Links: Links come from bizzare pages
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Hi all,
My question is related to links that I saw in Google Search Console. While looking at who is linking to my site, I saw that GSC has some links that are coming from third party websites but these third party webpages are not indexed and not even put up by their owners.
It looks like the owner never created these pages, these pages are not indexed (when you do a site: search in Google) but the URL of these pages loads content in the browser.
Example - www.samplesite1.com/fakefolder/fakeurl
what exactly is this thing? To mention more details, the third party website in question is a Wordpress website and I guess is probably hijacked.
But how does one even get these types pages/URLs up and running on someone else's website and then link out to other websites. I am concerned as the content that I am getting link from is adult content and I will have to do some link cleansing soon.
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Yes I believe its been happening from ages. These techniques are used by competitors mostly to sabotage the websites. However, how do you hack into such websites. Its very annoying. I am keeping an eye on the backlinks profile.
Ahrefs didnt show any such link but I got this from the Google Search Console. These third party links pages are not even indexed in Google but still Google has got it in their Search Console report and Ahrefs is unable to detect these.
Very strange!
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So - this is normal. Any site can have few "bad" links or links that wasn't created from it. They can be also created from scrappers, competitors, previous SEO agencies, and/or other.
But you should constantly watch them in SC and update your disavow file keeping them out. Because in long them they can (if wasn't already) hurt your rankings.
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Have you paid for links or used an SEO agency recently? If so, this could be a likely cause. Never pay for links and only use an SEO agency that is reputable and honest, otherwise, scenarios like the one you have mentioned do occur. There are sadly some rogues out there that will do most things for a bit of cash.
Also, I would remove the links in question. If you can't, at least disavow them. Good luck!
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