James Dooley Podcast

This episode brings James Dooley and Karl Hudson together for a hands-on breakdown of backlink rejuvenation packs and how they’re used to repair and strengthen damaged link profiles. Karl explains that while disavowing toxic links is necessary, it also strips away authority — which is why a careful rebuild with low-toxicity, high-trust, high-power backlinks is essential to regain momentum. They dig into toxicity thresholds, multi-tool link simulation, anchor text balance, and the decision-making process behind when a disavow is required versus when it can be avoided. The conversation also unpacks how rejuvenation packs are designed to restore lost ranking potential without increasing risk. James and Karl highlight why many agencies unknowingly make backlink profiles worse, largely due to limited data visibility and oversimplified tools. The episode ultimately shows how rejuvenation packs can stabilise domains, lower toxic risk, and future-proof rankings, making them a critical strategy for long-term SEO growth.

Creators and Guests

Host
James Dooley
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

James Dooley:
So today I've got Karl Hudson, the founder of Seero, to talk about backlink rejuvenation packs. Absolutely amazing topic. A lot of people ask me about this. Can you explain to people who aren't sure what a backlink rejuvenation pack is?

Karl Hudson:
Yeah. We got heavily involved with Rick Lanas and took over his whole disavow service. We started doing a lot of recoveries and manual penalty actions. What became clear was that although we were removing toxic links, there was no process for what comes next. If you remove thirty or forty percent of a site's backlink profile, sometimes more, they need more links.
So the backlink rejuvenation pack is simply building non toxic links that have trust and power. It helps bring the toxic ratio down.

James Dooley:
When you say non toxic links, every link has some degree of toxicity. So when you're saying it's not toxic, I'm presuming you're judging that against their backlink profile after running a simulator to find their toxicity threshold. You’re trying to bring their toxicity score below the threshold but keep any links that have power and trust, even if they have some toxicity. Once the disavow is done, the rejuvenation pack gives new links with lower toxicity but good power and trust.
How many packs do I need to buy?

Karl Hudson:
Almost infinite. Once you start building links, you should only build non toxic links that fit your threshold. There are cases where we build a toxic link, but only when we’ve lowered your threshold enough that your site can safely handle that link.

James Dooley:
So why build a toxic link at all? Is it because the link has enough power and trust for you to accept some toxicity?

Karl Hudson:
Exactly. It depends on link neighbourhoods, the number of links pointing at the domain and the keywords that page ranks for. We make sure that if we build a toxic link, it’s placed on a strong site with high power and trust that can move the needle without ruining your ratios.

James Dooley:
I'm presuming the rejuvenation pack is always a managed link building campaign because removing hundreds of referring domains will skew anchor text ratios. So you'll choose the anchors needed to rebalance the site?

Karl Hudson:
Yeah. We analyse what’s been disavowed and what the new anchor ratios look like, then decide what we can safely use.

James Dooley:
Is it expensive? And why wouldn’t someone just buy rejuvenation packs forever?

Karl Hudson:
Everyone has their own SEO opinions. That’s why we offer a full selection of services. But with rejuvenation packs, we need to run a disavow first to get the most accuracy. We can run a simulator beforehand, but that only simulates the link itself, not how it behaves against your profile. Once the disavow is done, simulation becomes accurate because it’s tested against your actual domain.

James Dooley:
When you're talking about the simulator, that's using Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic and Link Research Tools data combined, right? Plus pulling data from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools?

Karl Hudson:
Yeah. We pull from around twenty seven data sources. People often think they have five thousand referring domains, then we load everything and find they have twenty five thousand. Most agencies never see that data, which is why they accidentally build harmful links.

James Dooley:
Do local SEOs need to worry about this? Google ignores a lot of spammy links. Should everyone disavow?

Karl Hudson:
Most sites don’t need a disavow. Google ignores a lot. But if you feel you’ve picked up toxicity, or if rankings tank, then yes, it matters. And even without a disavow, people can still buy rejuvenation packs to get low toxicity, high trust, high power links.

James Dooley:
So in summary, after a disavow you’ve removed toxic links but you’ve also removed power. You keep every link that still offers trust or power, even if it has some toxicity, as long as it's below the threshold. Then the rejuvenation pack brings toxicity down further while adding strong links.
It means you can rebuild a safer, stronger backlink profile and outperform competitors.

Karl Hudson:
Exactly. It should be part of a long term link building plan, whether it’s after a disavow or just to clean up and strengthen a profile.