Weird back link showed in moz crawl

[Rebeca1]

Some time ago somebody from this site: http://dianibeach.com created a weird link to our site which had on the end db. Later we have realized that the link was coming from every footer on each page. I believe that the back links from footer does not have realy value and even the more of them the less value. We have asked the guy to remove that links as I thought it might harm our site more then help.

Now I I was very surprised to find this link in moz crawl error as second top page on our site in current index??? Can somebody explain how is this possible?? The most ridiculous thing is that when I click on that link it realy opens our site! How is that possible, what is it? This is the link:

http://villasdiani.com/?db

Thank you very much for any help with this

[Rebeca1]

Thank you so much Peter for helping me to sort out this. You can't imagine how much I appreciate your time and all you have done for me. I am so absolutely frustrated.

You wrote:  I think (and perhaps someone from Moz will confirm this) that because you have been receiving links to your site to villasdiani.com/?db

I was not creating links to this page, only that guy who made the link probably placed all that links to it, like the ones you have displayed.

http://dianibeach.com/airservices/index.html
http://dianibeach.com/apartments/index.htm
http://dianibeach.com/bedbreakfast/index.htm
http://dianibeach.com/books
http://dianibeach.com/carhire
http://dianibeach.com/golf

the guy who did the link for us is actually somebody I know, but he is also my competition and frankly speaking, it is realy very easy to fool me, as I am beginner so I was always worry if this way can't harm me.

The anchor text Raul was because that was the name of the guy who was that time doing our site.

When I realized that instead of one proper link to our site(that was what I asked for) he instead created these weird links from each of his footer, with anchor text Raul I requested him to remove it and he did it right in front of me. But it was already a while ago. It was on the beginning of September.

It is realy frustrating:-(

[crackingmedia]

Thanks for including that screenshot Iris.

Regarding villasdiani.com/?db being shown as one of your top visited pages, I think (and perhaps someone from Moz will confirm this) that because you have been receiving links to your site to villasdiani.com/?db and that is probably also being recording in your Google Analytics, it considers that to be a page when it actually isn't.

As I mentioned earlier in our conversation on this, villasdiani.com and villasdiani.com/?db are actually go to the same page. They are just seen as different because you have had inbound links to villasdiani.com/?db and as said before when the query string ?db is not processed by the web server because there is not recognised, it is then ignored.

I have run a search to see what external sites/pages are linking to villasdiani.com/?db and the following were some of the results:

http://dianibeach.com/airservices/index.html
http://dianibeach.com/apartments/index.htm
http://dianibeach.com/bedbreakfast/index.htm
http://dianibeach.com/books
http://dianibeach.com/carhire
http://dianibeach.com/golf

and they are showing as all having had the anchor text of "Raul".

Is Raul the name of this guy you know who said he was giving links to your site from the footer of your site?

I have checked the source code of some of the pages above villasdiani.com/?db.

The data being reported by Moz for these type of reports is not totally up to date but taken from the last crawl they made. You said at the start of this thread that you had asked this guy to remove the links to your site. Could it be that in the last few days or so he has done that and so from now on you won't be getting any links to villasdiani.com/?db ?

That's possible, but I cannot say that is definitive, but it would explain what you have been seeing.

Maybe someone from the Moz team can throw some light on this or one of the other more knowledgeable forum members.

Peter

[Rebeca1]

Hallo Peter,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Here is the image.

Thank you very much for looking into this.

Iris

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[crackingmedia]

Hi Iris

OK, please would you be able to add a screenshot of your Moz results so I can see what it is showing.

Peter

[Rebeca1]

Thank you very much Peter for all the information!

But it is not reported as a backlink to my site. It is reported as one of the top pages on my site.

There is a tab "Top External Inbound Links" there are I can see links pointing to our site. There I would expect that weird link, but it is not here.

Next to it is second tab " To Pages by authority" there I can see my home page, and other pages from my site, divided by authority, but the second is that weird link.So it is clearly stated by moz craw as the second top page on my site and not as backlink. As matter of fact, it also shows that the weird link has 163 backlinks pointing to it!

