• seohunters9

        See all notifications

        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
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • 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.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          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.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • 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.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • 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.

          • 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
        • My Q&A
        • 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. SEO Tactics
        3. Link Building
        4. Dealing with spam link attack

        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.

        Dealing with spam link attack

        Link Building
        4
        10
        1871
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • chuckstar_za
          chuckstar_za last edited by

          Last year I noticed that overnight my site was backlinked by 1000's of spammy links.
          All with same anchor text and all really awful unrelated sites (law, money, mobile phone, pr0n sites, etc).

          I've not been hit with any penalties (or at least been messaged with anything to that effect), and I still float around top 10 for that anchor text, but I don't like having 1000's of spammy links with exact anchor text pointing to my site. Especially when all the other competitors have a fraction of the number of links.

          What would be the best way to combat these links before they do serious damage to my rankings.
          If you want to see for yourself, the site is www.alexkilbeephotography.co.uk

          Thanks in advance.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • chuckstar_za
            chuckstar_za last edited by

            Just been checking my backlinks on GWT.
            Quite a few that are listed on places like Open Site Explorer and ahrefs don't show up in GWT - most noticeably the pr0n sites.

            Why is there this discrepancy in reports between the tools like OSE/ahrefs and GWT?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • chuckstar_za
              chuckstar_za last edited by

              I'm pretty sure that this 'collection' of links is the work of a competitor.
              The wedding photography market is rather competitive and there's some very underhanded things that go on, both online and offline (like putting other peoples sample albums in the bin at venues etc etc).

              They first appeared around the same time I dipped into the top 10 for my main keyword. I don't remember specifically who was in the top 10 back then, but none of them are now.

              I can well imagine someone desperate who was either trying to rank up there, or trying to stay up there, going on Fivrr and buying a ton of links. At one point there were over 5000 spammy links. Before that I had about 200 odd. You can see the peak in ahrefs. Thankfully because they are crappy links, most of them have died naturally.

              Thank you to everyone in this thread whose shed some light on the issue and offered solutions.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • RobertFisher
                RobertFisher @chuckstar_za last edited by

                By template, I really meant one you create and reuse. I will PM you with one I sent most recently to a company.

                Best,

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • RobertFisher
                  RobertFisher @tinyinnovative last edited by

                  Ruwanthi,

                  You can use Moz analytics/OSE to do it, but I typically find that ahrefs gives me more. I could never do without the set of Moz tools, but for backlinks, I like ahrefs.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • RobertFisher
                    RobertFisher @McTaggart last edited by

                    Good link Luke. I remember when Russ wrote this and how interesting it was.

                    Also, I really do not think the vast majority of links we see that are "bad" are the result of a coordinated attack on us. We probably give too much credit to our competitors. Yes, it does happen, but I think it is rare. But it does make you wonder in a case like Alex's where the linking site is a porn site with no reason to link to him.

                    Thanks,

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • chuckstar_za
                      chuckstar_za last edited by

                      Thank you Robert.
                      I'll find a request removal template (know any good ones?), and get cracking on that.
                      Hopefully it'll improve my exposure in the SERP's as I'm hovering just outside the top ten for most of my targeted KW's.
                      I'm sure I know the answer to this (which is, no), but is there anyway to prevent this sort of digital sabotage happening in the future? Or at the very least stop it negatively effecting my site?

                      Alex

                      Edit - I see Luke has answered in response the second part of my reply while I was typing.

                      RobertFisher 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • McTaggart
                        McTaggart last edited by

                        Robert's advice is good - however you may want to reference this if you experience larger scale attacks in the future - http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/blog/to-catch-a-spammer-uncovering-negative-seo  PS. I have never managed to get a porn site to remove a link, so I tend to resort to disavow...

                        RobertFisher 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • tinyinnovative
                          tinyinnovative @RobertFisher last edited by

                          Good Clear answer , by the way it is not possible to check baclinks count in Moz Analytic ?

                          Thank you

                          RobertFisher 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • RobertFisher
                            RobertFisher last edited by

                            Alex,

                            Using ahrefs, I am seeing 880 backlinks to the site. Of these, there are a couple of bad ones (the main porn site with keyword anchor text and 99 links). For that one the whois data is all available and he is registered with gDdy, is in San Diego, etc. (Easy way to pressure the take down). The one with bloom in the name is the same way. I did not look at all.

                            Overall, you have some good links here from other photography sites, etc. I would send a note to the webmasters of these sites and ask them to remove them. If they do not respond in a week, send it again and each time keep track. I would send via email and attach a read receipt. If they don't respond I would report abuse to the registrar gDdy in both cases here.

                            You are not at a place IMO where you need to use the disavow tool, etc. Write up a template email, put in the 5 to 10 offending sites and send them the email. Keep a log and copies of any and all correspondence with dates, etc.

                            If you need further direction, we are here,

                            Robert

                            tinyinnovative 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                            • 1 / 1
                            • First post
                              Last post

                            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

                            • moon-boots

                              Xyz links

                              I have a lot of backlinks ending with .xyz, around 20%, and they look very suspicious. Should I disavow these? Here are a few: yourrelicsbargains.xyz fantasticsiteinfo.xyz yourvintagelifestyle.xyz usefuldiscount4u.xyz bestdealsaction.xyz bestmemorabilialifestyle.xyz 59177.net lovecollectorsbargains.xyz

                              Link Building | | moon-boots
                              0
                            • babski

                              What is Hub Linking

                              What is Hub Linking - an seo company mentioned it to me? Is it any good?

                              Link Building | | babski
                              0
                            • JesseCWalker

                              Do links within imbeddable widgets carry link juice?

                              I'm dipping my toes into infographic design. On of my desired outcomes is to gain links by having other sites embed my graphic. I'm considering using Tableau's interactive data visualization software to do so; thus creating a widget, embedding it on my blog, and including the embed code for others to post. Is it possible to include a juice passing link in such an infographic?  I know its possible to include links inside the tableau graphic but not sure if they have straight SEO value. If these links are not juice passing would it be better to go with a simple image link that passes value?

                              Link Building | | JesseCWalker
                              1
                            • larahill

                              I remember hearing in one of the link building webinars that if you hold a patent then you could get a link from that somehow.

                              Any examples or suggestions as to how this is done?

                              Link Building | | larahill
                              1
                            • onlinemediadirect

                              Links on the same keyword

                              When is linking from one particular keyword to much. At what point could link building from one keyword be considered spam and potentially delist a site ? Is it possible for a site to be delisted for having to many links from the same keyword ? Heard linking from the website name is more important following recent changes. I try and link from a selection of 3 to 4 keywords. Thanks for your help

                              Link Building | | onlinemediadirect
                              0
                            • A Former User

                              Does google scrape links from PDF files? do these links pass link juice?

                              Title is pretty much the whole question.

                              Link Building | | A Former User
                              0
                            • Vsky

                              Does linking to a subdomain give link juice to the main domain?

                              I have a few domains that I'm going to use for link building, will the link juice from the sub domains transfer to the main domain?

                              Link Building | | Vsky
                              0
                            • pricefutures

                              Link Frequency

                              I understand that good link building is all about the quality of the link / the anchor text attached to it. But, what about frequency? Should I build until I can't build anymore? or create a plan to submit links to a certain # of sites per week/month?

                              Link Building | | pricefutures
                              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
                            • Digital Marketers
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • Local Citation 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.