Is this negative SEO? Should I disavow these links?
-
We have been doing our own internal link building for the last year and getting nice backlinks. As of the last few days, ahrefs is showing a lot of new links that seem very spammy. We have not hired anyone to do link building for us, and these are all being created on these sites under the same user name. There is a good amount of them popping up, and I fear we will be subjected to a google pentalty for unnatural links if its not addressed.
My first question is, am I correct thinking this is negative seo, and not some random sites that picked up our content and is going across their affiliate websites?
If so, then should I preemptively disavow all these links? Are there any good ways to stop this? How can I track who is placing these garbage links? Here are some examples of these bad links. I know I can find the webmaster via a whois but I think that really wont get me anywhere, but I could be wrong.
Here are some examples of the links that started popping up yesterday and today.
http://pligg-cms.info/story.php?title=student-loan-debt-relief
http://www.sharklinks.info/story.php?title=-student-loan-consolidation-options
http://factson37.com/story.php?title=student-loan-debt-forgiveness-website
http://social-marker.info/story.php?title=-student-loan-debt-forgiveness
http://makingbookmarks.info/story.php?title=-student-loan-consolidation-options
http://bookmarkingforseo.com/story.php?title=top-student-loan-consolidation-options
http://jadelinks.info/story.php?title=-student-loan-consolidation-optionsThere are quite a bit more and they don't seem to be stopping. All of them look pretty much identical to this.
Thoughts?
-
I think this could be an attempt at negative SEO. But whether or not the links will hurt you is hard to say. I see all kinds of odd links that just randomly appear in some site profiles, but these look like they were made deliberately. One other explanation that is not negative SEO is if someone at your company, or a well meaning friend has ever purchased a cheap link building plan. I've seen links like these appear as the result of fiverr gigs or purchasing one of those "buy 1000 links for $100" type things.
Google says they're really good at determining whether negative SEO is happening and just not counting these links. However, if this were my site, I'd probably disavow these once every 2-4 weeks just to be sure. Make sure you disavow them on the domain level.
If it is a competitor who is using xrumer or something similar to pepper the web with links to you then hopefully it will stop when they decide to give up. There's really no way to determine who is doing it though as these really are all most likely automated.
I think that anyone who is in a really competitive space like this needs to be monitoring for negative SEO regularly. Again, I think in most cases it won't hurt you, but Google is certainly not perfect and I wouldn't take the chance.
-
Most spammy backlink related services, especially those created from Xrumer and similar services, say that they do their customers a service by giving them a diversified backlink portfolio full of both do-follow and no-follow backlinks.
Their reasoning is that by creating both link types they fool Google and make the backlink portfolio look more natural and effective. You'll also see them pitch that the link anchor texts will be full of both keyword rich and generic terms, again to look natural and fool Google.
Most services like this are configured this way and automated. Someone probably bought a backlink package and just let the 'seo' go wild.
And yes, this is most likely a bot creating these links.
-
Thanks for the great replies everyone. Its much appreciated.
Another question or something interesting I just noticed is that almost all of these bad links are nofollow, which kind of defeats the purpose of doing negative SEO, no? So either the person doing the negative SEO is really lost, or there is some kind of bot scraping info and reposting it over a network of websites?
Any idea why these would be nofollow links? Only three of the links are dofollow
-
"but use it carefully and sparingly"
Absolutely, this is how most should approach the disavow tool. With that said, there are some obvious link farms and spam directories that, if you're experiencing a problems with, can be domain disavowed without much worry.
+1 to Hashtaghustler for expanding on a fundamental piece of the disavow tool
-
Demi,
I am running into a very similar problem with my website, and after coming across the same Matt Cutts video as the one linked above I have begun a pruning campaign of my own. A plethora of the links that are coming to my website are all asking for 5$ for my link to removed. I haven't paid for anything, yet, and obviously would prefer not to, but drastic times call for drastic measures.
