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This is probably referral spam. Take a look at this article: https://www.distilled.net/resources/quick-fix-for-referral-spam-in-google-analytics/

They are real, quality, relevant, etc, etc. Is there any good reason for such skepticism? It seems like every link building idea is met with a negative attitude, as if we should just "produce great content" and sit on our asses.

There's 100 of blogs with posts that link to my competitors, but don't link to my site.They are mostly lists. Eg: "The best Sites to get blue widgets"

I was thinking about getting in touch with these blogs, and asking them to take a look at my site, to see if perhaps they would add it to the list. In fact, I started doing it and I got some links already.

Now I am starting to worry that Google could consider these links as unnatural, because, you know, the algos are not exactly perfect. Anyway, the links are important for the exposure anyway.

I've two questions:

1. Is there any chance I'll be penalized?

2. May I get a SEO benefit from this links?