Weird backlinks

[zigojacko]

Almost any domain's link profile I look at contains a collection of backlinks such as these, I've noticed many in our site's link profile before - they come and go though and mostly these are just auto generated via various scrapers, bots and other automated systems to try and manipulate engines and/or mass produce content at other domains.

How many link's are we talking here, if they account for a good 25% - 30% of your overall link profile, then I would agree there is a chance that a drop in rankings could be related to these since the Penguin update. If its only a few links, then I wouldn't say these would be having much of an affect on your rankings.

The drop in rankings could be due to any number of reasons so it's not practical to start exploring these without first establishing exactly what has been done on your website in the past week (or even few days depending on how frequently your domain gets crawled) and diving into your web analytics to establish any unusual onsite behaviour or changes to metrics in the lead up to today.

Could well be the affects of an algorithm update. Could be something entirely different.

[MSWD]

One of my sites that was affected had over 4,000 back links from a single site.  The person had taken an article that I had written and placed on Ezine and was dynamically creating content for his ADSENSE site using my one article.  Generating 4,000 links.  Needless the say the poor fool had no clue what he was doing. The site was a complete joke.

I notified the hosting company and they made him take it all down.

Now here we sit no where to be found in the search engines.

Makes me really second guess the whole article thing.

[zigojacko]

It's unlikely to purely be a result of this one incident though. Are there any pages of this domain still indexed in the search engines? If not now, then if this was the cause, I would be expecting your rankings to be reinstated... Otherwise, there is likely issues elsewhere too.

[MSWD]

We are still indexed, just went from first page on all keywords to beyond 50

I'm going thru the site now to make extra sure that we meet all Google guidelines then I am going to submit for a reevaluation.  The site was nicely SEO'd. I'm just going to make sure now that it was not too SEO'd.

[zigojacko]

Hey Kathy,

Sorry I meant is the single site that you had 4000 backlinks from still indexed at all (if you're saying the owner had to take it down)...

Thanks

[MSWD]

Yes it is still indexed as of right now.  I have reported it to Google.  They have just removed my content.  Now they are using another persons article.

[jim_cetin]

Those are so named IDN domains, but more to worry about the usage and how to stop them,right?!

So actually**, they are the reason for the drop, as they are spam link farms!**

Not much chance to stop them doing it, but making sure Search Engines realize you are aware of it and doing something against it!

This discussions and general info might help you, as others were fighting with similar or same problems too:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/C-OoaJfb0Yg

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/algorithm-change-launched/

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/pissedconsumer-link-farm-dominating-google-serps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_farm

[jim_cetin]

Here's the link for Google to report WebSpam:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en

They will ask you the following:

• **Address of specific webpage that is misbehaving: (Required)**Example: http://example.org/veryspammywebpage.html
• Exact query that shows a problem (copy this from the Google search box): (Optional)Example: hotels in Paris
• Additional details: (Optional) (300 character maximum)Feel free to read our blog post about how to write actionable webspam report comments.

Here's the official Google  how-to:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/how-to-help-google-identify-web-spam.html

[MSWD]

I reported them as soon as I found it.  We'll see what happens. Also begged, I mean requested the Google Gods to reevaluate the site based upon the proof I submitted.  Still waiting...

[dohertyjf]

Yeah, this is a huge problem that Google needs to deal with. If it's a directory network, then can you find the owner of it and take action to get them to remove your link from there? Honestly, even if you have to pay them to do it, it will be worth it in the long run because you will be ranking again.

I wouldn't be surprised if these links, if they appeared all of a sudden, have tripped the Penguin algorithm filter.

Good luck.