undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Research & Trends
  3. White Hat / Black Hat SEO
  4. Sky Lancers: What is the deal?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Sky Lancers: What is the deal?

White Hat / Black Hat SEO
8
14
4.0k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Discountvc
    Discountvc last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 12:19 AM

    For a few days now we are being stalked by a "referrer" site out of Bangladesh, called sky lancers dot net. Their home page is nothing but a login and password. All traffic comes from one invisible inner page. They don't seem to try to login, nor do they use PPC to get to the site. They send thousands of visitors a day.

    Anyone has any idea what this site is trying to achieve and what their goal may be?

    All they do is get the bounce rate to skyrocket, the time on the site to go down and the avg page views of course to go down as well, as they click out immediately after they hit the homepage.

    Any suggestions on what to do about this practice? And what are they trying to achieve?

    Thanks for your insights guys!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • KANBUe
      KANBUe last edited by Aug 24, 2023, 3:56 PM

      The visits however are for 85% new visitors, all with unique IP addresses. Don't really think it is a scraper, but it is well possible there is a connection somewhere out there.
      Thanks http://gameershoe.com/

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • KANBUe
        KANBUe last edited by Aug 24, 2023, 3:52 PM

        I know in the past when I would get suspicious traffic like that I would quickly take a spin around elance/odesk/etc. and often find a competitor had posted something like 'make me a site just like (specialshoes.net) but cheap and scrape all their products so they're already in a database'.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • topic:timeago_earlier,3 years
        • fatetmpwcosl
          fatetmpwcosl Banned last edited by Dec 24, 2020, 5:58 PM Dec 24, 2020, 5:58 PM

          ... There is a table on the web page (scroll down) which you may discover quite beneficial. It outlines the various pitfalls of various styles of neighborhood-precise URLs, you can see here. I'd count on this form of stuff to maintain actual for the newer provincial TLDs

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • topic:timeago_earlier,9 years
          • Discountvc
            Discountvc @AskJoanne last edited by Apr 2, 2012, 10:01 PM Apr 2, 2012, 10:01 PM

            Thanks Joanne!!! Great tip for those who have this problem occur as well.

            In a nutshell, only your Analytics is out of wack. Your hosting server (usually) will not show increased traffic. Many newly launched sites are affected by a variety of similar 'referrers'

            Personally, I ignored the referrer and it disappeared as sudden as it came, after one month. Exactly as the article suggests.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • AskJoanne
              AskJoanne @sfmatthews last edited by Apr 2, 2012, 9:32 PM Apr 2, 2012, 9:32 PM

              Saw an interesting article related to this sort of thing... they call it Analytics SPAM and have some suggestions for removing it from your reports:

              http://www.businesshut.com/spam/google-analytics-referrer-spam/

              Discountvc 1 Reply Last reply Apr 2, 2012, 10:01 PM Reply Quote 1
              • topic:timeago_earlier,about a month
              • Discountvc
                Discountvc @sfmatthews last edited by Feb 22, 2012, 9:07 PM Feb 22, 2012, 9:07 PM

                As an update, those visits as we see them in Analytics are not hitting our servers. Not sure how they are doing this, but traffic does show in analytics but we do not see any spike on our servers.

                We take the country out through filters at this point so we can at least review some true data.

                Your question about how to ignore it after the fact can be done similar:

                Go to Google Analytics > Custom Reports > Add Filter > EXCLUDE the country > Save

                Now your GA will show all past results without those entries.

                It is a custom report, but better than no data at all?

                Hope this helps

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • sfmatthews
                  sfmatthews last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 10:39 PM Feb 21, 2012, 10:39 PM

                  I am seeing it as well. It is really making my analytics a mess, anyone know how to make Google analytics ignore it after the fact?

                  Discountvc AskJoanne 2 Replies Last reply Apr 2, 2012, 9:32 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • Discountvc
                    Discountvc @KeriMorgret last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 3:18 AM Feb 21, 2012, 3:11 AM

                    Yep, I found that as well. The "Paid To Click" is an old trick, but they are not coming in through PPC though. Adwords is not showing any sign either, nor is tracking of PPC. that toolbar is an interesting path I have to say.

