• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

SEMrush

Home » Google » Less Than 10 Links to Site? Google Still Gives Site Manual Penalty

Less Than 10 Links to Site? Google Still Gives Site Manual Penalty

Posted on September 18, 2014 Written by Bill Hartzer

Apparently it doesn’t matter, whatsoever, how many links to your site you have. Even if you have 8 links pointing to your website, if those links are inorganic or violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, the site can still receive a manual penalty from Google.

As you may be aware, I handle a lot of link cleanup projects for clients. In the past few years I have gotten quite a few Google manual penalties removed (manual actions revoked) from websites whose owners have come to me asking for help. I’ve even been able to get manual penalties removed on “one try” when previous “link removal companies” have tried multiple times to get penalties removed.

Some people in this industry call me “the cleaner”.

But today, I came across a website (a new client’s site) that literally has 8 links pointing to it from other websites. Yep, only 8 links. From 5 different domain names.

But guess what?!?!? The site has a Google manual action! A “partial match” for inorganic links. Seriously, Google? You penalize a site, manually, because a website has inorganic links and it has 8 links? Seriously?

Here’s the site’s stats, from Majestic SEO:

majestic-seo-links-manual-action-8-links

Granted, the site does have a low Trust Flow and a high Citation Flow, indicating that the site has some low quality links. And in the past 5 years there have been about 100 links, from about 10 domain names. Apparently most of those links are all gone, and now the site has 8 links.

And, if you look at Google Webmaster Tools, you’ll see the following manual action against this site (that has 8 links!):

google manual action partial match

Needless to say, I think this will be the “easiest” Google Manual Action that I have gotten removed:

I’ll identify the bad links, contact the site owners asking them to remove the links, and then disavow the links that weren’t removed. I’ll then write all that up in a document, put the link data into a spreadsheet, and request reconsideration.

There’s no doubt that I can get those links removed or disavowed, but then filing a reconsideration request will take some time to get the documents together and then file it–and then we hope the site will come back (it wasn’t ranking anyway with only 8 links though).

But seriously. Really? What’s the point of Google giving a website a manual action (a Google manual penalty) for inorganic links when you have 8 links? I guess that somehow shows that it’s a percentage of the links that are bad that have somehow flagged something in Google that then puts a manual action on the site?

Just to confirm this, take a look at what ahrefs.com shows for this site:

ahref-links-manual-action

According to ahrefs, the site has 9 links from 7 domain names. Yep, less than 10 links to the site, yet it has a Google Manual Penalty (manual action, partial match).

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines

SEMrush

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, LLC, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management.

Recent Posts

  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do January 4, 2023
  • Web Hosting Services Market to Grow to $254.86 Billion by 2029 December 13, 2022
  • This SEO Blog Post Was Written by ChatGPT December 8, 2022
  • Facebook Rolling Out Facebook Articles December 7, 2022
  • Doing SEO is Better Than… December 6, 2022
  • Tucows and GoDaddy Report Q3 2022 Results November 6, 2022
  • How to Measure App Events Sourced by Organic Search and SEO September 20, 2022
  • Google Allegedly Eavesdrops and Monitors the Brain 24 hours a Day to Control Humanity September 14, 2022
  • Why You Shouldn’t Hire SEOs Based on An Email September 13, 2022
  • Global SEO Market to Reach $122.11 Billion by 2028 September 9, 2022
  • Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress September 8, 2022
  • Which CMS? How to Choose the Best CMS for Your Purposes August 29, 2022
  • Accidental SEO Manager: Interview with Ash Nallawalla August 15, 2022
  • Sometimes Google Isn’t Family Friendly August 1, 2022
  • Something’s Seriously Wrong with Facebook Notifications July 12, 2022
  • Facebook Internet Tracking Settlement June 24, 2022
  • RankSense Acquired by SEOClarity June 1, 2022
  • LinkedIn Links, Digital Marketing News, and SEO Questions Answered May 9, 2022
  • GoDaddy Ending Forwarding of Existing Shortened Links May 5, 2022
  • 7 Ways to Protect Your Domain Name March 31, 2022

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Phil Drinkwater
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (209)
  • Google (236)
  • Internet Marketing (25)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (180)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (164)
  • Search Engines (204)
  • Social Media (192)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·