Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Inbound links to internal search with pharma spam anchor text. Negative seo attack
-
Suddenly in October I had a spike on inbound links from forums and spams sites. Each one had setup hundreds of links. The links goes to WordPress internal search.
Example:
-
@Arlinaite47 hi, how i can do like this
https://images.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.se/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.co.id/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.fr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.co.uk/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.ca/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.co.in/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.com.br/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.com.tr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://images.google.de/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.gr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.uk/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.id/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.in/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.com.br/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.com.tr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.de/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.jp/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.pl/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.it/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.com.mx/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.ca/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.gr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.fr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.ru/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.kr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.co.th/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://cse.google.com.ua/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.se/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.fr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.de/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.gr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.co.uk/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.es/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.co.td/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.pl/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.ca/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.com.mx/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.co.kr/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F https://maps.google.ru/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsverigeiptv.net%2F
-
Sorry,
The message was cut off
Suddenly in October I had a spike on inbound links from forums and spams sites. Each one had setup hundreds of links.
The links goes to WordPress internal search.
Example:
mysite.com/es/?s=here a very long text related to a pharma search
No humans are visiting those links but I have dozens of bots digging in those links and looking for invalid traffic.
I disavow the links, but looks that I am David fighting against Goliat with a toothpick
How to stop this?
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
-
Too many dofollow links = penalty?
Hi. I currently have 150 backlinks, 90% of them are dofollow, while only 10% are nofollow. I recently hit position #10 for my main keyword, but now it is dropped to #16 and a lot of related keywords are gone. So I have a few questions: 1. Was my website penalized for having an unnatural backlink profile (too many dofollow links), or maybe this drop in positions is just a temporary, natural thing? 2. Isn’t it too late for making the backlink profile look more natural by building more nofollow backlinks and making it 50%/50%? Thank you!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | NathalieBr0 -
Does ID's in URL is good for SEO? Will SEO Submissions sites allow such urls submissions?
Example url: http://public.beta.travelyaari.com/vrl-travels-13555-online It's our sites beta URL, We are going to implement it for our site. After implementation, it will be live on travelyaari.com like this - "https://www.travelyaari.com/vrl-travels-13555-online". We have added the keywords etc in the URL "VRL Travels". But the problems is, there are multiple VRL travels available, so we made it unique with a unique id in URL - "13555". So that we can exactly get to know which VRL Travels and it is also a solution for url duplication. Also from users / SEO point of view, the url has readable texts/keywords - "vrl travels online". Can some Moz experts suggest me whether it will affect SEO performance in any manner? SEO Submissions sites will accept this URL? Meanwhile, I had tried submitting this URL to Reddit etc. It got accepted.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | RobinJA0 -
Is it Okay to Nofollow all External Links
So, we all "nofollow" most of the external links or all external links to hold back the page rank. Is it correct? As per Google, only non-trusty and paid links must be nofollow. Is it all same about external links and nofollow now?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | vtmoz0 -
Site Footer Links Used for Keyword Spam
I was on the phone with a proposed web relaunch firm for one of my clients listening to them talk about their deep SEO knowledge. I cannot believe that this wouldn’t be considered black-hat or at least very Spammy in which case a client could be in trouble. On this vendor’s site I notice that they stack the footer site map with about 50 links that are basically keywords they are trying to rank for. But here’s the kicker shown by way of example from one of the themes in the footer: 9 footer links:
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | RosemaryB
Top PR Firms
Best PR Firms
Leading PR Firms
CyberSecurity PR Firms
Cyber Security PR Firms
Technology PR Firms
PR Firm
Government PR Firms
Public Sector PR Firms Each link goes to a unique URL that is basically a knock-off of the homepage with a few words or at the most one sentences swapped out to include this footer link keyword phrase, sometimes there is a different title attribute but generally they are a close match to each other. The canonical for each page links back to itself. I simply can’t believe Google doesn’t consider this Spammy. Interested in your view.
Rosemary0 -
Black Hat SEO Case Study - Private Link Network - How is this still working?
I have been studying my competitor's link building strategies and one guy (affiliate) in particular really caught my attention. He has been using a strategy that has been working really well for the past six months or so. How well? He owns about 80% of search results for highly competitive keywords, in multiple industries, that add up to about 200,000 searches per month in total. As far as I can tell it's a private link network. Using Ahref and Open Site Explorer, I found out that he owns 1000s of bought domains, all linking to his sites. Recently, all he's been doing is essentially buying high pr domains, redesigning the site and adding new content to rank for his keywords. I reported his link-wheel scheme to Google and posted a message on the webmaster forum - no luck there. So I'm wondering how is he getting away with this? Isn't Google's algorithm sophisticated enough to catch something as obvious as this? Everyone preaches about White Hat SEO, but how can honest marketers/SEOs compete with guys like him? Any thoughts would be very helpful. I can include some of the reports I've gathered if anyone is interested to study this further. thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | howardd0 -
Footer Link in International Parent Company Websites Causing Penalty?
Still waiting to look at the analytics for the timeframe, but we do know that the top keyword dropped on or about April 23, 2012 from the #1 ranking in Google - something they had held for years, and traffic dropped over 15% that month and further slips since. Just looked at Google Webmaster Tools and see over 2.3MM backlinks from "sister" compainies from their footers. One has over 700,000, the rest about 50,000 on average and all going to the home page, and all using the same anchor text, which is both a branded keyword, as well as a generic keyword, the same one they ranked #1 for. They are all "nofollows" but we are trying to confirm if the nofollow was before or after they got hit, but regardless, Google has found them. To also add, most of sites are from their international sites, so .de, .pl, .es, .nl and other Eurpean country extensions. Of course based on this, I would assume the footer links and timing, was result of the Penguin update and spam. The one issue, is that the other US "sister" companies listed in the same footer, did not see a drop, in fact some had increase traffic. And one of them has the same issue with the brand name, where it is both a brand name and a generic keyword. The only note that I will make about any of the other domains is that they do not drive the traffic this one used to. There is at least a 100,000+ visitor difference among the main site, and this additional sister sites also listed in the footer. I think I'm on the right track with the footer links, even though the other sites that have the same footer links do not seem to be suffering as much, but wanted to see if anyone else had a different opinion or theory. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LeverSEO
Jen Davis0 -
Link Building using Badges
In light of penguin update, is link building using badges(like "I love SEOMOZ" badge) still considered a white hat tactic? I have read old posts on SEOMOZ blog about this topic and wondering if this method is still effective. Look forward to feedback from MOZers.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Amjath0 -
How Is Your Approach Towards Adult SEO?
I would like to know how SEOMoz community members approach adult SEO. How do you approach a project when you get one (if you do it that is). If you dont do adult SEO, why do you not do it? Is it because it's much more difficult than normal SEO or do you not want to associate yourself with that industry?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ConversionChamp0