Dealing with spam link attack

[chuckstar_za]

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.uk

Thanks in advance.

[chuckstar_za]

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?

[chuckstar_za]

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.

[RobertFisher]

By template, I really meant one you create and reuse. I will PM you with one I sent most recently to a company.

Best,

[RobertFisher]

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.

[RobertFisher]

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,

[chuckstar_za]

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.

[McTaggart]

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...

[tinyinnovative]

Good Clear answer , by the way it is not possible to check baclinks count in Moz Analytic ?

Thank you

[RobertFisher]

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