thumbs-Down. If you think a link is good, then rate the link with Thumbs-Up. These decisions are taken into account for risk scoring in the re-processing step. Your decisions count 100% for you. You can find more information about link rating in this chapter “Link rating”.
In short: If you think that a link is GOOD- thumbs UP
If you think that a link is BAD- thumbs DOWN
Don’t forget to reprocess your report.
If we reprocess a Link Detox Genesis report will we lose our tags and ratings?
No, you will not lose your tags or ratings if you decide to reprocess your report.
My disavow export file from Link Detox is empty? What should I do?
For including pages/domains in the Google Disavow Links export file you will need to tick the box in the “Disavow” column in the table.
You can even choose if you want to disavow the page or domain. Every ticked page/domain will be included in the export as displayed here.
Please keep in mind that we use very common spam link rules to identify bad links, but can still be wrong in certain edge cases. Make sure you review all links you want Google to ignore, because if you ignore good links, it might hurt your sites rankings.
In addition, we’re already working on improved export functions for the disavow tool and any suggestion on how we can improve that is really welcome.
Concerning the sitewide filter of Link Detox, how does the tool choose which site wide links to retain for the report?
In the results you will see the 5 strongest site wide links.
What are the filter slices in Link Detox (or LRT in general)?
Filter slices are predefined filters you can create which help you to filter the table with only one click. There exist some predefined filters which support you to find good or bad links easily. You can also create your own slice. You only have to filter in the table and then click on to “save slice”. Unfortunately it is not possible to save the slices for more than one report.
In Competitive Link Detox (CDTOX) you have even the option to find healthy and strong links of your competitors.
How can you Disavow / Rate multiple links in bulk in Link Detox?
You can filter the links in the table which you like to disavow, tag or rate as good/bad (you could even set the table to show 100 at once)
Then you could use the “select all URLs” function.
Afterwards you can bulk disavow the pages/domains in one step and then go to the next page.
This multi-link action of course also works also if you only select particular lines, not the “select all URLs”
We always recommend to double check and/or manually review all links you’d like to disavow, because if you ignore good links, it might hurt your sites rankings.
How do I see with which criteria Link Detox evaluates my Links?
The details on why a Link is “suspicious/toxic” etc. can be found in various ways:
For every Link a certain set of rules apply; an overview can be found in the beginning of your reports right beside the graphics
Further you can display the area ‘Rules’ in your spreadsheet/chart
By clicking the “+” button besides every URL you will get more details and rules which have been applied
You can find an overview here:
http://www.linkdetox.com/faq/
How should I use the Reprocess Button in Link Detox when I cannot see it, please help me!
This button ONLY becomes active (green) if any changes (like keyword classifying, link rating or disavowing) have been made in the report AND the report is re-loaded with F5.
If you did not make any changes to report, then there is nothing to re-calculate.
How can I add a comment/tag in the Link Detox?
In the details summary section you can now tag each link that you are working on. So if you have already contacted some webmasters for link removal you can tag it as “mail sent” for example. This will help you keep track of all the webmasters that you have contacted or you might want to further review a link so you might want to tag it with “review”. Of course you can also filter for the tags.
Tagging each link is in your complete control so you can tag it with anything you think is appropriate. Once you have tagged your links you can easily sort the results by tag then by typing the tag name inside the search field in the Tags column and all links marked with a specific tag you are searching for will be displayed. Of course you can also use a complex combination of tags to filter by, using our fancy filters you already know.
This feature makes it easier to keep track of what you have done with your links. (Mailed, removal requested, partner, etc.) To manage all of the tags you have added for a specific link simply click on the (number) and you will be able to manage all of the tags that you have assigned to each link.
Does the rating I give only influence my own link risk calculations in Link Detox or for all users?
The rating is only for your own report, but if a significant portion of users are the same opinion, then Link Detox Genesis will learn from it.
Are you confident that TOX3 links in the Link Detox report shall be removed? Some of them look quite nice?
YES. Based on our experience and feedback we have, including that from many Google reconsideration requests we are confident about that decision. If we were unsure we could call it suspicious. For the TOX3 case, we are sure. Get rid of those links ASAP.
Why is it important to classify the keywords in Link Detox?
To enable four rules (SUSP28, SUSP29, SUSP30, SUSP31) in the Link Detox Tool and to receive a correct calculated Link Detox risk, you will need to classify at least 80% of the keywords.
This graph shows you how many backlinks have been classified. If the % of the keyword classification is lower than 80 %, you should classify your keywords.
Keywords can either be brand, compound, money or other keywords. You can find a definition of those four categories here.
This is an info box. Please read this carefully. From this box you can directly go to the keyword classification page.
This is another information box, which helps you to classify your keywords. Please note, that the classification page works best in Firefox.
This is the keyword classification page.
In the next steps we will show you a tirick how you can easly and quickly classify your keywords
Money keyword first
Money first: first select all the obvious money keywords (filter e.g. for “internet marketing”, then bulk-check on top of the “money” column. Repeat this step with different kind of money keywords.
Compound Keywords
Then enter your brand and see which links need to be changed to “compound”. When you then exit and enter the classification tool, you can go to filter for the brand keywords.
Review your already classified keywords
Are your keywords classified correctly? Here you can use our trick too. Enter the most important keywords into the field “Anchor text” or enter your domain and review the classified keywords.
To see your already classified keywords make sure that the box “only show already classified keywords” is ticked.
What are the different keyword categories in Link Detox and Link Research Tools?
Money Keywords
Money Keywords are those Keywords people want their websites to rank for. Usually this is a keyword that is popular and often searched for.
Example
“buy iPhone” could be a Money Keyword for an iPhone shop
Brand Keywords
Brand Keywords are those that can be associated with you or your company. That can be a certain product, service or the company name / domain name itself.
Example
“iPhone“, “apple products“, “apple.com” and “steve jobs” would be Brand Keywords for apple.com
Compound Keywords
Compound keywords are keywords that consist of both “Brand&