                    Thanks for the research Keri!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • KeriMorgret
                      KeriMorgret last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 2:53 AM Feb 21, 2012, 2:53 AM

                      It looks like it's related to a toolbar where people are paid to click on ads. Skylancers.net and skylancers.com appear to be connected, based on the whois info, and on this FB post http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skylancers/200579273364198. Check out the dot com site for some more info.

                      Discountvc 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2012, 3:11 AM Reply Quote 2
                      • Discountvc
                        Discountvc @icecarats last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 2:51 AM Feb 21, 2012, 2:51 AM

                        Great idea too, Valery.

                        The visits however are for 85% new visitors, all with unique IP addresses. Don't really think it is a scraper, but it is well possible there is a connection somewhere out there.

                        Thank you!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Discountvc
                          Discountvc @RyanKent last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 2:48 AM Feb 21, 2012, 2:48 AM

                          awesome answer Ryan, thank you! We blocked the referrers IP but that does not seem to make any difference (yet).

                          Just puzzled by a site that has no apparent meaning and thousands of people must have a login to that thing. Maybe it is a reroute from somewhere else... no clue.

                          Will give your advice a go tomorrow and surely will let you know the outcome.

                          Peter

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • icecarats
                            icecarats last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 2:46 AM Feb 21, 2012, 2:46 AM

                            Another thing to watch out for is see if someone is trying to snake your design/business model. I know in the past when I would get suspicious traffic like that I would quickly take a spin around elance/odesk/etc. and often find a competitor had posted something like 'make me a site just like (mysite.com) but cheap and scrape all their products so they're already in a database'.

                            If Bangladesh is nowhere near your customer base I'd do what Ryan suggests as well and block em.

                            Discountvc 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2012, 2:51 AM Reply Quote 1
                            • RyanKent
                              RyanKent last edited by Feb 21, 2012, 2:04 AM Feb 21, 2012, 2:03 AM

                              Hi Peter,

                              I sympathize with your situation. Since the home page is blank with just a login feature you have no information about the site or its purpose. A Google search for the site shows nothing but the home page. A WHOIS search shows the site owner is private.

                              There is no way to know the reason behind the traffic. Someone could have shared a "free stuff" post and for whatever reason provided a link to your site. When users arrive at your site they are of course disappointed then leave.

                              Some options:

                              • contact the site owner via the WHOIS e-mail. Ask the site owner to remove the link.

                              • block all traffic from Bangladesh. This option will work if all or most of the traffic is from that site.

                              • block all traffic which shows that site as a referrer. I have never implemented such a solution but your web host can likely offer options in this regard. You may have to implement a firewall.

                              Best wishes

                              Discountvc 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2012, 2:48 AM Reply Quote 1
                              • 1 / 1
                              1 out of 14
                              • First post
                                1/14
                                Last post

                              Got a burning SEO question?

                              Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                              Start my free trial


                              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.

                              • See all categories

                              Related Questions

                              • Halmblogmusic

                                Should I Report A SEO Agency to Google

                                spam backlink attack spam backlinks

                                Our competitor has employed the services of a spammy SEO agency that sends spammy links to our site. Though our rankings were affected we have taken the necessary steps. It is possible to send evidence to Google so that they can take down the site. I want to take this action so that other sites will not be affected by them again.

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Jul 26, 2024, 1:37 PM | Halmblogmusic
                                0
                              • David_Fisher

                                Best practices for retiring 100s of blog posts?

                                redirects blog post backlinks blog post 404s

                                Hi. I wanted to get best practices for retiring an enterprise blog with hundreds of old posts with subject matter that won't be repurposed. What would be the best course of action to retire and maintain the value of any SEO authority from those old blog pages? Is it enough to move those old posts into an archive subdirectory and Google would deprioritize those posts over time? Or would a mass redirect of old blog posts to the new blog's home page be allowed (even though the old blog post content isn't being specifically replaced)? Or would Google basically say that if there aren't 1:1 replacement URLs, that would be seen as soft-404s and treated like a 404?

