Is someone trying to sabotage my site?

[DanDeceuster]

I think I may have a problem with someone trying to get me in trouble for paid links. If you look at the following websites, scroll to the bottom and look at the featured links area. There is a link to my website with my keyword on all of them.

mercurynews.com

contracostatimes.com

twincities.com

insidebayarea.com

marinij.com

Now I see a lot of the same links here which leads me to believe these sites are all owned by the same group. Also, 4 of the 5 are Bay Area news sites. The question I have is, are these links hurting me? I did not buy these and did nothing to put them there. I asked the previous owner of the domain who I am in touch with. He is the only other person to own it and he never purchased those links. My guess is a competitor is targeting me perhaps?

Just wondering on everyone's take on this. I really can't afford to be getting hit by these potentially penalizing links right now, not when the busy season is starting up. Should I try to get them removed? Does anyone have experience with this or know how it might have happened?

[RyanKent]

I would suggest contacting the group and first asking how the ads were placed. Just be honest and share you represent the site owner, you noticed the ads and want to understand why they exist. If they wish to verify your authenticity, they can always e-mail you using an e-mail address on the given domain.

Either way, 5 out of 362 linking domains should not be any worry at all. While these links are not nofollowed, they are marked as featured links so Google likely devalues them anyway.

[DanDeceuster]

I know everyone ever associated with the website and no one put the links there. We have no idea how they got there. Think its worth trying to get them removed?

[DanDeceuster]

I work closely with the last owner who had it its entire life. I looked it up in archive.org and from the earliest version of the site it has been him. He knows he definitely did not place the links there. I asked every employee that has ever worked on the site and no one put it there. It is baffling.

There are 362 linking root domains and these are the 5 I can find that appear paid. Likely not doing a lot of damage. Should I contact the group Keri found, MediaNews Group and get these links removed? Even worth it? I mean, they are obviously paid, so I would think this can be hurting me.

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Dan,

I can't speak to sabotage, but I can confirm that the newspapers are all owned by the same group (MediaNews Group http://www.medianewsgroup.com/consumers/Pages/OurBrands.aspx ). I happen to be in the Bay Area and knew that at least three of them were related.

Like Ryan, I'd ask around to see if someone thought they were being helpful and signed up for those without letting you know. I've seen it happen on here before.

[RyanKent]

How many linking root domains does your site have overall? What percentage of "bad" linking domains are there to your site?

If your site has 1k LRDs and 10 of them are spammy it should not have any affect on your site. If you have 100 LRDs and 50+ of them are spammy, then I would definitely be concerned.

With respect to how it happened, I have yet to find a competitor who has paid for links in an effort to devalue a site. I would suspect the last site owner paid for the links and forgot about them. How long ago did you buy the domain? How long have those links existed? Any chance they have been there a long time and you are just now noticing them?

Is there anyone else who could have acquired those links? Someone who may have thought they were helping?