HELP! Google Webmaster Tools showing weird internal links!?

by 18 replies
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I hope I'm posting this in the right place. If not please tell me where I should post it.

I checked into Google Webmaster Tools for my site, checked the Links pages and am seeing all kinds of links that it shows as internal links that are not internal links and have nothing to do with my site, and also showing external links that have nothing to do with my site!

I hope this is just a google glitch and not someone commandeering my site somehow...

I checked my site for malware at Sucuri Security and it reports nothing. I look at my site and I see no problems... Yet if you look at the jpgs linked below they show all these internal links and external links having nothing to do with my (real estate) site.

If anyone has any idea what is going on and what I can do about it, I'd really appreciate it. This is freaking me out.

Internal Links showing at google webmaster tools:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1...ernallinks.jpg

External Links showing at google webmaster tools:
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5...choproblem.jpg

None of the internal links shown are mine and if I click on them they go to
"Not Found
The requested URL //kingsford-klaws-alexander/ was not found on this server."

I also recently had my site go WAY DOWN in the rankings, like from page 2 or 3 down to page 134 etc. I thought it was because of the SEO backlinking building I was having done (and the service doing this thought so too; "google dance" they said) but now I have to wonder if it had to do with this, whatever "this" is...

(This is not the site in my sig, this particular sit is ranchosilencio.com)
#search engine optimization #google #internal #links #showing #tools #webmaster #weird
  • At a guess, your site has been hacked. I had the same thing happen to one of mine. Log onto your host account with a ftp, and download your htaccess and robots.txt and view them in notepad. I'm thinking you will find heaps of the links there, they pretty much act as a redirect to another site. The reason you need to download them and check them is that they will be hidden if you true to view source or anything like that online.
    • [1] reply
    • Your site may have been hacked in the past, and now it's
      been cleaned up.

      The fact that the links were found, at one time, does not mean
      they exist now.

      If you have access to your cpanel, check some things out.

      Hackers are able to do things without actually needing to take
      it over. There are many flaws in mysql databases and such.

      You have to find out the status of all files on your website.

      Contact your host about vulnerabilities and plugging some holes.

      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • Thanks for the replies. I'll contact vexxhost and ask them for help. I'll look at my robots.txt as you suggest and poke around to see if I see anything unusual there.

    Is this likely to eff up my google standing? My pages are undergoing backlink creation right now as I mentioned. So my site seems to be coming back up in the rankings, for most keywords, after having been knocked down to #100-200 etc for a week or so...

    Whatever happened - hacking I guess - I think it just happened recently...

    In investigating this today I wanted to contact the Great Google, and ask them about my site, but it seems there is really no way to do that, is there? If there is they sure make it hard to find any contact address/number/email...
  • Check your htaccess, as I said there should be some form of redirects there. From memory what happens is that traffic is directed to your site for those keywords and after clicking one of those links in the serps. They are straight away redirected to the hackers site which usually tries to drop a virus of some sought on to their computer.

    With my site I lost all rankings as I left it for a month without checking anything, I also had google put a dangerous site tag next to my serp results. I deleted the folder with the links, editted my htaccess file and tried looking through the sql database but couldn't notice anything. The site stayed clean for 3 days before it was reinfected so figured the sql database was hacked. I ended up deleting the site and started again, as it was taking way to much of my time to try and fix it. Took it as a lesson to always update my WP to the latest version.

    I'm guessing that the reason they do this is most likely they get legitimate serp traffic to their site, which has probably been delisted, due to hacking,scams or phishing.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for the info.
      One thing has me stumped: All the links I found were in a folder called Biographies so I deleted that.
      However google Webmaster Tools shows 1 internal link that was not in "Biographies" but was in my root folder. However when I look in my root folder, that file, called "winsted-alexandra-tydings" is not there! I looked all over for it but it's not there. I guess they themselves deleted it??

      I'm an amateur at this web design stuff. Can you tell me what htaccess is and where it would be found?

      I looked through every folder in my CPanel and did not find an htaccess file nor any other files that look like they don't belong, now that I deleted the "Biographies" folder they put there.

      I guess I can only hope that my changing to a much stronger password will prevent further attacks.

      Thanks for your help!
      p.s. Is there any way I can let google know that all these effed up links weren't really mine and that I have now removed them from my site so they don't spank me? I just now submitted a new sitemap, after cleaning those files out of there, that's all I could think of to do.
      • [1] reply
  • Following you on this thread. It does look like a hack to me. I have seen this before with a client I had. I don't remember what he ended up doing.

    CHAD
    • [1] reply
    • Hi imback, there's no question that it is a hack.
      I actually think I have booted them out and changing my password to a much stronger one should keep them out - UNLESS they got in via the host's backdoor, not mine. I'll be monitoring my site daily from now on and several times a day when I can over the next week or so. But hopefully I've gotten them out of there for good.

      Now it's just a matter of keeping them out. And doing what I can to stay in The Great and Mighty Google's good graces.
  • Thanks for the thread.

    On the related topic, maybe there is some kind of service (maybe monthly payment) that would protect you/notify you instantly if your website was hacked?

    Anyone knows?
    • [1] reply
    • I recently hears about About | Sucuri Security

      I'm not in any way affiliated with them, I just heard about them a few days ago. They do have a free site check and I had checked my site while it was hacked and it showed nothing. Does not give me a lot of confidence in their free Site Check. I wonder if their pay service is any better.
      I wonder if there's a good one out there. I'm going to google it.

      I found out my site was hacked by checking my internal and external links via Google Webmaster Tools. I suppose if you checked there regularly you might find it right after it happened.

      Theoretically, (tell me if I'm wrong) one's Hosting service should be responsible for keeping your site secure. No?

      I find it interesting that Sucuri is talking about how their scans find this type of hack, but I scanned my site using their service the day before I discovered it had been hacked (the hack was done a month or two previously according to records of their files uploaded), and yet Sucuri gave me a "clean bill of health" via their free scan. I'm not saying this to disparage Sucuri - I really know little about them - but rather to warn you all that maybe these type of site checks in general don't work that well. Maybe the best way to go is to make sure your site has a strong password and any extra security your host offers, and to at least check your backlinks and internal links at google Webmaster Tools every few days to see if there's anything there that looks wrong, as in my case.

      If you check Sucuri's blog at their site above, you can find a lot of info about the htaccess hack, particularly as it relates to Wordpress. Apparently a lot of Wordpress sites are being hacked this way or similarly. My site is not a Wordpress site, however.

      FYI: A google search for " check website for malicious code " came up with a whole lot of free info and tools that I'm in the process of checking. Will report back on at least some of it.
      • [1] reply
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    HELP! Google Webmaster Tools showing weird internal links!?

    I hope I'm posting this in the right place. If not please tell me where I should post it. I checked into Google Webmaster Tools for my site, checked the Links pages and am seeing all kinds of links that it shows as internal links that are not internal links and have nothing to do with my site, and also showing external links that have nothing to do with my site!