In one of my posts a few weeks ago EGOL, a member on every single SEO board ever made (literally), said:
"I don't trust having Google do stuff for me that I could do myself, because plenty of times Google says how they are gonna do things and then change their mind without tellin' anybody."
That says it all right there. At the time we were talking about redirects, which is slightly different then this, but still. The more that you can do on your own the better. Not only will it be immediate, but it will effect all search engines, not just Google. Even the Disavow Tool suggests contacting the webmaster and asking to be removed. The Disavow Tool is a very advanced dangerous tool, that used incorrectly, can harm your site.
Marie Haynes, one of the "penalty experts" around in the SEO world wrote a great article on the Disavow Tool. Here it is below.You can also find here around these boards if you're lucky! It's rumored she has an affinity for Penguins and Pandas, but that's just water cooler talk.
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2330944/7-Things-You-May-Not-Know-About-Googles-Disavow-Tool
Anyway, I think the disavow tool is great FOR GOOGLE, but use it carefully and sparingly, and pretty much as a last resort. Ray-pp brought up some good points about Google ignoring some of the links, and I too am confident in their ability to weed through the jungle of negative SEO. There is also "link rot" which is the concept that over time a link that is left alone will slowly wither and die a painful death and stop hurting you as much as it is.
Depending on how deep the spam runs, it may be worth calling in some 3rd party SEO experts who deal with penalty analysis, and spam. Depending on the size of your website and just how much they are hurting you, it's always worth getting a second opinion.
Hope that helps!
-
Here are my thoughts, I encourage others to add their own experiences and advice as well:
-
I assume negative SEO will always exist. If my SEO is successful, someone will eventually come by and try to bring that success down and Negative SEO is one strategy to do just that.
-
Google understands Negative SEO exists and they do simply ignore certain links and web properties. I'm confident they work to mitigate Negative SEO impact
-
How organized is the Negative SEO? Is a competitor targeting certain terms they are trying to drag me down for? If not, then it may not even be effective
-
Use your favorite tool to get a huge spreadsheet of spammy backlinks. Then use the file upload feature to bulk disavow all the domains you do not wish to have backlinks from.
-
-
Any advice on how to get this to stop? Seems like it could be a never ending problem that will take a lot of time to combat if it doesn't stop.
-
Hi DemiGR,
At very first glance I notice the Pligg CMS on your backlink list. This CMS is a highly targeted CMS by automated backlink tools, like Xrumer.
Those links are most definitely spam or spam quality.
Is this Negative SEO? I'm not sure it was done intentionally by a competitor, but this is what Google's Matt Cutts says about that:
"If you are at all worried about someone trying to do negative SEO or it looks like there's some weird bot that's building up a bunch of links to your site and you have no idea where it came from, that's the perfect time to use disavow as well," Cutts said.
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
-
SEO Tactics - All in the Game?
Hey Mozzers Hoping to get some opinions on SEO at a small business level. We're engaged in SEO for a number of clients which are small businesses (small budgets). We stick to strictly white hat techniques - producing decent content (and promoting it) and link building (as much as is possible without dodgy techniques/paying huge sums). For some clients we seem to have hit a ceiling about with rankings anywhere between roughly position #5 - #15 in Google. In the majority of cases - the higher ranking clients don't appear to be engaged in any kind of content marketing - often have much worse designed websites - and not particularly spectacular link profiles (In other words they're not hugely competitive - apart from sometimes on the AdWords front - but that's another story) The only difference seems to be links on agency link farms - you know the kind? Agency buys expired domains with an existing PR - then just builds simple site with multiple blog posts that link back to their clients sites. (Also links that are simply paid for) Obviously these sites serve no purpose other than links - but I guess it's harder for Google to recognize that than with obvious SEO directories etc?... It seems to me that at this level of SEO for small businesses (limited budgets, limited time) the standard approach for SEO is the "expired domains agency link sites" described above - and simply paying bloggers for links. Are the above techniques considered black hat? Or are they more grey-hat? - Are they risky? - Or is this kind of thing all in the game for SEO at the small business level (by that I mean businesses that don't have the budget to employ a full time SEO and have to rely on engaging agencies for low level - low resource SEO campaigns) Look forward to your always wise council...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
Where Is This Link Coming From?
