Does this sound normal to you?

[purplebear]

Not sure if I should have made the title for this question "Am I bein paranoid?" Not sure if my imagination is just runnin wild or something is going on that I just don't understand. Can't take it any longer tho, so figure I'll ask you guys what you think.

While back there were maybe 4 of these so didn't get too upset about it then there were 28 of em, now 14. If the pages getting these links to them were spread out maybe I wouldn't feel quite as bad but of all my pages it's just happening to this one.

Not sure if this is the correct spot for this or not, but here goes. I go into my Google webmaster tools and look at the section of pages with external links. Would be great to have more lol but there's usually just a couple individual pages that will have a link or two to them and the index page always has a bunch. But.... this one specific page tho that had the 4 I mentioned now has 14 and little while back 28 links to it. (just this one specific page has all those links)

There was an article a little while back about how more and more info. domains have been found to be bad guys now. Majority of these 28 links google says are linking to that one page are info. domains and after the .info/ part they all have different words but all have the same words as the title of my page (not my domain name but the title part of the page) and other words that relate to that page. When I click on the link at google for those .info/blah,blahs they all go to a page saying "This account is supsended."

Uhhh could any of you explain what is happening or why? These aren't reciprocal links that I'm aware of, or least if they are, they're doin it on their own and not tellin me. (uhhh still that matter tho of why so many of the links are saying "This account is supsended.") Not sure if this has a bearing on this or not but I do get a whole lotta natural searches for the topic on that page that these other sites are supposed to be linking to. Uhhh don't understand at all how an account is suspended can have links goin to my page either

Like I said.....if it was spread around to pages maybe I wouldn't worry, but don't understand why it's just involving this one page.

Ok.....go ahead....let me know if everything's finally gotten to me and I'm just bein paranoid or is somethin happening that I just don't have a clue what it is?? And if so.....ummmmm what can I do to make it stop

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi PB,

I'm sorry you have this frustration and worry to deal with. Wish I could help but I don't even have a clue what could be happening.

If I had to take a guess though - I would think it's black hatters or overseas fraudsters that set up a bot checking for pages with XYZ keyword and autolinking to those pages. Then by the time you see it in your reports and click through, they'd already gotten shut down.

You just helped me out though, if that makes you feel any better. How? I totally forgot about GA and never use it. Just look at my web hosting stats. But if you found out that info, I'm sure there is probably stuff in GA that I should be paying attention to and have missed.

MAN it's hard to keep up with everything you need to watch and worry about as a webmaster. I can't even imagine being an affiliate and having 20 or 50 sites to have to keep up with and worry about. SHEESH how do you guys do it?

So sorry I went off topic and couldn't help. It's slow around here on Sunday, but hopefully one of our SEO pros will see this and be able to shed some light on it for you.

Hang in there sweetie and try not to stress! (())

 

[jcorkern]

Hey,

This is not something I have heard of. But it does sound like some kind of URL highjack, maybe a different form of the 302 highjack. The page that is being affected, Does it rank for any specific phrase or phrases? If it does, check it in the serps and see if there is a mirror of it in the position you held with a different URL.

If this is the case, you have been highjacked. But from what you describe, I don't know. I would get in touch with hosting support and let them know, and ask them to check your server. If you have a dedicated server and you have to do the work, find some help somewhere. But it would have to be a server side attack from the sound of it.

These guys are a pain in the you know what. But maybe your hosting provider can help.

And maybe you could give a little more info and a more detailed description. And check to see if another mirror pages is holding the position you once held.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much Jim, I was hoping you'd weigh in on this!

 

[purplebear]

Awwhh thank you Linda and thank you very much Jim, too. Didn't realize you had posted before I got here so am gonna look into what you said.

Umm not sure if this would have anything to do with this other stuff goin on or not but just got a google alert (not quite sure why since I can't stop em from doin this to me either lol but I have coupon codes that are supposed to be exclusive to me and a couple other words set up for the google alerts)

This one was for my site so I clicked the link in the google alert for it. Took me to a page that looks like it's got some ads by google mixed in with a bunch of links that just go down the page. Up top is a keyword phrase. (Uhh one I rank well for or least would have to check but it's I think the top visited page for site I'm referring to.

Link for my site is amongst those links on page. Looks just like a search result for my site.

