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. Moz Tools
  3. Moz Bar
  4. Weird back link showed in moz crawl

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.

Weird back link showed in moz crawl

Moz Bar
2
11
2.1k
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.
  • Rebeca1
    Rebeca1 last edited by Oct 15, 2013, 6:50 AM

    Some time ago somebody from this site: http://dianibeach.com created a weird link to our site which had on the end db. Later we have realized that the link was coming from every footer on each page. I believe that the back links from footer does not have realy value and even the more of them the less value. We have asked the guy to remove that links as I thought it might harm our site more then help.

    Now I I was very surprised to find this link in moz crawl error as second top page on our site in current index??? Can somebody explain how is this possible?? The most ridiculous thing is that when I click on that link it realy opens our site! How is that possible, what is it? This is the link:

    http://villasdiani.com/?db

    Thank you very much for any help with this

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Rebeca1
      Rebeca1 @crackingmedia last edited by Oct 16, 2013, 1:36 PM Oct 16, 2013, 1:36 PM

      Thank you so much Peter for helping me to sort out this. You can't imagine how much I appreciate your time and all you have done for me. I am so absolutely frustrated.

      You wrote:  I think (and perhaps someone from Moz will confirm this) that because you have been receiving links to your site to villasdiani.com/?db

      I was not creating links to this page, only that guy who made the link probably placed all that links to it, like the ones you have displayed.

      http://dianibeach.com/airservices/index.html
      http://dianibeach.com/apartments/index.htm
      http://dianibeach.com/bedbreakfast/index.htm
      http://dianibeach.com/books
      http://dianibeach.com/carhire
      http://dianibeach.com/golf

      the guy who did the link for us is actually somebody I know, but he is also my competition and frankly speaking, it is realy very easy to fool me, as I am beginner so I was always worry if this way can't harm me.

      The anchor text Raul was because that was the name of the guy who was that time doing our site.

      When I realized that instead of one proper link to our site(that was what I asked for) he instead created these weird links from each of his footer, with anchor text Raul I requested him to remove it and he did it right in front of me. But it was already a while ago. It was on the beginning of September.

      It is realy frustrating:-(

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • crackingmedia
        crackingmedia @Rebeca1 last edited by Nov 13, 2013, 7:00 PM Oct 16, 2013, 12:54 PM

        Thanks for including that screenshot Iris.

        Regarding villasdiani.com/?db being shown as one of your top visited pages, I think (and perhaps someone from Moz will confirm this) that because you have been receiving links to your site to villasdiani.com/?db and that is probably also being recording in your Google Analytics, it considers that to be a page when it actually isn't.

        As I mentioned earlier in our conversation on this, villasdiani.com and villasdiani.com/?db are actually go to the same page. They are just seen as different because you have had inbound links to villasdiani.com/?db and as said before when the query string ?db is not processed by the web server because there is not recognised, it is then ignored.

        I have run a search to see what external sites/pages are linking to villasdiani.com/?db and the following were some of the results:

        http://dianibeach.com/airservices/index.html
        http://dianibeach.com/apartments/index.htm
        http://dianibeach.com/bedbreakfast/index.htm
        http://dianibeach.com/books
        http://dianibeach.com/carhire
        http://dianibeach.com/golf

        and they are showing as all having had the anchor text of "Raul".

        Is Raul the name of this guy you know who said he was giving links to your site from the footer of your site?

        I have checked the source code of some of the pages above villasdiani.com/?db.

        The data being reported by Moz for these type of reports is not totally up to date but taken from the last crawl they made. You said at the start of this thread that you had asked this guy to remove the links to your site. Could it be that in the last few days or so he has done that and so from now on you won't be getting any links to villasdiani.com/?db ?

        That's possible, but I cannot say that is definitive, but it would explain what you have been seeing.

        Maybe someone from the Moz team can throw some light on this or one of the other more knowledgeable forum members.

        Peter

        Rebeca1 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2013, 1:36 PM Reply Quote 2
        • Rebeca1
          Rebeca1 @crackingmedia last edited by Oct 16, 2013, 11:39 AM Oct 16, 2013, 11:39 AM

          Hallo Peter,

          Thank you very much for your reply.

          Here is the image.

          Thank you very much for looking into this.

          Iris

          Xugm6Vm

          crackingmedia 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2013, 12:54 PM Reply Quote 0
          • crackingmedia
            crackingmedia @Rebeca1 last edited by Oct 16, 2013, 4:55 AM Oct 16, 2013, 4:55 AM

            Hi Iris

            OK, please would you be able to add a screenshot of your Moz results so I can see what it is showing.

            Peter

            Rebeca1 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2013, 11:39 AM Reply Quote 1
            • Rebeca1
              Rebeca1 @crackingmedia last edited by Oct 16, 2013, 3:33 AM Oct 16, 2013, 3:19 AM

              Thank you very much Peter for all the information!

