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This must be blackhat SEO!! Booking.com

by NectariosHF
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi there,

I don't post here very often but I have noticed something strange in one of the pages of Booking.com and I want to share it with you. Some of you might have an answer on this.

Check out this page here: www.booking.com/?aid=323220

At the top of the page, in the middle just under the $ sign it says In partnership with

Just underneath there is a hidden link, a backlink that links to Visit Montenegro – Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal

This is very odd as Visit Montenegro – Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal has nothing to do with Booking.com

Could somebody explain this?

This looks Blackhat to me...

Regards
#backlink #blackhat #bookingcom #seo
  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    Yup, they sold a link to the Montengro site but don't want people to leave their page so they made the link blend in with the background.



    Originally Posted by NectariosHF View Post

    Hi there,

    I don't post here very often but I have noticed something strange in one of the pages of Booking.com and I want to share it with you. Some of you might have an answer on this.

    Check out this page here: www.booking.com/?aid=323220

    At the top of the page, in the middle just under the $ sign it says In partnership with

    Just underneath there is a hidden link, a backlink that links to Visit Montenegro - Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal

    This is very odd as Visit Montenegro - Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal has nothing to do with Booking.com

    Could somebody explain this?

    This looks Blackhat to me...

    Regards
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  • Profile picture of the author sonjay
    It is an image link.. it is NOT black hat in terms of technicalities of SEO, but it definitely is not ethical as this approach is fooling people..
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  • Profile picture of the author kamikaza
    I had to look search for it twice in order to find it.. Yeah , it's there, kinda weird.. it's a white image on the white background. May be they have been hacked and not aware of this link at all?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by NectariosHF View Post

    Hi there,

    I don't post here very often but I have noticed something strange in one of the pages of Booking.com and I want to share it with you. Some of you might have an answer on this.

    Check out this page here: www.booking.com/?aid=323220

    At the top of the page, in the middle just under the $ sign it says In partnership with

    Just underneath there is a hidden link, a backlink that links to Visit Montenegro - Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal

    This is very odd as Visit Montenegro - Breathtaking Beauty | The Best Montenegro Tourist / Travel Web Portal has nothing to do with Booking.com

    Could somebody explain this?

    This looks Blackhat to me...

    Regards

    I think you're being a bit paranoid.
    • The image URL is 100% relevant, both sites are targeting the travel niche.
    • The image is a transparent png but the image URL is from another domain (hotlink) looks like an affiliate link which might simply be a broken URL.


    Transparent image URL:
    • hxxp://r-ec.bstatic.com/data/sp_aff/323220/323220.png



    Matter of fact, the first link you dropped in the forum OP looks like an affiliate URL. Are you dropping affiliate links on the forum?

    hxxp://www.booking.com/?aid=323220
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  • Profile picture of the author irawr
    Banned
    Code:
    <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.booking.com/" />
    I'm not sure that has much SEO benefit.

    Code:
    http://www.booking.com/index.html?aid=858205
http://www.booking.com/index.html?aid=802666
    There's more, to me it just looks like their site is setup in a way where their partners/affiliates can have personalized landing pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author footfoot
    only with your affiliate id in the url, othwerwise no problem
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  • Profile picture of the author dronehawk
    I wonder if Booking.com would bother selling links based on the amount of money they make. It could be hacking or an bribed insider in the Tech department trying to fool around.
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