Getting link removal requests has been nothing new for the last 9 months but it’s not every day that you would see somebody as clueless as this sending them out. This just hit my inbox:
Attention Site Owner –
Several weeks ago Google alerted us that our website http://*********** violated their Terms of Service found here: http://support.google.com/
webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl= en&answer=66356 Apparently our previous SEO company that we had hired used methods that had fallen against Google’s T.O.S., specifically in creating “unnatural” backlinks designed to manipulate the PageRank of our website. As such, we are doing all we can in an effort to remove all of the backlinks pointed to our website http://***********.
You can find the links we are referring to on your website found here:
* http://*************.info/?p=625
We recommend removing these links ASAP, prior to us filing a reconsideration request with Google. As you may have heard Google has been cracking down on those sites they believe are “selling backlinks”. Since a majority of our links were paid for to our SEO, we believe that your link could be considered in violation of Google’s TOS as well. Therefore, by removing our link PRIOR to reaching out to Google you eliminate all risk that could be associated with link selling.
Thanks you for your cooperation and help.
Seriously? You think I’m selling links off the site in question? Well then, I think you’re talking through your arse and that’s exactly where you should stuff your link removal request.
First of all, the site you are emailing to has long been deindexed by Google (and I might have all kinds of reasons for keeping a banned site handy) so do you think I really care much about getting “cracked down on”?
Second, somehow I think you wouldn’t know a paid link if you see one – what this site in question is was a part of a content network, the kind where people plugged their sites to get credits to post on other sites in the system, one such network of many that were around in abundance a couple years ago before the network onslaught began. Whoever it was – you or your client or their previous SEO company (I highly doubt there was a previous SEO company for a number of reasons) – deliberately took part in that network. Infact, out of your client’s site’s 2,400 backlinks majority comes from content network sites like the one you’re emailing, with a few exceptions of directory links – are you going to request them all to be removed, disavow them all and submit a reinclusion request? – Good luck with that, considering most of those links are from 2010-2011, from sites long abandoned and likely banned from Google just like mine.
Third, from what I see your client’s site has never really ranked for shite so just how exactly removing links is going to make that better? Be thankful your site is not banned yet, and instead of knee jerking to random Google emails just build some high quality proper links to it, and in a proper consistent manner, and hope that would outweigh the bad links and finally get you some rankings… but no, that would actually make you worth the money you’re getting paid and with scams like yourself, it just doesn’t happen. You’ve found yourself a sweet niche, a new Google cottage industry called “link removal service provider” and you’ve always got unresponsive site owners to blame in case things don’t work out – you can afford being clueless and still getting paid for that!
Fourth, oh and by the way, what’s the terrific idea beyond sending these link removal emails from an email address like linkremova
Sadly, the interest for these scam services is growing:
Well, it’s nothing new and back in the old times you could even make some profit from removing such links: http://www.khamnam.com/2007/11/14/100-for-nothing/
Of course all kinds of things used to happen – in your case most likely they got worried about having paid links. But these days it’s a whole industry and that’s different and unfortunately clueless idiots no good for anything else can make money in it too.
eh?
newblet