              But it is not reported as a backlink to my site. It is reported as one of the top pages on my site.

              There is a tab "Top External Inbound Links" there are I can see links pointing to our site. There I would expect that weird link, but it is not here.

              Next to it is second tab " To Pages by authority" there I can see my home page, and other pages from my site, divided by authority, but the second is that weird link.So it is clearly stated by moz craw as the second top page on my site and not as backlink. As matter of fact, it also shows that the weird link has 163 backlinks pointing to it!

              That is what does not let me sleep over 3 days:-(

              Best wishes

              Iris

              crackingmedia 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2013, 4:55 AM Reply Quote 0
              • crackingmedia
                crackingmedia @Rebeca1 last edited by Nov 13, 2013, 6:59 PM Oct 15, 2013, 6:46 PM

                Hello Iris

                Thanks for the extra info. I understand now.

                The report you refer to is in Moz Analytics. "The Top External Inbound Links from Current Index" report shows backlinks to your site sorted in page authority order. Page Authority is a Moz calculated authority metric that scores the web page as to how likely it is to rank in Google's search results. Its calculation is based on lots of varied data.

                In the case of the backlink you have had from dianibeach.com, Moz has assessed that of all the backlinks pointing to your site it has the second highest page authority. If its authority score is 27 that is fairly low, but it must mean that the authority of

                To answer your concerns from your earlier post:

                My worry is why it is reported as second top page?? Can that be?? Moz has assessed that of all the backlinks pointing to your site it has the second highest page authority. If its authority score is 27 that is fairly low, so that suggests that the authority of other pages back linking to your site must also be fairly low.

                How this can harm my site? Don't worry, It isn't going to harm your site

                Can it outrank my site or whatever? The page authority is not really a mark of page ranking, just of a score of its authority to rank. If the keywords your site rank for are the same or similar to the other site, then yes it could outrank you in a specific search, but that is not what this is about. In fact, if the page is linking back to your site, then it is likely passing some of its authority back to your site.

                How is it even possible that it is found in indexed search? If there is a link on another site pointing to your site then that is how it has been found by the Moz crawler.

                Is there something I should be concern about? No, don't be concerned. Focus on the searches you are optimising your site and pages for and do not worry about this one site. You have a good looking site that is easy to navigate and it seems to have lots of good information and images in what looks like a beautiful part of the world. Be encouraged.

                I hope that helps,
                Peter

                Rebeca1 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2013, 3:19 AM Reply Quote 2
                • Rebeca1
                  Rebeca1 @crackingmedia last edited by Oct 15, 2013, 2:04 PM Oct 15, 2013, 2:04 PM

                  Hallo Peter,

                  Thank you so much for your time and looking into this!

                  I got an email on Sunday from moz,- New crawl was completed for your site.....  It says in right corner "campaign settings" . When I click on links overview  There is on the bottom of the page,  "top external inbound links" and then next to it are "top pages by authority" (from current index) and here is the weird link stated by moz crawl 😞

                  I do not thing it is bout ranking for some keyword, according to the moz crawl tool that weird link has page authority 27 . I can't technically imagine how this link can be considered as second most authoritative page.

                  Thank you very much,

                  Have a nice evening Peter and thank you very much for your time.

                  Iris

                  crackingmedia 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2013, 6:46 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • crackingmedia
                    crackingmedia @Rebeca1 last edited by Oct 15, 2013, 11:26 AM Oct 15, 2013, 11:26 AM

                    Hi Iris

                    When you say "it is reported as second top page"  as a "moz crawl error" (from your original post above), I am not sure what you mean. On what Moz report is this showing and if this is a ranking report for what search term is it ranking for? What error is being shown for this?

                    Please explain some more.

                    Thanks,
                    Peter

                    Rebeca1 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2013, 2:04 PM Reply Quote 1
                    • Rebeca1
                      Rebeca1 @crackingmedia last edited by Oct 15, 2013, 10:49 AM Oct 15, 2013, 10:49 AM

                      Thank you very much Peter for the explanation. I appreciate your time.

                      I am just not realy getting it probably:-( Actually the person who made is link is somebody I know personally and that time he said it is for that so he can track how many people click on it or something like that...

                      My worry is why it is reported as second top page?? Can that be?? How this can harm my site? can it outrank my site or whatever? How is it even possible that it is found in indexed search? Is there something I should be concern about?

