SEO links on site pages
This violation is due to the placement of SEO links on your site pages. We've been saying for a long time that a site doesn't benefit from such links and they may even harm it.
SEO links are links created to influence ranking in search engines. In 2015, the well-known AGS algorithm was updated and the search can now restrict the ranking of any sites that sell links, regardless of their quality.
Yandex detected that I have this violation. How do I fix it?
You should completely refuse from placing SEO links on your site. After removing the links, you can use the I fixed it button on the Security and violations page in Yandex.Webmaster. The site restrictions will be lifted after the robot re-crawls its pages and detects that there are no links. This usually takes several weeks. After that, the violation mark will disappear.
You can click the I fixed it button again for the same site after a month. Further, this period is increased up to three months to avoid the button misuse. Therefore, we recommend using the button only when you are sure that there are no more violations on the site.
If multiple users have website management rights in Yandex.Webmaster, agree on who will send the website for re-checking and when. After clicking the button, none of the users will be able to click it again within a month.
I have no SEO links, these are advertising links. Can't I place ads on my site?
Basically, the difference between advertising and SEO links is that ads are excluded from indexing by search robots and, therefore, don't try to affect the search algorithms. If you treat placed links as ads, wrap them in the <noindex></noindex>
tag and add the rel="nofollow"
attribute to the links. In this case, the robot won't “see” this link. To the robot, it will be similar to removing the link.
SEO links appeared on my site after it was hacked. What should I do?
You should do the same as in a normal situation. Remove all the links, use the I fixed it button on the Security and violations page in Yandex.Webmaster, and wait for the robot to re-crawl the pages and lift the restrictions. We also recommend that you use our tips from the Site security section.
I have a quality site, it isn't created for selling links. Why was it pessimized?
The well-known AGS method was updated and can now be triggered regardless of the quality of the site that has SEO links on its pages.
The violation mark was removed but the site is still missing from the search results. What should I do?
The removal of the mark means that our algorithms decided to lift restrictions from the site. In some cases, it may take some time for these changes to appear in the search. This usually happens after one or two search database updates, which takes about two weeks on average.
I clicked the “I fixed it” button a month ago, the mark didn't disappear, and the button became active again. Should I click it again?
You should use this button only if you detected SEO links on the site and removed them in the past month. If not, you don't need to click the button again. Just wait until the robot reindexes all the pages with the links and updates the information.
I removed all SEO links a few weeks ago, but nothing happened. What should I do?
Most likely, our algorithms haven't tracked all the changes and processed new data yet. Just wait a little longer. If there're really no SEO links left on the site, all restrictions shall be removed.