When looking at my site in open site explorer the top results are very dodgy spam and porn sites backlinking to us. Is this having a negative impact on our site?
-
When using open site explorer to check out who is linking to us I was surprised that the top results are spam and porn sites. These are completely irrelevant links. Does this have a negative impact on our site? What can we do to combat this?
-
Thanks for the tips Lewis it's much appreciated. I will be keeping a close eye on this and hopefully it will clear up. If you are interested here is a link to one of the hacked sites containing our link that is still active http://johnwakefield.co.uk/ifapj/ebods.php?ti=130037
All the bad links I have found seem to be in this format domain.com/something/something.php?=number So i assume they were all made by the same person. Again thanks for the tips.
-
If you haven't enagaged anyone to undertake link building for you and these links have been created then it does seem suspicious.
You suggest that some of the links are going but obviously it may be worth monitoring this. As suggested below contacting the relevant sites may be worthwhile but if they are spammy sites of porn sites they may not be worried about your concerns.
I would use open site explorer to see if this has happened to any of my competitors or to see if any of them are obviously using a link building agency as this may have originated from an attempted stitch up by an overzealous rival.
-
You're very welcome
Well, it wont hurt to keep an eye on your site and do make contact with these other sites and try and get links removed.
Good luck,
Andy
-
I will try and be patient, it just raised some red flags when I discovered them. Thanks for the tips Andy. It is a consumer electronics site, so I do believe some competitors deploy black hat SEO tactics.
-
I don't know about OSE, but if they are being removed then I would just wait it out.
However, a friendly mail to the webmaster of the site won't hurt either. And do you think a competitor would go to such extremes in order to try to damage your site reputation?
Regards,
Andy
-
It looks like these sites back linking us were hacked, and the links have now been deleted on a majority of them. Traffic is slowing down but nothing significant. Could this be a competitor trying to get our site penalized? How long will these links stick around in my open site explorer data? Thanks!
-
Google is smart enough to know that not every link is something you have added, or indeed can do anything about, so don't worry too much.
Can you see your link on those sites or pages? Do you feel your traffic is suffering? You could try and ask them to take down your link, but I wouldn't hold up a lot of hope for getting an answer - but never say never
Regards,
Andy
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
-
How to handle pre-existing backlinks on new site.
Hi - We built a new site on a URL that had previously been used. We are noticing a lot of spammy backlinks pointing to our current site and ending up on a 404 page. Any recommendations on how to handle this?
Link Building | | JJKM550 -
Backlinks are not adding
I have added different types of backlinks but no one is showing on my site https://kitchendimes.com/ so what can be the problem?
Link Building | | ali464740 -
Does a domain that has migrated or expired that points to my site affect my backlink profile.
I'm new to backlink auditing and I'm certain that the website in question is a link directory anyway. It's spam score isn't high, so in theory it looks okay but in actual fact the webhosting has expired. How badly do these types of broken inbound links affect my site?
Link Building | | Omar_aw0 -
Old Spammy Backlinks but No Manual Penalty...No Results
We have taken over a site in which the client had unfortunately hired an SEO consultant who bought bad comment spam links. Webmaster Tools does not show a manual penalty of any kind but clearly this was bad practice from the former "SEO" consultant. I believe we have a good structure of the completely new website we have built for the client but I am not sure of the best way to reduce any negative fallout from the previous actions. I've read conflicting information about submitting disavow report to Google for the comment spam links. In some cases, I have read that it would be irrelevant since there is not a manual penalty. I am fairly certain rankings are being negatively effected from this action and looking for the best way to neutralize the algorithmic penalty. Not sure if this helps or not but I use GWMT "Download Latest Links" and see that the soonest Google discovered one of these links is 4/4/2013. Most of the links were generated some time during 2012. How do you even begin to try to reach out and have comment spam manually removed...when most of the sites that allowed the comment spam to begin with are spam sites themselves?
Link Building | | bluelynxmarketing0 -
Should i disavow all backlinks?
I am facing a decline in my website over the past 90 days Im wondering if this is due to the recent penguin update. Can someone please give me some guidance? heres my site: USDALoanagency.com
Link Building | | briananglin0 -
Inbound Spam Links
We've held Local listings at "A" for over a year. 2 weeks ago we dropped down to below the fold. I ran several reports and our backlink report shows roughly over 10,000 and it's growing every day along with new domain referrals with inbound spam links all using the same core anchor text term. One domain is responsible for over 2,000. These sites have Nothing to do with our industry and several in foreign languages. All these links are "NoFollow". My question is. Although "nofollow" is known to protect you, I'm wondering with over 10,000 of them coming from 345 sites, ALL using our one core term as an anchor text has red flagged us? If so,I'm planning on using Google disavow at the "domain" level. We are a local resort and until this happened we only had around 15 referral sites that are industry related. Hotels.com type sites and local tourist related sites. These new inbound spam links are so blatant and yes they're "nofollow", but I'm starting to wonder IF this off the wall inbound spam link pattern IS indeed affecting us? Any thoughts?
Link Building | | capekeysgal0 -
Definition of a backlink
Quick question, would you define backlinking - as just external links or would you also say its also internal links within a site. So are internal links, be also considered backlinks? Mark
Link Building | | monster990 -
I am seeking a high quality sites to submit articles for free in order to get links. Can you recommend me on those sites?
I am seeking a high quality sites to submit articles for free in order to get links. Can you recommend me on those sites?
Link Building | | yoavm0