According to Moz Analytics we have a link coming from here: http://www.grayshadowfinancial.com/ The anchor text is earthquake prone map. I can't find the link, but if I cntrl+f "earthquake prone map" it shows in the find box, even though I can't see it. I'm guessing this is some spam tactic and they are hiding this with their CSS? Is there anyway I could see it? Best, Ruben
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Hit by negative SEO
I think my site got hit by a negative SEO campaign. We got nailed by the latest Google update and our traffic dropped significantly. We don't buy links, ask for links, do link exchanges, etc. Since the last update was all about spammy backlinks, I downloaded backlinks from Google Webmaster Tools just to see if there was any info in there. There are tons, hundreds, thousands of backlinks from spammy sites to us. Sites that are spammy as heck and sell backlinks on the footer. I can only assume someone went after us with a negative SEO campaign. We're the #3 site in a hot market. Is the only way to combat this to disavow all those spammy backlinks with the Google disavow tool? We also have a manual penalty on our site as well. I've asked for a reconsideration request and have heard nothing. Please advise.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CFSSEO0 -
Yet another Negative SEO attack question.
I need help reconciling two points of view on spammy links. On one hand, Google seems to say, "Don't build spammy links to your website - it will hurt your ranking." Of course, we've seen the consequences of this from the Penguin update, of those who built bad links got whacked. From the Penguin update, there was then lots of speculation of Negative SEO attacks. From this, Google is saying, "We're smart enough to detect a negative SEO attack.", i.e: http://youtu.be/HWJUU-g5U_I So, its seems like Google is saying, "Build spammy links to your website in an attempt to game rank, and you'll be penalized; build spammy links to a competitors website, and we'll detect it and not let it hurt them." Well, to me, it doesn't seem like Google can have it both ways, can they? Really, I don't understand why Competitor A doesn't just go to Fiverr and buy a boatload of crappy exact match anchor links to Competitor B in an attempt to hurt Competitor B. Sure, Competitor B can disavow those links, but that still takes time and effort. Furthermore, the analysis needed for an unsophisticated webmaster could be daunting. Your thoughts here? Can Google have their cake and eat it too?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ExploreConsulting0 -
Is it bad to no follow all External LInks at the same time?
I am working on more than 40 EMDs. They are good quality brand sites but they all are interlinked to each other through footer links, side bar links. (and they dont have much of linking root domains) Now Some of those sites have been renovated with new templates and these new sites has very few external links (links going out to our own sites) but some of these old sites has 100s of external links (all these external links of course link to our own sites). But anyways, we are planning to no follow all those external links (links that are linking to our own sites) slowly to avoid penalty? question is, can it be bad to implement no follow to all those links on those sites at the same time?Will Google see it as something fishy? (I don't think so) Also, Is it good strategy to no follow all of them? (I think it is) What you guys think ?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Personnel_Concept0 -
What is the difference between advertizing and a paid link?
I have been told that google frowns on paid links yet I see many site charging for advertizing and the advertizing consists of an anchor text link. What is the difference between a paid link and this type of advertizing?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | casper4340 -
Buying Links
Hello, I have talked to many SEO companies about their services and rates. I noticed that all of them will buy thousands and thousands of links once you first join. That is why they always want a start-up fee, so they can purchase the links. I know the best method is doing it the ethical hard way of asking sites to link to them, but I dont have time to do that. I mainly want to know where the SEO companies buy their links from. I am figuring that them buying the links are not negatively affecting the sites or they would lose their clients if they got into black hat links. It must be good inorder for them to keep their clients. I was interested in buying links, but do not know who to trust. Does anyone have a recommendation?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | neeper670
