I Wish WMT Had An Option To Moderate Incoming Links

[kansascityseo]

This is just me wishing out loud. Wouldn’t it be great to have a non-default option in Webmaster Tools to be able to moderate all *new* incoming links on a site?

We should be able to cherry pick “countable” links coming in, and then ignore or suspend incoming junk links…...or at least easily one-click ‘remove’ links we don’t want counted towards our site(s).

This would put the “Master” back in Webmaster and let site owners be more in control of their own ranking destiny. Now it seems like we’ve all sort of become Web Slaves of Internet, having to slave over back link management issues and concerns.

I will hold my breath and wait for this to happen.

[goodroi]

Some of the paid link tools allow you to download your more recent links to be reviewed and then create a disavow file. I strongly suggest to anyone that wants to consider themselves a "webmaster" to not rely on free tools because too often "you do get what you pay for".

If you are waiting for Google to make your SEO job easier, you are probably not going to be happy anytime soon. Personally I like it when SEO isn't easy because it reduces the size of my competition.

[ganzojin]

Can you suggest one of these tools goodroi?

[CaptainSalad2]

I find even the best paid for tools don't show up a lot of links that only WMT pick up, example some major UK directories! Go figure! Also a lot of the better SEO'S now hide their backlink profile and block these paid services, I know I do, why give a competing SEO the keys to the castle? Makes your life much easier

[goodroi]

No single paid link tool is perfect. I know this because I tested all of the popular ones in head to head tests. They all have pros & cons and are missing some data.

IMHO the three most popular ones are MajesticSEO, Ahrefs, Moz Site Explorer. Personally I prefer Majestic & Ahrefs. There are other options. Many of them are resellers of the big three or just scam artists. To be safe I suggest you don't try them until you have tried these three.

[Planet13]

"Also a lot of the better SEO'S now hide their backlink profile and block these paid services, I know I do, why give a competing SEO the keys to the castle?"

Exactly how does one hide their backlink profile?

I know you can use robots.txt to prevent their bots from crawlign YOUR site, but how do you get them to not index links on OTHER peoples sites that link to you?

[brotherhood of LAN]

You can hide them if the backlinks are on sites you own, or are acquired through some link scheme that does the same.

FWIW I think Google should allow webmasters to 'disavow' particular TLDs as some are more problematic than others, or niche ccTLD specific sites could play it safely and just whitelist their own ccTLD.

[CaptainSalad2]

Planet you buy another domain name, say .co version of your domain name and 301 the site with backlinks to the one without, then robot.txt the bots out! No loss of rankings and a hidden backlink profile! No link scheme required!

[iammeiamfree]

This is just me wishing out loud. Wouldn’t it be great to have a non-default option in Webmaster Tools to be able to moderate all *new* incoming links on a site?

No.

We should be able to cherry pick “countable” links coming in, and then ignore or suspend incoming junk links…...or at least easily one-click ‘remove’ links we don’t want counted towards our site(s).

You mean doing googles job for them. The company makes x billion smackaroonies and you want to help them decide when a link isn't a link?

This would put the “Master” back in Webmaster and let site owners be more in control of their own ranking destiny. Now it seems like we’ve all sort of become Web Slaves of Internet, having to slave over back link management issues and concerns.

You are saying you want tools to moderate links so you don't feel like a webslave morderating links for google?

Seems like a bit of a contradiction to me. Wouldn't your time be better utilised working on content and improving the quality and quantity of outgoing resources you are able to share with your visitors?

Perhaps getting new trafficked links rather than fewer non trafficked links and making sure your site isn't forgotten. Google makes more than enough money to invest in their own efforts at moderating links but you as webmaster could be loosing traffic elsewhere if you are sending emails to webmasters scaring them off linking out.

Sites like wikipedia have a whole bunch of duplicate content and dodgy links pointing at them but still seem to rank. This could suggest that share alike works and that google is still ranking sites with link profiles that are growing in 2014.

[mrengine]

You mean doing googles job for them. The company makes x billion smackaroonies and you want to help them decide when a link isn't a link?

I completely agree. I have better things to do with my time then to do Google's job. If they give links so much weight in their algorithm, and can't determine what is a good and bad link, maybe Google needs to go back to the drawing board.