301 redirect from an unwanted non-affiliated domain

[Sarbs]

Hey everyone,

Our site was hit with an unnatural link penalty a few weeks ago, and it looks very much like a malicious link attack.

We've never participated in any link schemes or anything resembling black hat link building. In fact, we've barely even done any link building.

Reviewing our backlink profile, there are hundreds of links from just a few (very dodgy) domains that we have no control over, and we've have had no luck when contacting webmasters to get them removed.

More importantly, we've seen several domains which 301 redirect straight to our domain. We don't know who they are and they're not contactable. I believe that the redirect means they're passing link value from all of their terrible links to us?

How can we get the redirects removed, as at worst they're really harming us, and at best, they're adding no value.

Thanks

[Host1]

I can't say if this will work (hopefully someone else can), but i guess you could try blocking ALL requests coming from those malicious links (even google). Hopefully google would pick up on this.

[dohertyjf]

Blocking the links in .htaccess won't work, as that's not how Google crawls. If you have the webmaster information, you could maybe send a cease and desist order. I'd also submit a reinclusion request and show them the domains that are redirecting to your site and show them that you do not own these sites. I would also show them the drop that has occurred because of it.

Be totally transparent with the reinclusion team.