It’s not very hard to do a link detox. In fact, you can do it in an hour or less if you know how to do it. If you don’t know, luckily you have us to show you. But, before we start showing you how to do it we should explain more closely what link detox is. To simple it down it’s a way of deleting all bad links in order to avoid any penalties from Google and to start building a healthier backlink profile. Having any bad links, any toxic backlinks or anything similar will only lead to problems and those problems will only grow over time and that’s why you need a detox. The sooner the better.
What are bad links?
Spammy links, low-quality, toxic, unnatural, bad – you can call them whatever you want but they are the ones that will affect what Google thinks of you and how you are rated. The effect will be the same whether you created them or not, you will be penalized and your site will be in trouble.
Toxic backlinks and getting rid of them
If your website has any suspicious and unnatural backlinks you can (and most likely will) get penalized, but that’s not the end. Your website will be dragged down to the bottom of the search engine and that’s even worse! This is the reason why we always suggest reading webmasters guidelines. That will show you what is ok by Google and what is not. Now that you know what toxic backlinks are, you need to focus on getting rid of them. Of course, if you don’t have them that’s perfect and you are good to go.
You can DIY it
Pretty much anyone can do a link detox. You will be starting with a backlink analysis of your website of course. MOZ Open Site Explorer is a great (free) tool that can help you. All you need to do is type your web address and you will be able to see the link profile that they have. MonitorBacklinks.com is also a great tool and you can get a free trial but after that, you will need to pay.
When is the perfect time to perform a link detox?
This is one of the most common questions we hear so let’s address it. If you notice that your site is experiencing a significant drop in rankings – that is a sign to do it. Obviously, if you get a penalty you should perform a detox. If everything is in perfect order you should do it once a month. If you hear some significant news on relevant websites like Link Department about something new in algorithm and such, that is also a good time to do link detox.
MonitorBacklins.com
Here is a way to do a link detox just by using MonitorBacklinks.com in under an hour :
- Compiling a list of your site’s backlinks should be your first step
- Finding links with high spam scores is your next step
- Manually review every risky link you see
- Decision time – which links should be removed instantly and which ones should be watched carefully?
- Reaching out to linking sites for link removal is what you need to do for the ones that need to go (you can get a site owner to do it or you can write to Google)
- If you are not successful at removing bad links your next step will be to disavow links
What can you do if toxic backlinks hurt your rankings?
You can always improve your ratings. It will take time but you can do it. The first thing you will need to do is a thorough link detox and then you can start planning your strategies for improving your Google ranks first. One thing we need to mention before you start reading about improving your ranking is that Google changes algorithms often so you will need to study it often and carefully.
Hiring professionals to help you do link detox
Outsourcing SEO is often a very smart move. You don’t have to do everything on your own. Especially when you have a whole business to run. SEO experts can help you with all SEO strategies and of course, they will be able to do link detox for you whenever needed. But, beware – not all SEO companies are good and not all SEO experts are really experts. That’s why when outsourcing SEO you need to check up on the company that is doing all the work for you to see if they are helping or killing your site. Since being an SEO expert is something that everybody can do (with enough effort and education) many people are just pretending to be experts when in reality they don’t know much. As you can see one way or another you will need to check up on things from time to time.
Parting words
We showed you how to do a link detox (and how to do it quickly) and what tools can be of help. Also, we showed you that you don’t have to do it on your own, there are skilled people that can do this part of the job for you. We hope that we gave you enough material to continue your research and if you still have doubts you can continue learning about this on the Link Department website or you can call them to help you out. Good luck and hopefully your rank will improve a lot soon.