links from bad sites

[BHL]

Today I checked incoming links in google webmaster and found some very suspicious ones. Like for example:
powertothegamers . com
If I hover over it in webmaster tools I get a site is under construction image.
If I google it, the only few pages it has are about viagra, and certain body part enlargements..
so safe to presume it's a hacked site.
Now that's just one of many. I'm no seo expert so I decided to look up if those links are bad for my seo. First I found some older information in which they say that only if you link back to them it will hurt you. But now I found some information about the google penguin update in which they say they are bad for you, and you should try to get them removed?! Is this true?
This is the article I read about it just now. Maybe I didn't read it correctly?
hxxp://searchenginewatch.com/article/2172839/Google-Penguin-Update-Impact-of-Anchor-Text-Diversity-Link-Relevancy

[BHL]

Should probably add they are linking to the forum, direct link to create a new post.. only thing is new posts has to be approved by me to be on there.. So it's pointless.
Still weird to have hacked sites link to it?! But just so you people understand I'm not doing it myself..
I gave up pushing viagra pills a long time ago. Damn China with its cheap knock-offs (j/k)

Searched the google webmaster tools forum and it seems like the overall message there is it won't hurt you unless it's quite excessive. Like thousands of links from 1 site. And they will most probably just ignore the links. Instead of giving you a penalty for it.
So probably just scare tactics by this seo forum to produce some interesting news. That's why I changed the http to hxxp.. No link for you.

[universal4]

Its a forum that is up for the purpose of spam.

xxhttp://www.powertothegamers.com/forums/online.php

Rick
Universal4

[universal4]

You can clearly see that the entire purpose of the place is spam....

358,000 threads but only 377,000 posts.....
(no anthony I haven't been hanging out there....lol)

What those figures pretty much prove is that there are very few comments about posts....

I haven't looked closely but it could be a content theif that crawls the web for content snippets with certain keywords and then reposts those snippets.....which could be confirmed if we found that they did this to hundreds of our sites.....

Or the site owner could be innocent and stuck the site up and never secured it and others took advantage of the flaw and have been spmming links ever since....

There are a handful of scenarios that could fit....or comnbination thereof....

Rick
Universal4

[BHL]

I have 298 links coming in to a create new post page on the forum.. divided by the number of links per site.. that's a lotta sites linking to it.
imagine having to ask them (hacked or spam sites) to take it down..
on a funnier note.. I also have some incoming links from christian websites

Or the site owner could be innocent and stuck the site up and never secured it and others took advantage of the flaw and have been spmming links ever since....

Most probably that's it.. google webmaster showed a preview of it which was an image of this site is under construction.
Plus, you have to be a security expert nowadays not to get hacked. So probably a newbie who got brutalized while learning how to make a site.

[lots0]

@BHL

Welcome to the wonderful world of online gambling affiliates.

Somefolks that hang around this forum like to try to kill the competition using these bad links... they will also try to get your legitimate links removed by spoofing your email and getting legit webmasters that link to you to remove their good links to your site.

You can get a good idea who is behind the attacks, by taking a close look at the keywords being targeted and then taking a close look at the competition in the SERP for those keywords.

You NEED to let the search engines know about the bad links being pointed at your site. Google/BING are the only ones that can stop this type of attack from killing your ranking. Using google webmaster tools contact and BINGs Disavow a Link feature, you can let them know your not behind these bad links.

You also might want to contact the legit sites that link to you and thank them for the link and let them know you would never ask them to take down their link...

I been going through this exact same type of attack for about six months, this time.
There are ways to turn this type of attack to your advantage and increase your rankings...

Sometimes, I even write stuff on this board that I know will piss off the douchbags, just so they will start another attack on my site.


Good Luck!

[BHL]

Thanks Lots0, much appreciated!

Logged into Bing for the first time in ages just now, they sure have come a long way.. (from being total crap) Hardly shows any inbound links though. They seem to be very slow, last time I checked they only indexed a couple of pages. At least that has improved a lot. But anyway, bright side of it all, guess I don't have to disavow any links in there cause they don't see em (yet).

Sent google a message so hope they will respond. It's friggin 98 sites linking in to that page btw.. crazy..

[lots0]

Thanks Lots0, much appreciated!

Logged into Bing for the first time in ages just now, they sure have come a long way.. (from being total crap) Hardly shows any inbound links though. They seem to be very slow, last time I checked they only indexed a couple of pages. At least that has improved a lot. But anyway, bright side of it all, guess I don't have to disavow any links in there cause they don't see em (yet).

Sent google a message so hope they will respond. It's friggin 98 sites linking in to that page btw.. crazy..

I know how you feel.
I had one page (my most trafficked page) picked up 15k 'bad' links from more than 350 domains in less than a week... and that was only one week.
At one point, just about a month ago, I had over 500,000 total bad links pointing at my site.

Check your competition in the SERP... If they don't have the same type of bad inbound links... they might be a good candidate for blame...

[Roulette Zeitung]

I had over 500,000 total bad links pointing at my site.

Google does not care. Otherwise, yes, everyone could make every page break. After the Penguin update the only thing that matters is content and "speaking", domain name or brand backlinks. Don't use keyword backlinks anymore!

[Bryan Resch]

I agree with "Roulette Zeitung" . Google Penguin update is more focused on content. Try to use long tail keywords and also target original url more instead of making a keyword as anchor. After penguin update this helps more.

[tehsik]

you should not worry anymore ... those links don`t count anymore search engines don`t count them .... as good or bad links ... they just ignore the spammy sites... still you will see those links into your webmaster tools ... but it should not affect you...

my opinion

[Roulette Zeitung]

Try to use long tail keywords and also target original url more instead of making a keyword as anchor. After penguin update this helps more.

That sounds logical. Natural links can also mean a sentence of 10 words. Maximum of 20% keywords in the sentence should be good.

Without links nobody comes into the top serps the long term.

But with thousand links without good content you will remain down too. That's the good news.

Content is the king at last.

[bboyspyder]

you should not worry anymore ... those links don`t count anymore search engines don`t count them .... as good or bad links ... they just ignore the spammy sites... still you will see those links into your webmaster tools ... but it should not affect you...

my opinion

Not try in my opinion. They do count and they do make your rankings go down. The situation at the moment is crazy. Google has not found the right balance between fighting SPAM and not punishing correct webmasters that are being attacked. Few updates of the Penguin have to come out before the dust settle down.