That is what does not let me sleep over 3 days:-(

Best wishes

Iris

[crackingmedia]

Hello Iris

Thanks for the extra info. I understand now.

The report you refer to is in Moz Analytics. "The Top External Inbound Links from Current Index" report shows backlinks to your site sorted in page authority order. Page Authority is a Moz calculated authority metric that scores the web page as to how likely it is to rank in Google's search results. Its calculation is based on lots of varied data.

In the case of the backlink you have had from dianibeach.com, Moz has assessed that of all the backlinks pointing to your site it has the second highest page authority. If its authority score is 27 that is fairly low, but it must mean that the authority of

To answer your concerns from your earlier post:

My worry is why it is reported as second top page?? Can that be?? Moz has assessed that of all the backlinks pointing to your site it has the second highest page authority. If its authority score is 27 that is fairly low, so that suggests that the authority of other pages back linking to your site must also be fairly low.

How this can harm my site? Don't worry, It isn't going to harm your site

Can it outrank my site or whatever? The page authority is not really a mark of page ranking, just of a score of its authority to rank. If the keywords your site rank for are the same or similar to the other site, then yes it could outrank you in a specific search, but that is not what this is about. In fact, if the page is linking back to your site, then it is likely passing some of its authority back to your site.

How is it even possible that it is found in indexed search? If there is a link on another site pointing to your site then that is how it has been found by the Moz crawler.

Is there something I should be concern about? No, don't be concerned. Focus on the searches you are optimising your site and pages for and do not worry about this one site. You have a good looking site that is easy to navigate and it seems to have lots of good information and images in what looks like a beautiful part of the world. Be encouraged.

I hope that helps,
Peter

[Rebeca1]

Hallo Peter,

Thank you so much for your time and looking into this!

I got an email on Sunday from moz,- New crawl was completed for your site.....  It says in right corner "campaign settings" . When I click on links overview  There is on the bottom of the page,  "top external inbound links" and then next to it are "top pages by authority" (from current index) and here is the weird link stated by moz crawl

I do not thing it is bout ranking for some keyword, according to the moz crawl tool that weird link has page authority 27 . I can't technically imagine how this link can be considered as second most authoritative page.

Thank you very much,

Have a nice evening Peter and thank you very much for your time.

Iris

[crackingmedia]

Hi Iris

When you say "it is reported as second top page"  as a "moz crawl error" (from your original post above), I am not sure what you mean. On what Moz report is this showing and if this is a ranking report for what search term is it ranking for? What error is being shown for this?

Please explain some more.

Thanks,
Peter

[Rebeca1]

Thank you very much Peter for the explanation. I appreciate your time.

I am just not realy getting it probably:-( Actually the person who made is link is somebody I know personally and that time he said it is for that so he can track how many people click on it or something like that...

My worry is why it is reported as second top page?? Can that be?? How this can harm my site? can it outrank my site or whatever? How is it even possible that it is found in indexed search? Is there something I should be concern about?

Please tell me more about this because I am like on needles:-( the moz crawl first freaked me out with report I have no canonical and now this...I have spent already 4 days by figuring out this:-(

Thank you very much for any clarification.

ll the best

Iris Braun

[crackingmedia]

Hi Iris

I can't help you with what you are seeing within Moz without seeing it specifically, but maybe some from support will be able to help you with that.

The ?db at the end of the web address for your site is called a query string. Typically, these are used to pass a string of text (in this case 'db') to run against a script on the site to do something as a result of receiving that string of characters. But it may be that it doesn't do anything and if, on the web server, there us nothing to process the query string, then it will be ignored. For example, if you try this http://www.bbc.co.uk/?db and this http://www.bbc.co.uk will do the same thing because there is nothing to process the ?db on the receiving web server.

You can only ask the person who created the link with the ?db to give the reason why.

I hope that helps in some way,

Peter