What is the best way to remove a link that redirects to a spammy site?
-
I've got a new client and I'm trying to clean up their backlinks. There are several links that all redirect to this spam site http://www.expert-lender.com. All of the websites appear to be real, i.e. http://www.sammorganhomes.com/ but the actual links i.e http://www.sammorganhomes.com/wp-fav/backup/supplement/semitruckleasing.html are in a sub-directory and redirect to the spam site.
I don't know if these links were from the previous SEO company or if they paid someone to create these or if these sites have been hacked. Can anyone tell me what is going on here and what should I tell these site owners?
-
Thanks for the response and I appreciate the information.
-
I usually see this kind of link when I'm doing backlink cleanup for payday loans sites. Not sure how they happen, but I usually do deal with them rather than ignore them. When I come across these I usually disavow both on the domain level. So, you'd do the following:
domain:sammorganhomes.com
domain:expert-lender.comIf you don't have a manual penalty then you don't need to worry about getting the links removed. (I recommend removing what you can easily remove and then disavowing the rest.) If you do have a manual penalty, you can try to find contact info and if you can't contact them, don't sweat it...just document in your spreadsheet that you have tried to find contact info or send emails and didn't get a response. Google knows you can't contact every site that links to you.
-
Long story short, the page isn't cached in Google, but it does redirect - so odds are the actual link is gone. Your client's site content was probably scraped. In another example, whoever did this also scraped content from another site.
Scraping is pretty common, and it would result in backlinks if the scraper didn't totally remove all of the links. The scraper/hacker likely didn't choose sites strategically, rather they likely just targeted vulnerable sites.
If you run into live instances of your client's stolen content, there is always the option of a DMCA takedown.
Edit: I just revisited my response and found that even the Web Archive link redirects. I took a look at the source code after stopping the browser before the redirect, I haven't found anything in a timely manner. Suffice to say, that's odd.
-
Thanks Travis and Jane.
These links are showing up in Open Site Explorer for my client, so I don't know what is visible when crawled, but there is an immediate redirect to the spam site when I open the link in a browser.
-
Hi there,
Sorry, can you clarify - are you saying that your client supposedly has links on pages like http://www.sammorganhomes.com/wp-fav/backup/supplement/semitruckleasing.html, but that those pages redirect to the spam site?
-
If the links don't point to your client, there's little to no need to tell anyone anything - other than out of courtesy. You would do better telling their host's technical support, however. Hosts tend to hate this stuff more than site owners for some odd reason.
But yes, the example given looks like the result of a hack. Now that doesn't mean the links weren't paid, per se - but the hack is the end result. It wouldn't surprise me if whomever did the hacking later pulled the links and pointed them elsewhere.
You could follow that rabbit hole to the end of the internet. Instead I would focus on links that actually point to your client's site. And that is if it appears the links have harmed, or definitely will harm the site.
If you feel the need to continue, gather as much link information as you can from open site explorer, Google and Bing Webmaster Tools, Majestic SEO and/or aHrefs. Once you have a mess of spreadsheets in-hand, prune duplicate links. Then, feed it into Cemper Link Detox.
Link Detox should be able to flag the obvious stuff. But they also still put out some false positive/negatives, so you still have to judge links individually. During the judging phase, I always use a Linux machine. You never know when you'll hit something that executes script - then your machine is totaled.
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
-
How do I get rid of sites that backlink with lots of irrelevant or spammy links to our website?
This site http://herwigphoto.com/bs/ and other like it have thousands of similar links containing the word adidas We are not in the sports shoes business, therefore the links are irrelevant and many and can hurt our rankings, correct? | Page Title/URL of Linking Page | Link Anchor Text | Page Authority | Domain Authority |
Link Building | | Madlena
| Christopher Herwig Photographer » Soviet Bus Stopshttp://herwigphoto.com/bs/ | adidas Yeezy Boost 750 Grey For Sale | 48 | 47 | Below are some links to our geographics.com website that have URLs that are not ours. They will redirect to our homepage. How do we remove these links and how do we deal with the websites that send such links to us? There are thousands of inbound links to our website with anchor text containing irrelevant keywords such as these: yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap or adidas-yeezy-boost-750-light-grey-sale; pirate black sale, etc Page Title/URL of Linking Page Page Authority LRDs Total External Links HTTP Status http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap.html 46 120 1800 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-350-pirate-black-sale.html 44 106 1829 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-gum-brown-sale.html 42 114 181 -- --- --- --- ---0 -
What is the Best Way to Select a Company for Linkbuilding?
We need a few more links, who doesn't, and I've been looking at outsourcing it. Having checked out Moz posts to get an idea of best practice it seems that most link builders that responded to my Elance advert would give me links that would get me penalised either now or in the next update or two by Google. Leaving aside the frequent mentions of link wheels on potential SEOs sites, the main problem seems to be that I cannot believe that any content generated will be of any value to anyone other than as a pseudo contextual basis for the link "Bats are a flying mammal. They use sound waves to navigate. Sound is used in hearing aids. blah blah. blah." So how do you find decent link builders? How do you validate them? What are the key questions to ask? What are the red flags?
Link Building | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
301 redirect of PR 6 domain to PR 1 site, Will it improve my site's seo?
I have a pagerank 1 website but i recently purchased one old pagerank 6 domain, if I 301 redirect this pr6 domain to my currrent pr1 site, will it will increase my site's pr and improve seo ?
Link Building | | IndiaFPS0 -
Old Links Remove or not to remove?
Hey everyone, So i have a site which I had previous seo work on over the years, none of which was successful for me. Now that I have taken over the seo work, I am analyzing my old links I have a certain amount of links from what I would see are "crappy" seo sites and I wondered if I need to try and remove them. Here are a few examples. http://seorankingsresult.com/what-to-consider-when-shopping-for-electricians-tools/ http://seoservicepackages.com/tag/electricians-tools/ How do I check if google has penalized me for these links and should I start removing them? ThanksMichelle
Link Building | | nutjobshell0 -
Better to redirect domain or to link from home page?
Hi, I have a niche directory and sometimes clients remove themselves because they have discontinued their business practice. If they sometimes provide me with their own website (as they will no longer use it either), is it wiser for me to: a) directly point their URL 301 to my own directory b) keep their website as is, and add a url link to my directory in their homepage c) keep their website as is, and add an anchored link with the industry keyword to my directory Thanks! D
Link Building | | Demosthenes0 -
Best way to create deep links - Building links to inner pages
I am looking for a cost effective way to rank 30 inner pages, which are all low competition, long tail keywords. What type of links are the best for this type of project, social bookmarks, article marketing, high pr links, etc.... Also who would be good to hire for this type of project?
Link Building | | newcitymoving0 -
Getting a link from a page on a site with high site DA but low PA?
Does anyone know if it is still worth it getting a link from a page on a site with a really low Page Authority - say a news page on a site that has an SEO Moz tool bar PA of just 1 or 2, but the domain of the site has a high DA like say 83 Is this worth getting?? Thanks
Link Building | | inhouseninja0