Should I file a reconsideration request for malicious backlinks?

[proboscis]

There are many bad urls linking to many pages of my site. I don't know what they are doing exactly but if I click the bad urls my antivirus software pops a window up that says "an intrusion attempt has been blocked."

I've only checked backlinks on about 4 of my pages and so far I have found around 30 bad links so there are probably 100s of them.

My traffic is down a little over the past few months, but down by 30-40% over the last two years. I don't know how long these links have been there.

Should I bother to file a reconsideration request or not?

Thanks for reading!

[tedster]

I would say you should, because I suspect that there could be some incremental damage being done in these cases. It's not usually "all or nothing" these days when it comes to penalties.

First, check out Tips for Filing a Reconsideration Request [webmasterworld.com].

[proboscis]

Thanks tedster!

Do I need to go through the whole site and find all of the malicious backlinks or is a sampling of 50 or so good enough?

[tedster]

If they follow an obvious pattern, then a sampling might be all you need. That's a judgment call you'll need to make. If you do send in a list, be sure NOT to include the whole thing in your request itself, but rather put the list on a url somewhere and give the reconsideration team a link to it.

[arizonadude]

I don't understand why you would have to file a reinclusion request for obvious bad links pointing to your site.

If it's that easy, then why not pay some foreign SEO company 50 bucks to point 20 or 30 thousand bad links at your competitors? Oh wait, people are already doing that.

How's that "do no evil" mantra working out for you ;)

[proboscis]

Thanks for the tips tedster.

Ha, if I am penalized for those bad links then the "do no evil" didn't work in my situation but at least there is a way out with the reconsideration request.