VigLink

[bustedflush]

Not sure where to put this thread - apologies if this is the wrong place.

About a week or so ago we discovered that all of our links on one site convert to very long URLs starting with viglink.com. That's some sort of service for ecommerce, but we've identified it as the biggest drag on our website loading speed on our site (it's not that big, perhaps, but we take speed very seriously). We have never signed up for VigLink nor have we had any contact with them. This has happened without our knowledge or consent.

I suspect a rogue operator may have done this. There was one we recently added who, I now know, admitted to some questionable SEO practices in a seminar at the LAC so it could be them.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem, or could throw any light on this. As we haven't installed the Viglink software, we aren't sure how to uninstall it.

[LukeC]

Viglink are a reputable advertising network. You could try contacting them and trying to find out who owns the account that they are being tracked to.

It sounds like your site or if you are on Wordpress, more likely a plugin, has been hacked.

[JackTenSuited]

An operator couldn't do this unless you gave them access to your site or installed some code for them...
Your site has been haked either throughinsecure hosting or bad wordpress plugin/theme
run it through
https://sucuri.net/

[bustedflush]

Hi, we've contacted Viglink and found a way to turn off their system. It was being administered as a app in Cloudfare - an app that we had not activated and is actually controlled from a part of their system we had never activated so that is still worrying. But at least it is off now.

Re what operators can and can't do, the head of SEO from one of the exhibiting affiliate programmes at the LAC claimed at a seminar, so I was told, that he inserted links into other websites without their consent. My partner, who handles the SEO, knew what he was talking about and it is really black hat stuff he claimed. Anyway, it is not them so at least on that account we're reassured.