When I clicked the link I don't know if it did anything else but it went to my site. I always check sites before I reciprocate link with em so I know I wouldn't have with just a page full of links. So....even if they're not doin anything bad...why do they have my site listed like that on their page. Would it help them rank for that page or somethin since it's on their topic?

Did look at the view source (don't know what all it means, tho lol )

< a href="#top" onClick="MM_openBrWindow('http://www.blahblahblah.com/notsureifyouredoinsomthinbad/search-html','','')" rel="nofollow "> then they had my site name and description.</a>

As I said, don't know if they're doin anything bad or not, but don't understand why they've got my site's link and info for a particular page on their site. And...is there anything I can do to make em stop??

This site was an info site too. Not bad mouthing info sites, just makin reference that so were those other ones.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I don't have a clue hon. Maybe Jim or someone more technical
will come by and shed some light.

 

[jcorkern]

That one is nothing to worry about, It is just a popup window command. Not anything to worry about. they are just using java to open the link in another window, but it is not followed, so I would not exchange links with these guys.



Pop Up Windows

They do have the code wrong, so i would notify them, and ask them to remove it, or stop the link exchange.

 

[purplebear]

Thank you very much jcorkern for taking the time to try to help me figure it out

Have said lots of times before but seem to even amaze myself at how clueless I seem to be at some stuff anymore. lol Not really quite sure what you meant by mirror. If I was to be lookin for something that said exactly what my search listing was sayin....nope didn't see any. I do have a couple of those info domains surrounding me in the results. One of em when you click the link, goes straight to the merchant site instead of their own site. Name of the domains have nothin at all to do with the subject of the merchant either. (uhh don't think we're supposed to be doin that, but I'm not the internet police so guess will keep my mouth shut bout that. I've told affiliate managers before when I've seen that happenin and nothin was ever done, so keepin quiet now.)

As to mirror...not in links in results but when I explained about the one site you replied with the answer bout opening in another window. Ummm yeap. The same search result that is on that page (which is really weird cos it has nothing to do with the topic of the site) Anyway....I guess they've taken all the info that's in my search result for the title of that page it's on.

Example:
Black Armani suits would be title of page and my listing would be:

Black Armani suits
Shop for the best deals on Black Armani suits
blah,blah/blackarmanisuits.htm

My listing for Black Armani suits in the search results for the term Black Armani suits is on that other site exactly as in search results and the title of their page would be Black Armani suits. The actual site would be about bananas, tho. Nothing having to do with Armani suits.

Those urls that are showin up in my stats would be ending in blackarmanisuits and they're all info sites that domains have nothin to do with blackarmanisuits.

And....nope I didn't explain myself very well. I'm not reciprocal linking with that site at all. Don't have a clue why they have my site listed on their site. Am assuming they just went and took the search results for that title of the page and put all the results for it on the page. Don't know how search engines feel about that. I guess they'd be giving me a one way link?? since I'm not linking to their site.

Could it have somethin to do with having the google adsense on their site? Would they be using my site as content for their site?

Gonna stop my babblin lol Just all seems very, very weird.

 

[Linda Buquet]

To me, although I'm not sure I'm following it completely it sounds like they are just scrapers. They are scraping your content, or your title, link and description from a search engine and making a page about whatever your page is well ranked for. If it's something like that then they probably have a bot or SW that's just grabbing content from thousands of listings, auto building pages in mass qty. Hence not so relevant because they are doing it machine generated in high volumes.

The one way link to you probably won't do you much good since it's no follow - it won't count for PR. But it's possible it could hurt you if G still follows and sees a bunch of bad neighborhoods are linking to you. Then again they can probably tell it's a scraper and would discount it.

If it's really bugging you and you feel it could hurt your rankings or they are just stealing your content you can report them to Adsense and try to get their Adsense account pulled. You can also email them a cease and desist, cc their hosting company and their hosting company will sometimes either pull the site or force the owner to comply and delete your link and content.

I just did that. When I emailed the site nothing happened. So I emailed his host and CCed the owner.
My content was immediately removed.

Here's a blog I wrote about my scraper problem. The article at Problogger I link to tells you how to report them to Adsense, Google and more. Fight Back Against Scrapers that Steal Your Rankings