What the hell are these?!

by 7 replies
9
Hi guys, first post on here - been lurking for a while.

Just investigating some backlink profiles of high ranking affiliate sites for a skincare niche.

I keep finding all these white footer extensions inserted into fairly authoritative and genuine websites with spammy anchor text links pointing back to a few sites.

At first I thought the affiliate must own all these sites but then I realised the sites must had been hacked.

The site in question has been ranking high on first page for sometime now - at least 2 months.

Does anyone know what these hacked footers are and what is their life expectancy in SEO terms?
#search engine optimization #hell
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • They are:

    a) living proof people should test their own shit instead of listening to "seo gurus" and their "oh this doesn't work anymore" coffee talk.
    b) living proof Google algo's doesn't work that good as some people think.

    These old (really old) tricks can last longer then a stripper in Las Vegas, especially in older sites - but don't quote me on that, I have to maintain a high degree of responsibility in the industry. :p

    P.S. - This year, while analyzing competition for a potential customer, untapped a HUGE network of sites like these filled with hidden links pointing to 2 websites, in a HUGE and PROFITABLE normal market (way outside IM) and Google, after what... 6 months?? is still ranking those two sites like a God.

    Folks at some of the most known worldwide SEO powerhouses did take notice of this in a private conversation, URL's shared and all, and even with inside tips from them to Google (and they have VERY good connections), nothing has changed.

    So...
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • thanks for the replies. Interesting stuff really. It seems black hat SEO is alive and well.

    This guys is ranking 5th for a high volume, high buyer intent term. He has 1000 links pointing in from some some fairly decent 4,5,6, PR sites, although 100% irrelevant in terms of content.

    TBH my first thought was what WP plugin does that...and where do I buy it.
    • [1] reply
    • Fernando V.???????????? Where have you been?

      Paul
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    The thing about footer links is, most of these guys that hand out freebies like free Wordpress themes & plugins add the backlink code to show links on every single page on the site, where If they added some basic php code to display the link only on the index page they probably wouldn't ever have any problems.

    Typically the index page will have some of the highest PR on a domain since that's where the majority of internal/external links are pointing.

    They get greedy, they have that all or none attitude.

    I'm talking about developer type links (known links), not hacked spam links.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Indeed, if these are "citation" links from old webby designers placing links in footers etc. then I'm afraid that's a toast technique. Unfortunately, as once upon a time, there was no problem with this method. Another classic example of Google taking the cookie and running away to the other guy's house.

    If you're getting this: "The site in question has been ranking high on first page for sometime now - at least 2 months" then that's a throwaway that might not be ranking 2 more months down the line. OR alternatively, it could well be around for a year or so, depending on both how the big G decides to rank it and on how well-favoured it is in the rankings. Again, fickle, nothing to rely on.
  • They don't actually appear to be legit citation links from the web designer. They are haphazardly "bolted" on - using different fonts and sometimes, a different coloured background if the site doesn't use white. Some links in Russian also. Pretty tacky stuff really, but effective never-the-less.

    The domain is definitely throwaway!
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