Found hidden pages of outbound links created via ex-SEO consultant. Best way to detect other possible problems?

[marketing-gal]

We paid for an SEO contract in addition to our new website design (same company did both) and after 12 months cancelled the SEO. I have been very suspicious ever since of our bad page rank and general lack of traffic (despite my efforts) and today found a hidden page of outbound links. Currently in shock that this happened although my own fault for lack of due diligence. The SEO consultants were very unhappy that I cancelled the contract so I am worried about the extent of bad links or negative google juice they may have created (god knows what else they may have done).

So my questions are:

• How can I detect any other (potentially hidden) problems?

• How can I recover from this - any right/wrong way to approach google?

• What is the best way to bring this up with the SEO consultants?

Thank you in advance.

[Travis_Bailey]

Removing the page should more than likely be a basic task. However knowing if what they have done was worthwhile would require a well-practiced eye. I don't want to discourage you, but it sounds like you may not be that well-versed with off-page.

So, for the low low cost of reading this; I can give you a few things to watch out for. I'm sure some others will jump in, and I would be grateful for that as well. I probably won't remember to mention everything, and I may learn something.

All of that is the real reason I come back to Q&A, aside from the fact that I want to solve problems. I blame my dad.

Nevertheless, here's what to look out for:

• A lot of exact match anchors (your target keywords)
• Low quality directories (You will know them if you can search adult, pharma and casino keywords in their search function.)
• Paid stuffs (A dead giveaway is an 'Ad' that actually passes juice - not nofollow or otherwise 'neutered'.)
• Unrelated links (This means you, due to the reciprocals. You aren't related to a thatcher in New Zealand... or at least most likely not.)

All of the above are examples of things that may get your site penalized, depending on the circumstances.

Now if the agency was doing a lot of low quality directory listings, there's actually something pretty new you should be aware of. A lot of low quality directories are blocking popular crawlers. So maybe a lot of links aren't gone, just your favorite crawlers have been blocked.

Get all your standard link datas: GWT, BWT, Majestic, Ahrefs, etc. - filter duplicates and commence crawling. That's where Screaming Frog also comes in handy. You can spoof a popular user agent, thus you will not be blocked. So you will have a better idea of the actual links that exist, or don't exist, to your site.

This is what you have to do, brochacho. Chin up.

[marketing-gal]

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. Some further info and responses from me:

• The site definitely hasn't been hacked - the links all go to other customers of our ex-SEO company. So I assume it is part of a reciprocal link exchange however we don't seem to have any returning links anymore as I would expect since we no longer pay for their SEO services.

• site:domain search in Google does not pick up the page - it hasn't been indexed - what is the value if Google is unaware? The only way I found out about this is watching Analytics in real time and seeing a strange URL I didn't recognise then navigating to that page.

• Screaming Frog is a great tool however it doesn't appear to be detecting these links either - nothing appearing under the "External" tab.

• Re "I don't want to make you paranoid, but there's also a possibility that a sufficiently miffed contractor may also pull links. But since we don't know the actual site, we can't really say if that's happening - or if their work is worth worrying about in the first place." - How do I go about checking this myself?

In summary I will have a discussion about this with the SEO company shortly and maybe just ask them to remove this page? I just want to be sure they are not doing anything else untoward.

[CommT]

I 'third' the screaming frog recommendation. I honestly couldn't do my job effectively without it! It'll tell you loads about your site, not just to help with this problem.

Also look at your backlinks in WMT. Is there anything untoward there?

I think you should speak to the company you believe did this. I wouldn't go in all guns blazing though, as mentioned by others, the site could have been hacked. Maybe just say 'I found this page, do you know anything about it?' which isn't accusing them of anything, simply asking if they know about it.

Sometimes companies do strange things when you stop using them. A very very long time ago, I worked for an agency which would remove as many links as possible (sometimes pointing them to other clients in the same niche) when a company cancelled their services. I used to lie and say I'd removed the links when I hadn't (I know, naughty to lie, but IMHO more naughty to take someone's money for a service and then delete as much of the service that they paid for as soon as they stop paying - despicable). Another thing they did (when customers particularly annoyed them) was to put nofollow, noindex in the robots.txt when a client left to use the services of a competitor - they even had a betting book of how quickly it took the competitor to work out why the site wasn't listing. Again, despicable. I should say, this company (funnily enough) went bust and no longer exists. I only worked there for a very short time, it gave me a foot in the door of SEO as it was my first SEO job and for that I am grateful to them. I love my job and wouldn't want to stop doing SEO.

All the agencies I've worked for since have not operated in this way.

I am only telling you this to say, you may be right about the agency doing something they shouldn't (and hidden link pages are quite common), but the site could have been hacked and if you have a conversation with the company about it, I would not say 'I think you did it' because if they did, they'll deny it (and where's your proof) and if they didn't they will be very very offended.

As a precautionary measure, I would change all the passwords to your site (ftp, admin etc) so if someone got in (hacked or this company) through a password breach they can't get in again.

[Travis_Bailey]

I second the Screaming Frog crawl. Last I knew, it was free - up to 500 URLs. The paid version may seem expensive, but the value I've received is pretty solid. Seriously, fractions of a cent on the dollar type stuff.

Download your OS flavor here. You will be happy you did. The learning curve isn't very steep. Most everything runs 'out of the box', but you may find the advanced features pretty snazzy as well.

I also agree that the page you found may be reciprocal links list. But is there any way it could be a, real, resource page that wasn't finished? That's another possibility.

I don't want to make you paranoid, but there's also a possibility that a sufficiently miffed contractor may also pull links. But since we don't know the actual site, we can't really say if that's happening - or if their work is worth worrying about in the first place.

In regard to contacting the consultants, if the relationship ended poorly - I wouldn't exactly hold my breath. They've likely moved on by now. They might not have the time or the inclination to respond to you.

But if you're inclined to confront them, I would avoid the prosecuting attorney approach and err toward the Columbo style of questioning.

[tomfifteen]

Hello,

It is possible that your website has been hacked and someone has created additional pages, which link back to their money site.

Some of our clients websites occasionally get hacked with spammy link pages being added. If you google site:domain.com it should show you all the pages of your website that have been indexed by Google.

Rob

[GPainter]

The links might of been for a link exchange (you link to us and we link to you type of thing) wouldn't be the first time I've seen it so don't assume its an evil plot to take over the world just yet! You can use a handy little tool called screaming frog to detect out going links on your site.

If you monitor your site via OSE (or any similar alternatives) you can also keep track of any impact that you may fear be it negative or other wise.  You mention recovery but are you sure you need to recover? Could just be you need to do some SEO and build some links its not really a recovery thing more of a just do it right thing.  I'm confidant that you would know right/wrong (white/black hat) way to approach it.

Have you tried just straight up asking them what the page is for? They might explain it, deny it etc. but at least you will be better off than wondering why or what.

Best of luck and let us know what they say the page is for.