Should we remove bad links as we build good?

[armondhammer]

I'm going to make a gross assumption here, but please play along.

Between the blog network de-indexation and the Penguin update it's hard to deny that at least there is a real possibility that links can harm a site. That's the assumption. These could be from Negative SEO, bad prior habits, or any brand of potential harmful scheme. The source doesn't matter for this debate.

The question I'd like to open is: Should webmasters spend time working to remove bad links? Should they be aware of "unauthorized" links and actively work to remove them? Should they police their own link profile to prevent overuse of keyword anchors? If they should, what is the time split.

[goodroi]

I think some home construction wisdom might be helpful here.

First - Never build your house in a swamp. It will eventually sink into the marsh.

Second - If your foundation is not strong you will not be able to expand your house and later grow it by adding more floors without it all crashing down on your first floor.

Third - Spring cleaning and regular maintenance will help to protect the long term value of your property. Sure you can neglect leaky pipes but eventually those leaky pipes burst open.

Fourth - It can be smarter to walk away from a house that is a money pit with too many issues needing to be fixed and instead build a new house built to higher standards.

[Leosghost]

Fifth - If you live in an apartment block, and one of your neighbors opens a crack den, or something that the cops won't like, or does something the city thinks is dangerous, they may seal off the entry to all of your visitors too..

referring to my recent experience ( reported here ) of having a small group of domains de-indexed by Google, because of what someone else did on their domain on the shared IP I had left those domains on for years..I moved mine to my their own dedi IPs within a few hours of finding that the shared IP was de-indexed..

Instant recovery of all rankings ..:)

The rest of my old co-tenants are still "walled" off , and can't be found..

[ablu272]

You are who you hang out with.
You should build a strong site with strong content and a good reputation. Build links with good clean sites and remove bad links if you can.

[AndyA]

I think a dedicated IP is a good move. Who has time to check what other sites on a shared IP are doing? I also believe a dedicated IP sends a quality message which is important.

[caran1]

Some SEO firms seem to be spending a lot of time sending link removal requests, as they have received a warning about certain backlinks.