Dealing with spam link attack
-
Last year I noticed that overnight my site was backlinked by 1000's of spammy links.
All with same anchor text and all really awful unrelated sites (law, money, mobile phone, pr0n sites, etc).I've not been hit with any penalties (or at least been messaged with anything to that effect), and I still float around top 10 for that anchor text, but I don't like having 1000's of spammy links with exact anchor text pointing to my site. Especially when all the other competitors have a fraction of the number of links.
What would be the best way to combat these links before they do serious damage to my rankings.
If you want to see for yourself, the site is www.alexkilbeephotography.co.ukThanks in advance.
-
Just been checking my backlinks on GWT.
Quite a few that are listed on places like Open Site Explorer and ahrefs don't show up in GWT - most noticeably the pr0n sites.Why is there this discrepancy in reports between the tools like OSE/ahrefs and GWT?
-
I'm pretty sure that this 'collection' of links is the work of a competitor.
The wedding photography market is rather competitive and there's some very underhanded things that go on, both online and offline (like putting other peoples sample albums in the bin at venues etc etc).They first appeared around the same time I dipped into the top 10 for my main keyword. I don't remember specifically who was in the top 10 back then, but none of them are now.
I can well imagine someone desperate who was either trying to rank up there, or trying to stay up there, going on Fivrr and buying a ton of links. At one point there were over 5000 spammy links. Before that I had about 200 odd. You can see the peak in ahrefs. Thankfully because they are crappy links, most of them have died naturally.
Thank you to everyone in this thread whose shed some light on the issue and offered solutions.
-
By template, I really meant one you create and reuse. I will PM you with one I sent most recently to a company.
Best,
-
Ruwanthi,
You can use Moz analytics/OSE to do it, but I typically find that ahrefs gives me more. I could never do without the set of Moz tools, but for backlinks, I like ahrefs.
-
Good link Luke. I remember when Russ wrote this and how interesting it was.
Also, I really do not think the vast majority of links we see that are "bad" are the result of a coordinated attack on us. We probably give too much credit to our competitors. Yes, it does happen, but I think it is rare. But it does make you wonder in a case like Alex's where the linking site is a porn site with no reason to link to him.
Thanks,
-
Thank you Robert.
I'll find a request removal template (know any good ones?), and get cracking on that.
Hopefully it'll improve my exposure in the SERP's as I'm hovering just outside the top ten for most of my targeted KW's.
I'm sure I know the answer to this (which is, no), but is there anyway to prevent this sort of digital sabotage happening in the future? Or at the very least stop it negatively effecting my site?Alex
Edit - I see Luke has answered in response the second part of my reply while I was typing.
-
Robert's advice is good - however you may want to reference this if you experience larger scale attacks in the future - http://moz.com/blog/to-catch-a-spammer-uncovering-negative-seo PS. I have never managed to get a porn site to remove a link, so I tend to resort to disavow...
-
Good Clear answer , by the way it is not possible to check baclinks count in Moz Analytic ?
Thank you
-
Alex,
Using ahrefs, I am seeing 880 backlinks to the site. Of these, there are a couple of bad ones (the main porn site with keyword anchor text and 99 links). For that one the whois data is all available and he is registered with gDdy, is in San Diego, etc. (Easy way to pressure the take down). The one with bloom in the name is the same way. I did not look at all.
Overall, you have some good links here from other photography sites, etc. I would send a note to the webmasters of these sites and ask them to remove them. If they do not respond in a week, send it again and each time keep track. I would send via email and attach a read receipt. If they don't respond I would report abuse to the registrar gDdy in both cases here.
You are not at a place IMO where you need to use the disavow tool, etc. Write up a template email, put in the 5 to 10 offending sites and send them the email. Keep a log and copies of any and all correspondence with dates, etc.
If you need further direction, we are here,
Robert
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Xyz links
I have a lot of backlinks ending with .xyz, around 20%, and they look very suspicious. Should I disavow these? Here are a few: yourrelicsbargains.xyz fantasticsiteinfo.xyz yourvintagelifestyle.xyz usefuldiscount4u.xyz bestdealsaction.xyz bestmemorabilialifestyle.xyz 59177.net lovecollectorsbargains.xyz
Link Building | | moon-boots0 -
What is a natural link?
Hi everyone, I'm trying to better understand what is meant by a natural link and would appreciate any assistance. Doing some competitor link analysis I've noticed a web developer who has created a directory for all its customers. This is not a directory in the traditional sense of being of use to an end user, but to my untrained eyes, it looks like an internal directory used solely for the purpose of link building. For all I know this might be perfectly good practice in the industry, but as a beginner, I'm attempting to get an understanding of things. My question is, what precisely is meant by a natural link? If the above scenario is all ok, whereby there are businesses in the same field of work, but ultimately could be in any given location, on a directory, are they natural links? Do these kind of directories that don't service an end user, exist if the common feature between them is say location only, or an seo agency only? Appreciate I could be completely out of kilter on this, but it seems the benefit on SERPs is pretty significant for something that seems pretty "unnatural" to me? Any guidance would be appreciated...tom
Link Building | | T-J-I1 -
Which Links to Disavow!
We just took over SEO for a new client who is being penalized for a bad link profile. They've asked Google to reconsider multiple times, and Google still claims that the links are bad. Because of this, and because I don't have direct access (logins, etc.) to what the former SEO did, I am considering using the disavow links tool. The most obvious links to disavow are a group of almost 1000 links that come from the same forum. However, when viewing the links on this forum they actually seem natural. People are reviewing the product (ipod cases), both negatively and positively. While this could have been an SEO tactic for link building, I don't want to disavow these links if they're not the problem, even though this domain is the source of almost all the low-quality links. Another site that has more than 200 links is Askives. Do any of you have experience with links from Askives, or removing these links? Thanks again!
Link Building | | newwhy0 -
Footer Link Issue
Hi, I run Web Design Business, I got Links from 1000 Domain "Powered by xyz" pointing to my domain (Footer Link) Footer Links Are Not (Inherently) Bad ? Footer Link may Hurt my Site?
Link Building | | srinathk0 -
Sidebar Links
If I have x number of posts with sidebar having popular posts. Will each post acts as a link to popular posts? or will be penalized for site wide links? Thanks, Venkee
Link Building | | Venkee0 -
External link
Hi guys! You must get many questions about external links... This is mine. If I get an external link with good authority ranking in google, but it is not relevant to the site (for example, my site is about marquees, but we could get links from schools, which are our main clients, or any type of client) Does that affect negatively somehow to the rankings? or there is good value on it even is not related? Thanks! Adriana
Link Building | | extrememarquees0 -
Link Frequency
I understand that good link building is all about the quality of the link / the anchor text attached to it. But, what about frequency? Should I build until I can't build anymore? or create a plan to submit links to a certain # of sites per week/month?
Link Building | | pricefutures0 -
Article Links
I write and publish artcles. Typically I publish them on a few top article sites like EZineArticles. The articles then get picked up by other sites, often numbering in the hundreds. All of the articles are published with a link back to our website using a keyword. Are there any SEO risks in this type of link proliferation?
Link Building | | JimSkychief0