Whether or not to remove a link from a website with high spam score on Open Site Explorer

[DavidC.]

Hello Moz!

I just subscribed for your Moz Pro program. Amazing stuff!

On open site explorer, I found a number of links to my site from a page called with a very high page authority and high domain authority, but also a high spam score (8 or 9, one with a 10).

I say multiple spam scores, because it's strange, there are what appears variations of the same url, and each one is considered a link.  For instance, there's an abc.linkstomysite.com and xyz.linktomysite.com, and 123.linktomysite.com... there are about 15 of these (all with the spam scores mentioned above)!

This must have been some old SEO work done I payed for back in the prehistoric SEO days. However, my fear is the following: Removing these links, and then losing some potentially strong link juice.  I don't have many high DA or PA links to my site, and these are some major ones.

The domain in question "linktomysite.com", when entered into OSE, only has a spam score of 4, and it has a domain authority of 45 and page authority of 37.  My site has a spam score of 2 and no messages from google regarding a penalty, but an overall reduction in google traffic over the years (just keeps slowly dropping... as if a weight is pulling me down?)

What do you think, should I leave, or remove?  The linkstomysite page is just a LONG page full of links, with short descriptions, nothing of value, but with a an old domain age (relatively).

Most important for me is keeping at least some ranking/visibility, while I personally work on building quality links and helpful content.

thanks!

[MattRoney]

Huh! Fair enough.

[KeriMorgret]

I was searching on freedownloadhub linkexchange and happened across this thread. It look like the site has taken down all of the link exchange pages. They still return a 200 (found) response code, but have the following text:

Link Exchange Update

Due to changes in Google's ranking rules this service has become outdated. Due to a number of requests to de-list URLs, we have decided to end this service.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Anything with "Link Exchange" in the title should be bumped to a Spam Score 100

Those are really, really horrible links. I'd probably disavow them just to be safe. On the other hand, unless you've received a manual action notice in Google Webmaster Tools, it's quite possible those links aren't hurting you at all and Google is simply ignoring them.

On the other hand, those links are just awful.

[MattRoney]

...wow. Yeah, you're not kidding. Everything from the domain to "/Link-Exchange" looks so spammy as to be almost comical. If someone showed me that site, I'd tell them it's spam without hesitating.

I'm starting to lean toward killing those links, definitely. It's a tough call, though. Or at least a strange one.

[DavidC.]

Thanks, Matt. The strange thing is that when you plug the site into OSE, it has the spam score of 4, but on my link analysis, the scores are 8, 9, and 10.

Not to mention there are a bunch of subdomains of same page, take a look below please.. everything screams spam, but the DA and PA is what's keeping me from disavowing or removing (probably need to learn these individual terms, DA and PA, a little better). Plus my own spam score is only 2... so maybe not harming me?

http://www.xdsddwfdwwffdwd.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=6

http://www.xdsddsfcwfwdwasffdwd.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=6

http://www.dsessssderfeg.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=6

and 10 more just like it.

Looks so crappy to me, but like you said, with a 45 DA, I'm really thinking about it. Not to mention, I really need to work on getting some quality links, but it's hard in my niche (men's sexual health)... so removing something with good rank to it, worries me.

[MattRoney]

Hi David!

You're getting great advice from Andy and Patrick, but I wanted to add that a site with a spam score of 4 and a DA of 45 is really unlikely to cause you a problem. Rand's initial post on spam score may clarify a bit, but we don't generally flag a link as potentially harmful until it has a score of 5.

I can't guarantee that site is _not _causing harm, but a 45 DA is reasonably solid. Really consider whether you want to risk losing any potential benefits from that link before you get rid of it.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Absolutely - would be worth adding Anchor Text into the mix as well.

-Andy

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Very true - but nofollow's do provide value and can potentially be great links.

I will add this though - thanks so much!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

You missed a biggy Patrick - is it dofollow / nofollow

-Andy

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Based on what you're saying here, I would remove this link and disavow it.

The best way to assess backlinks are to ask the following questions:

• Does this link help my website?

• Does it send quality traffic?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

• Don't be quick to discount nofollow links - nofollow's do provide value, so as long as they pass your sniff test, don't remove them simply because of this tag

These links don't provide any value, and the higher the spam score the more reason you have to remove it. Although, you should get second opinions from tools like Majestic, Ahrefs, and Search Console as well.

Hope this helps - good luck!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi David,

Spam scores like this are based on algorithms, so without seeing the links, it would be very difficult to advise correctly on this. There are other factors to take into account as well.

Would you like to PM me the information and I would be happy to take a look for you.

-Andy