As a blog owner, you’ve put the time and effort into creating a space that’s truly yours. You produce quality content and expect others to see your website as a respectable and credible destination. Your blog is so valued (or will be) that you’ve even collaborated on posts, product reviews and giveaways with some of the nation’s biggest brands. But what happens when someone from that company/brand/business (CBB) emails you and asks to have a link (or multiple links) removed from your site? Why would these people not want a link from your site pointing to theirs? This post is will help you better understand the rationale behind receiving this type of request and how to handle them.
First, let’s start with the WHY
The reason you’re receiving a link removal request is not because your site isn’t seen as valuable or trustworthy. It’s because the CBB reaching out to you is likely to have received a warning from Google saying that their site has been penalized because of x, y, and z. You might be asking yourself, “why is this my problem?”. Well, it’s not, BUT since we’re all trying to be better members of the online community, a link removal request is at least worth considering especially when it could impact the livelihood of the employees working there.
Without getting too technical, CBBs put an inordinate amount of time and effort improving and maintaining their visibility (or rankings) in search results – aka SEO. Good”SEOs” or search engine optimization teams are hired to help CBBs improve their rankings by, among other creative and kosher methods, acquiring links from other websites that point to the CBB’s website. When you search for something like “premium wedding stationery” businesses like American Greetings, Minted, Wedding Paper Divas, and Zazzle all jockey for the first few positions (or rankings) on the results page in hopes of attracting your click and ultimately your $. So when they receive a warning or penalty from Google that impacts their visibility, their teams work quickly (and often for an extended amount of time, try months) to get back into the good graces of Google. One method is by reaching out to sites, like yours, requesting that a link (or links) be removed.
WHAT does a good link removal request look like?
It should look like an email from a friend. Requests should be succinct and polite, explain the CBB’s side of the problem and how your participation could greatly improve their chances of returning to the top positions in the results page. Rather than having to comb through your posts looking for the links requested for removal, CBBs often try to save you time by providing the exact link(s) that needs to be removed. If they don’t, then don’t hesitate to ask them to provide examples of the links they want removed. Again, you’re probably asking yourself “why is this my problem? Don’t they understand that my time is valuable?” Most CBBs do which is why they try to make the process as quick and painless as possible. But, when you ignore/delete their message, expect a few more to follow. One of the benefits to answering their message and cooperating is that you remove yourself from the “needs a follow up email” list.
WHAT does a bad link removal request look like?
There are occasions when a link removal request is less than courteous. In fact, they can be down-right rude. In his post, Should I Help This SEO Spammer Or Should He Suffer?, Larry Kim shares a great example of a horrendous request he received in 2013:
In this particular example, the sender is requesting to have links removed that were generated by comment spam, comment spam generated by the sender’s shady SEO team. While your first reaction may be to ignore and/or delete it (and rightly so), try to keep in mind the urgency behind the message AND the possibility of being endlessly pestered by these folks.
Here’s HOW to handle a link removal request
Now that you’ve decided to help out the CBB, go ahead and remove the link(s) that have been requested. When you have completed this, email them proof of the link removal. Feel free to provide the links to the page where the link used to exist (screenshots work well too).
Have you ever received a link removal request? Have additional questions? If so, let us know in the comments and we’ll be sure to get back to you!