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Jan 19, 2024, 7:14 AM | David_Fisher
                                0
                              • Arlinaite47

                                Inbound links to internal search with pharma spam anchor text. Negative seo attack

                                Suddenly in October I had a spike on inbound links from forums and spams sites. Each one had setup hundreds of links. The links goes to WordPress internal search. Example: mysite.com/es/?s=⚄

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Apr 6, 2024, 1:26 AM | Arlinaite47
                                0
                              • Ericrodrigo

                                How to fix site breadcrumbs on mobile google search

                                For past one month, I have been doing some research on how to fix this issue on my website but all my efforts didn't work out I really need help on this issue because I'm worried about this I was hoping that Google will cache or understand the structure of my site and correct the error the breadcrumb is working correctly on desktop but not shown on mobile. For Example take a look at : https://www.xclusivepop.com/omah-lay-bad-influence/

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Mar 8, 2024, 5:10 PM | Ericrodrigo
                                0
                              • calvinkj

                                What is the proper URL length? in seo

                                i learned that having 50 to 60 words in a url is ok and having less words is preferable by google. but i would like to know that as i am gonna include keywords in the urls and i am afraid it will increase the length. is it gonna slighlty gonna hurt me? my competitors have 8 characters domain url and keywords length of 13 and my site has 15 character domain url and keywords length of 13 which one will be prefered by google.

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Feb 3, 2024, 8:53 PM | calvinkj
                                0
                              • rahat64

                                My Brand new website shows 79% spam Score, what is the reason and how should I deal with this?

                                Hi, I have just launched my website 1 month before and I have used all paid images, Uniquely written contents, Everything is genuine for better SEO experience in the future. The actual problem is its showing spam by 79% in MOZ bar, I don't have a single link on my website also my content is unique, Images are unique. Why its showing so much spam on this brand new website? Can you please help me? I am very stressed due to this problem.

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Jan 9, 2020, 3:30 AM | rahat64
                                0
                              • xaviplabor

                                Malicious backlinks

                                Hello to everyone! We have identified some weird links that are pointing to our site and we are not sure if they are considered malicious backlinks and we should disavow them. Most of them are directories of websites, the most common one is called "Top million domains by alexa" (you can see an example here: www.besafe.in/domain-list-237). Have you ever seen these kind of links before? Are they causing harm to our site? Thank you so much!

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Jun 20, 2024, 9:06 AM | xaviplabor
                                0
                              • ayetti

                                Is the SORBS-SPAM list a big deal?

                                Someone here pointed out that my server ip is on the SORBS-SPAM list and I was wondering if this was a big deal, and how it might have got there, and I would go about getting it off the list?

                                White Hat / Black Hat SEO | Mar 18, 2012, 10:59 PM | ayetti
                                0

                              Get started with Moz Pro!

                              Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                              Start my free trial
                              Products
                              • Moz Pro
                              • Moz Local
                              • Moz API
                              • Moz Data
                              • STAT
                              • Product Updates
                              Moz Solutions
                              • SMB Solutions
                              • Agency Solutions
                              • Enterprise Solutions
                              Free SEO Tools
                              • Domain Authority Checker
                              • Link Explorer
                              • Keyword Explorer
                              • Competitive Research
                              • Brand Authority Checker
                              • MozBar Extension
                              • MozCast
                              Resources
                              • Blog
                              • SEO Learning Center
                              • Help Hub
                              • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                              • How-to Guides
                              • Moz Academy
                              • API Docs
                              About Moz
                              • About
                              • Team
                              • Careers
                              • Contact
                              Why Moz
                              • Case Studies
                              • Testimonials
                              Get Involved
                              • Become an Affiliate
                              • MozCon
                              • Webinars
                              • Practical Marketer Series
                              • MozPod
                              Connect with us

                              Contact the Help team

                              Join our newsletter
                              Moz logo
                              © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                              • Accessibility
                              • Terms of Use
                              • Privacy

                              Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.