I think they were using Black Hat techniques.

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Barbara Gilbert: Thank you so much for all of the great information, I have not received a warning from Google, (thank goodness). This is the second time I have asked a dumb SEO question and am thrilled and thankful for the great responses. Keep up the good work!
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: I have just discovered that I have a numerous amount of bad back links on my website.  ;I hired a company a couple of years ago to handle my SEO and think that they were using Black Hat techniques as my SEO tanked with the release of Penguin and I understand that I am being penalized by Google.  ; I am hoping to have these links removed and am getting different opinions from SEO companies.  ;Since I have been burned more that once by using companies that were not ethical, and I was not smart about such things, I am scared to death.  ;So, can someone recommend a process to remove these links?  ;Or a very reputable company to do it?  ;Any advice is appreciated.  ;Thanks in advance.
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  Klaus Bandisch: You can disavow all bad links in Google Webmaster tools.
  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main?pli=1
  
  
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  Victor Castillejos: You can really trust +Dejan SEO or talk to +Dan Petrovic 
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  Greg Baka: Hi +Barbara Gilbert Interiors ; - Unless you got a manual penalty notification in Google Webmaster Tools, you do not need to remove the bad links. Instead focus on disavowing them using Google's Disavow Tool. It's faster, easier, cheaper, and more effective.
  
  Do it ASAP since you want your disavow file to be processed BEFORE the next Penguin refresh.
  
  Some people say that Disavow doesn't work. They probably either listed the wrong links, or formatted the file incorrectly. I have had great success with using the tool at penguinanalysis(dot)com to identify which type of links need to be disavowed to escape a Penguin penalties on my two sites. On my sites it was two types of links in combination that were causing the penalties, and they were links I wouldn't have thought to disavow. Best $40 I ever spent was all it cost to run the analysis!
  
  Here is info on how the PenguinAnalysis tool works: http://moz.com/blog/its-penguin-hunting-season-how-to-be-the-predator-not-the-prey
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  Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 02:06:50 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/i_think_they_were_using_black_hat_techniques +Barbara Gilbert Interiors
  
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: +Greg Baka ;Thank you so much for your input, I downloaded the Penguin analysis tool  ;
  and found it very helpful.  ;Is there a limit to how many "disavows" you can do at one time?  ;You mention formatting, what format should I use?  ;Thanks again.
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  Greg Baka: Hi +Barbara Gilbert Interiors ; - So what sort of scores did the PenguinAnalysis tool give you for important page/keyword combos? (So you don't feel embarrassed, my sites had 130% and 140% scores) How good a score were you able to obtain by removing certain link types? (my 140% site improved to 5% by just removing "Phrase Match Anchor Text" links)
  
  Disavows: you can only submit one. But you can later add more bad sites to it.
  
  Format: the file type must be .txt and it must be encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII - and I recommend disavowing entire domains, not individual pages. More info on disavow files here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en
  
  HELP? : If all this seems too perplexing, you may want to contact Virante(dot)org who created the PenguinAnalysis tool and get a quote for a small project to run the analysis, collect the bad links, and create a disavow file for you. Or if you prefer to just talk about for a few minutes, let me know and I can call you through your sites contact info.
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: HI +Greg Baka ;My score is 89%.  ;Not sure that I used the right key word, I put in Barbara Gilbert Interiors, which is also my URL.  ;I have contacted Virante to see if I should use a different key word and waiting to hear back.  ;I so appreciated all of your help, I can't thank you enough.  ;Have a great weekend.
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  Greg Baka: Hi +Barbara Gilbert Interiors ; - using your brand (Barbara Gilbert Interiors) is not a good choice for this test. It should be the search term that potential NEW customers who have never heard of you would use. Like "interior designer in Dallas".
  
  AND it should be whatever anchor text your previous SEO provider focused on... You can tell by looking at a link report for your site and seeing what anchor text is repeated a lot. Probably something like "interior design" or "office design texas" or "dallas design firm"
  
  Please update this later and let us know how Virante did at helping you past this problem.
  
  PS: Also have them check your site speed. It is REALLY slow, which can tank your rankings.
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: Hi:  ;My first score was 83.35 using keyword Barbara gilbert interiors.  ;The second report I used the keyword Interior Designer Dallas 79.95 and the third report I used Interior Designer and it was -37.69.  ;A disavow for 146 links was submitted to Google and I am now waiting to hear back.  ;Working on the rest.  ;You have been so helpful, I cant thank you enough.
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  Greg Baka: Hi +Barbara Gilbert Interiors ; - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Do remember that you won't "hear back" from Google. Except a message in GWT that a disavow was submitted. Otherwise it is a waiting game for a Penguin refresh to occur. Did the Virante guys make the disavow file for you?
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: +Greg Baka ;I haven't heard back from Virante.  ;Would you believe that I have had an SEO company working for me since April?  ;After getting repeated emails from SEO co's saying that I was in danger of being blacklisted that I mentioned it to my SEO company.  ;They never ran a bad link report until last week.  ;Thanks to you and some others I found out about WMT and started digging myself.  ;They submitted the disavow report and only submitted 146 links..........so disappointed and hear sick!
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  Greg Baka: Sorry to hear about your bad experience +Barbara Gilbert Interiors ; - ; My semi-professional opinion is that any SEO company that has been working for you since April and never ran a link report until now is NOT a good company to stick with. But getting ; free of some companies is dangerous. It is best to first find a good one and have them make sure the bad one does not have any boobytraps that they can spring to hurt you for leaving them. I can suggest a few decent SEO consultants. One is in Texas.
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  Barbara Gilbert Interiors: +Greg Baka ;Just want you to know how much I appreciate all of your help.  ;I found a new SEO company that was highly recommended by a colleague and all of my bad links have been removed!  ;Have a great evening!