                      Please tell me more about this because I am like on needles:-( the moz crawl first freaked me out with report I have no canonical and now this...I have spent already 4 days by figuring out this:-(

                      Thank you very much for any clarification.

                      ll the best

                      Iris Braun

                      crackingmedia 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2013, 11:26 AM Reply Quote 0
                      • crackingmedia
                        crackingmedia last edited by Oct 15, 2013, 7:51 AM Oct 15, 2013, 7:51 AM

                        Hi Iris

                        I can't help you with what you are seeing within Moz without seeing it specifically, but maybe some from support will be able to help you with that.

                        The ?db at the end of the web address for your site is called a query string. Typically, these are used to pass a string of text (in this case 'db') to run against a script on the site to do something as a result of receiving that string of characters. But it may be that it doesn't do anything and if, on the web server, there us nothing to process the query string, then it will be ignored. For example, if you try this http://www.bbc.co.uk/?db and this http://www.bbc.co.uk will do the same thing because there is nothing to process the ?db on the receiving web server.

                        You can only ask the person who created the link with the ?db to give the reason why.

                        I hope that helps in some way,

                        Peter

                        Rebeca1 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2013, 10:49 AM Reply Quote 2
                        • 1 / 1
                        1 out of 11
                        • First post
                          1/11
                          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

                        • joinpakarmy234

                          Is Moz more accurate than Ahrefs ?

                          When I check my this website https://joinpakarmy.com.pk/  on Moz it gives me DA 3
                          But when I check it out on Ahrefs, it tells me there is no authority for this site.
                          So who is more accurate in the result?
                          thanks

                          Moz Bar | Aug 6, 2020, 12:12 PM | joinpakarmy234
                          0
                        • brettmandoes

                          How do you use Moz to research related topics?

                          Like most of the folks here I'm a pretty big fan of the content that comes out through Whiteboard Fridays, and I try to apply the things I learn, but one of the WBF videos that I'm following along with does not do a stellar job of detailing execution using Moz KW Explorer. https://moz.com/blog/related-topics-in-seo-whiteboard-friday Now granted, this came out in 2016, but I still feel the core principle and strategy results in a higher quality piece of content and is still relevant to discovering and understanding searcher task completion requirements, and drafting content that fulfills those requirements. Towards the end Rand sort of mentions that you'll be able to do this with KW explorer, but I'm not really seeing the functionality. The steps I followed were to enter in the keyword in kw explorer, went to keyword suggestions, and selected "based on closely related topics" and ran it, but received no suggestions - came up blank. I then selected "based on broadly related topics" and the same thing happened. I tried this out with the keyword r22, keeping it very broad to start but that didn't seem to work. So what do you all do to perform this sort of research within Moz? Or do you even feel it's relevant in today's Rank Brain driven world?

                          Moz Bar | May 24, 2018, 7:04 PM | brettmandoes
                          0
                        • Foli

                          Does "Disallow: /xmlrpc.php" in robots.txt affect moz tools ability to fetch DA?

                          Just checked a website for Domain Authority using Moz' tool, however it returned 1 for DA, which should be unlikely. I have been trying to find the problem and found "Disallow: /xmlrpc.php" in robots.txt. Could this affect Moz' tools ability to get the required data?

                          Moz Bar | Jul 5, 2017, 2:37 AM | Foli
                          0
                        • alexbudko

                          SEOMOZ Toolbar for FIREFOX [Moz Extension Firefox]

                          SEOMOZ toolbar for firefox - where to find it - i could find only for chrome

                          Moz Bar | Mar 27, 2024, 8:03 AM | alexbudko
                          10
                        • _nitman

                          How to upload the bulk Keywords with Tags in MOZ Rank Tracker Tool?

                          Trying to upload multiple keywords at a time with their different Tags. But here i can upload the keyword one by one also i am not able to associate tags with the keyword.

                          Moz Bar | Jun 13, 2016, 8:19 AM | _nitman
                          2
                        • BeckyKey

                          URL Link Counts

                          Hi Can someone clarify what the URL link counts in the SERP report means? Is this total internal links on this page? My followed internal links are very high compared with sites I am comparing against, some sites only have 1 internal followed link - is this possible? Have they simply no followed all the rest on that page?

                          Moz Bar | Jan 8, 2016, 7:39 PM | BeckyKey
                          0
                        • rpaiva

                          Moz reporting for C-Blocking

                          Hey Mozers, I see Moz has a reporting tool for C-blocking and for november I had 330.  Does this mean 330 Ip addresses came from the same location in the month of november?

                          Moz Bar | Jan 2, 2015, 1:44 PM | rpaiva
                          1
                        • AmberHanson

                          Is Moz Analytics still available to all MozCon attendees?

                          I thought all Mozcon attendees were going to get access to Moz Analytics even after the convention was over. I can't seem to find were to access it from my campaigns manager dashboard and the Analytics landing page says im on queue to get access.

                          Moz Bar | Jul 12, 2013, 4:37 PM | AmberHanson
                          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.